I need help finding Electrical Specifications
Asked by MMC2ELGIN Oct 03, 2012 at 10:37 PM about the 2001 Pontiac Montana Sport Extended
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I'm trying to locate an electrical short on my Van,but I need to find out what is considered a normal current draw off the battery when the elecronics have gone into "Sleep Mode".This would help me Greatly!
12 Answers
No,takes a few days.Eventually destroys the battery cells.Even has destroyed a new battery within a few days. Parasitic drain is likely.I'm systematically narrowing down my culprit by pulling fuses then watching and recording amperage readings with my meter.A little tedious but better than random repairs. That base # really helped,I now know what I'm aiming for.Thanks again
Does the heater fan work w key off,or any thing that should be off? If so the diode pack in the alt may be suspect. Also a stuck relay may be a possible culprit. Check the glove box light as well.
Disconnect the positive cable on battery clamp a test light on the cable end and touch the tip of the test light if it glows bright then you have a 12v draw if its faint the draw is just over the .05 .
The relays have moved to the top of the list.When I was checking fuses in the Underhood Junction Block ,I decided to tap on the Relays.The current dropped from 1.7 amps to .02 amps and didnt return to this high number through out the rest of my tests.The question now would be, which one was the problem and how do I check them or replace them ? They felt firmly stuck to their base, is there a trick to removing them without Mass Destruction?
The relays are in there tight. I used a small screwdriver to pry them up. Get them a little loose and rock them up the rest of the way. Many of the relays are interchangeable so you can swap them around, Their function should be on a decal in the fuse box cover. - Usually a relay will hang up when there was a large current draw and the contacts weld together so check the contact surfaces for pitting to find which one was bad.
Thank you for answering ! I did end up pulling all the Relays using the method you described, (That was a couple of months ago),but good advice to all reading this.Anyway, News Update to all, I seem to have conquered the parasitic drain.There are things working now that havent worked in years, even things I wasnt attempting to fix in the first place.Between replacing a corroded Tail Light housing,repairing the Auto leveler,and cleaning every electrical contact I could get my hands on.The problem cleared !!! Thank You Everyone for your help -ps. My Husband is very proud that I was successful ,it saved us alot of money.
2007 Pontiac Montana electrical problem: wipes stopped and I remove the cover over all the fuses and relays and pushed each one unril the wipers started working and then the stopped so I lifted the entire unit holding all the fuses and relays and now that it's back it won't start. Someone said the whole computer needs to be reset. Please reply to ian@ilps.com He
