Battery drawing and nothing connected

Asked by E. Scott Mar 12, 2016 at 03:29 AM about the 1990 Toyota Camry DX

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Nothing is connected to the battery but it is still
drawing power and draining the battery I know
nothing about cars and need help checked all
fuses and no lights legged o. And the battery will
die in a few hours if  I don't disconnect the the neg
cable of the battery what could be drawing the
power out of the battery.

10 Answers

221,015

The only way a battery can discharge is if there is a circuit between the post. So if the battery is disconnected and draining, either the battery is filthy between the post, or the battery is old and something may be wrong with it like a shorted cell. A good battery will still loose its charge if not in use, but recover from a charge, and will maintain a charge once in use.

1 people found this helpful.

So I am sorry let me rephrase this nothing is hooked up to the battery but something is drawing power from somewhere

221,015

If there are no battery cables hooked up to it then the draw is as described above. You are saying nothing is hooked up to the battery.

221,015

There is no circuit with the neg. disconnected from the battery, something is wrong with the battery.

221,015

But you say you do not have the neg. hooked onto the battery. There is no circuit threw the battery to drain it. A new battery should not drain down without it hooked up.

It's a brand new battery that was put in less then 3 weeks ago my bad when the pos and neg is hooked then there is a train that takes place

221,015

Well now that is different. You have a parasitic draw on the battery. You check by taking the neg. cable off and hook up a volt meter between the neg. cable and to the neg post on the battery. There should not be more than 50um amp.draw showing. KEEP the KEY OFF. Then you start pulling the fuses until the draw drops off, then you found the circuit to look at for the draw

1 people found this helpful.
21,360

ewilliams....did you ever determine what was making your battery to go dead?

1 people found this helpful.

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