I have a 2003 TL-S (with only 89,000 miles!).

In the past week, when I start the car after sitting overnight - the car has a lot of trouble starting. If it sits for more than a day, the car sometimes won't start and I'll have to jump it.

After driving around for awhile - if I restart the car soon after shutting it off, the car starts normally with no issues.

So I hooked up a multimeter to the car to read the amps being pulled from the battery.

I disconnected the car from the negative battery terminal and I connected one side of the multimeter to the negative terminal of the battery, and the other side to the negative cable for the car.

When I did this - the car didn't turn on. It just read that the car was pulling 2 amps (thats a lot!) - is this a valid way to test it though? I thought the car would have turned on (ie. lights would work, etc) - but nothing would turn on, I could only find that 2 amps were being pulled.

When I say the car wouldn't turn on - I don't mean I tried to start the car or crank it - all I mean is, if you unplug the battery and then plug it back in after some time - things like power door locks and such should work as soon as you reconnect the battery. After re-connecting the battery through the multimeter, nothing worked - as if the battery was disconnected.

I went through each fuse individually, and nothing changed the draw from 2 amps.

Any ideas what I did wrong? I might just bring it to the dealership and have them check it out - but was hoping I could maybe identify what the problem is before hand.

 

The 2amp isn't that high and there is always going to be a drain on any car, before you do a drain test everything has to be off and if you have an aftermarket alarm that has a sensor under the hood to see if its open/closed make sure to leave sensor depressed. Shouldn't take more 30sec gor the car to shut down the system.

Also leave the battery disconnected over night, check voltage when you disconnect it and again in the morning, if there almost no change in charge drain issuse, if there is a noticeable change with everything disconnected your battery is just bad

 

how old is the battery?

go to any name brand parts store- they will come out with a machine
and test the alt-batt and cables for you for FREE

if the batt is 3-4 years old chances are its headed for recycle

 

I thought less than 50 milliamps, would be pulled with everything off? 2 amps seems like a lot more. Nothing was plugged in, no aftermarket alarm. I took care of the hood sensor while I was testing things (kept it pushed over to "closed").

But over the course of 15 minutes while I pulled every fuse, the multimeter still read 2amps, and the car never started working. After I put the negative cable back on the battery terminal, it started working again (interior lights worked, power locks worked).

 

01tl4tl is right.

If the battery is dying, it will not hold charge.

You can do a load test to find out if the battery is still good at holding charge.

 

2 amps is way WAY too much. It should be around 50 mA or so. It looks like you know the basics of electricity to figure this out yourself. You will pay hundreds at the dealer to diagnose this. I think the TL has 3 or 4 fuse boxes you need to check. Check out these vids from Scotty Kilmer and Eric the car guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B__Dq...E_XxtX6qiVY%3D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1gi...7T6sqtOUeqg%3D

 

Just seems weird - the multimeter shows the battery as having 12.6v when charged, and the car starts fine after charging the battery and trying to start it, it is only after letting the car sit overnight that it has the problem.

I've replaced the battery on this car 3 times already and it has never exhibited this problem before when the battery was dying.

I initially thought it was the battery needing to be replaced (it is about 2 years old now) - but after driving it around while the battery worked fine. It was only after parking it overnight that the car has trouble starting (its been pretty warm here lately too, around mid-50s or 60 as the low at night).

Anyone ever have experience doing the drain test I was referring to with measuring amps with a multimeter? It just didn't make sense that the car wasn't "on" when the multimeter was connected.

 

Thanks - I already did essentially this, the only weird thing is when I had the multimeter hooked up in-line of the negative battery side - the car wouldn't come on (interior lights don't work, power locks, etc).

But - I am dumb and didn't realize there is a 3rd fuse box on the passenger side. So I need to check that one too! D'oh!

 

Drain vary from car to i test batteries all fucking day i done checks on everything from civics to no BS Ferrari and porsches.

You might have a bad relay or ground somewhere but if you can't see the drain...i.e. Lights...its a Bitch and a half to find..1 light on in your car will put your drain at 1.20-1.80, thats counting the standard drain you will have no matter what.

Check every light first this includes the one in the trunk, if everything is off sit in the car with everything off and closed...(best at night so you don't suffocate)...and see if your hear any kind of noise, do the same under the hood.

Other than that you might a bigger problem on a ground somewhere or bad computer

 

bad ground wires have been reported on here recently
both the main one at battery and the smaller ones from frame to engine or trans.
acura sells a kit with new grounds

What sometimes happens is the batt is weak, has a dry or bad cell-
so it wont really take and hold a charge
that means you are driving around on the alternators output
instead of drawing from the batt while the alt refills it on demand

overnight- what little charge the batt did get,,disappears

Im going to guess that you didnt have a strong enough ground when going thru the multimeter to make the car work

 

Ok - I bought a different multimeter (actually a cheapish Craftsman for $20) - and I got the car to "come on" with the multimeter inline. Strangely enough, after the car settles, the drain is only 30 mA. So the good news is the problem is probably the battery - although it doesn't seem to act like a dead battery. Maybe like you mentioned 01tl4tl is there's a dead cell. The battery reads a strong 12.68v though on the multimeter - would a bad cell in the battery allow the battery to hold 12.68v when fully charged but then run down quickly over time?

 

you can't go by the voltage on a battery the voltage can be high but if the cranking amps are low it means nothing, amps start your not voltage, and the first to drain out of a battery is the amps.

 

You'll need to load-test the battery in order to check if the battery is good or bad.

Even reading the battery voltage while cranking the engine, won't review the whole picture.

 

Of course not. You should never do this. There is lots of drain on the battery during cranking of the engine and all the current will attempt to go thru the multimeter. You should not have the multimeter inline during this as you can burn it if its fuse doesn't blow in time.
Just connect the battery as normal and start the engine.

 

go to the parts store for the free testing
If it needs a battery ask if they have a BLEM/blemished one in your size

Batteries Plus is nationwide and gave me excellent service,,cleaning the cables in a cup of water, kept power to the fuse box while swapping battery etc
and had a blem for $45 instead of 89,,a hold down tab we dont use was broken off

 

I didn't try to start the car. What I mean about the car coming "on" is -- when the multimeter was hooked up, the car was 100% dead (power locks don't work, interior lights don't work) etc...

To measure the drain properly - I figured the car would need to act as if it were running off the battery normally. But when I hooked up the multimeter, it didn't act normally - it acted as if the battery was disconnected despite showing a 2amp drain on the multimeter.

There must have been something wrong with the multimeter though because when I bought a new multimeter, the car responded as if it were connected to the battery (power locks worked, interior lights worked) and the drain registered a measily 30 mA.

It ends up the battery was bad after all - although it didn't act like dead batteries I've had before it. $70 later and the car seems to be back to normal.

Thanks everyone for the recommendations and help!