Mr. Eclectic

I have recently begun driving my TL again, as I have had a company vehicle for the last 5 years. I replaced the battery a month or so ago, after ~7 years on the old one. Now I have a battery drain which kills a brand new higher end battery within a couple of days. I have disconnected the HFL (*thanks for the TSB and linked video, btw*), but the drain persists. I have a purchased a new decent multi meter, as my old one's lcd gave up the ghost. I will be chasing the circuit with the draw down by running the ammeter in series through the ground, and pulling fuses until I see the amp draw drop.

Are all the pins visible and easily closed via a clamp?

How long does the car take to "go to sleep"?

What is the draw "asleep" and "at rest and waiting"?

Is there anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks for tolerating my questions. Any help and knowledge is greatly appreciated.

thoiboi

HI Mr. Electric!

you've got a good head on your shoulders so I'm sure you'll solve this problem in no time. You've got the proper approach down but here's some threads that can help :

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-p...esting-608959/
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-p...-drain-752497/
https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-tl-p...2-amps-642160/
https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aacurazine.com+electric+draw+test&o q=site%3Aacurazine.com+electric+draw+test&aqs=chro me..69i57j69i58.4961j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=site:acurazine.com+parasitic+drain+test

I believe the consensus is about 15-20 minutes before the car "goes to sleep"

Mr. Eclectic

Much obliged.

I took a look at the threats, but I see no mention of the hood pin. From my casual observation, I don't believe we have one. Can anyone confirm this?

by the way, I have not installed any aftermarket accessories, and to the best of my knowledge the one previous owner did not install any, either. Furthermore, the temperature gage seems to be working perfectly, as well. I'm headed to the store now to buy a couple of clamps for the door pins, so I can test later on.

thoiboi

Pardon my ignorance , I'm not familiar with hood pins . Are you referring to the fuse box?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

there is a sensor in the hood, but casually looking you cant see it. uhh, i think it's the latch itself.
when you arm the alarm, does the car beep at you?

thoiboi

Ahhh the pins for the hood latch mechanism??

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

I believe that's what he's referring to....although casually looking, I dont remember seeing any sensors/pins

Mr. Eclectic

Of course not. That would be too easy. So, is it the latch itself? If so, what do I need to do? Take a flathead and push it closed? Is that how it opens the circuit? Otherwise, will it "go to sleep" with the door pins closed, and the hood open, so I can still see my ammeter?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

^try!

thoiboi

Ahhhhhhh I see what you're asking. Yes it's in the latch mechanism on on the front bumper. You can always just short the pins there. I'm not on my computer right now but I could pull up the wiring diagram for the hood latch mechanism and that would probably help

Mr. Eclectic

I believe the culprit is the back up lights circuit, #7, 7.5A. Does anyone have any idea what else is on this circuit, or how best to go about tracking down the issue?

Will Y.

The side mirrors and power seats may be partly on that circuit.
Check to see if the mirrors and power seat can be fully adjusted.
I believe a bad mirror actuator can cause a drain.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

It's not back up lights, it's a back up fuse that controls many systems:
Audio-HVAC display module
Clock (w/o Nav)
Combination switch control unit
Gauge control module
Front p/s power window switch/control unit
Immobilizer control unit-receiver
Nav unit
Security indicator
Power window master switch
Power mirror control unit
XM radio receiver

This TSB was when car was first produced and corrected, so believe the following wouldn't apply, but:
Intermittent dead battery-If Nav equipped and there were 3 dashes --- for temp display, inoperable rear defroster, driver position memory loses memory, lost radio presets, or lost hands-free link icon from subdisplay-TSB 05-029 way back in 2005.

Mr. Eclectic

Does anyone have any recommendations as to where I should begin tracking this down? My tape deck stopped working or even responding (I put in a tape to aux out to run to a bluetooth adapter since my HFL is, well, you know) about the same time this began. Could this be the drain? Any other likely culprits? The auto down (not auto up) has stopped working correctly recently, too. Where should I begin? I just bought a jump box because I'm tired of my brand new battery being too dead to start my car after a day or two without being started and driven for half an hour or more. I haven't driven this car for years, as I've had a company vehicle, and now that I need it, it's unreliable. 91k miles and I feel like burning it to the ground.

nfnsquared

Do you have Navi? Does the outside temp show "---" instead of a temp? Does the little telephone icon not show when your phone is paired? If so, it's a navigation issue (not shutting down). Pull the #7 fuse for about 30 seconds and then reset it. See if your drain stops after that. If it does, this will be an irregular, intermittent issue which can always be detected by the "---" and/or the telephone icon not showing when your phone is paired. And it can be fixed (until the next time) by pulling and resetting the #7 fuse.

As Turbo mentioned, there was a TSB to correct this issue. If you have Navi, call any Acura dealer, give them your vin# and they can tell you if the TSB was done on your car. You can also find that same info if you have/create an account on myacura.com.

Mr. Eclectic

Unfortunately, no Navi, and I already disconnected the HFL behind the map lights.

Mr. Eclectic

Oh yeah, and the temp gauge still works, too.

nfnsquared

OK, I missed this. So no beep and no flash when you lock the car? (and I assume no red security light?) Do all 4 doors lock? If the alarm doesn't arm, but the doors do lock, then the door pins are good. It's likely that either the hood latch sensor or trunk latch sensor is stuck open (causing the circuit to close and causing a drain), or somewhere one of these 2 wiring circuits is shorted closed. Open the pass through door in the back seat and see if the trunk light is on with the trunk closed. If it is, that's your problem.

If not, find the connector near the hood latch and check for continuity on the latch side of the connector with the hood open but the latch pressed down to the closed position. If there is continuity with the latch pressed down (as it would be when the hood is closed), that's your issue.

Mr. Eclectic

Doors lock insecurity system arms, complete with handy-dandy flashing red light. This question from before was in reference to getting the car to go to "sleep", so I could test for a drain, hence how I found the backup circuit. Sorry for the confusion.

SurfingScotty

Not trying to hijack your tread but I'm having similar issues (maybe we can troubleshoot together). I've tried all of the above mentioned items with no success. My car was doing the same thing about 2 years ago and I replaced my HFL and haven't had the dead battery until this week. I saw someone with a TSX had an issue of the Bluetooth module not turning off. His was located behind the front passenger kick panel but on my car, there is the car stereo's amplifier there. Is the BT located up where the HFL is?

tyler.smith

Howdy, new to the site but I recently went through this as well. For me it ended up being the speaker amplifier. Simple as that. No other symptoms but a persistently dead battery. Its located behind the passenger kick panel. I was able to find a new one on ebay for around $100.

Hope this helps

Mr. Eclectic

How did you trace it?