I have been trying to chase down what seems to be a battery drain on a 2014 TL for my brother. The family is going through a bunch of medical issues and haven't been using the car much. The battery will go close to stone dead in 2 to 3 weeks time. The battery is less than a year old and has been tested to be ok. There doesn't seem to be a drain. An amp meter in series with the negative battery cable showed an initial .03 milliamps for about 3 seconds and then down to zero. A test light showed the same result, an initial dim light and then nothing. I suspect that might be the dome light that initially lights and then goes off. The alternator had put out 13.5 volts when running and it was changed to try to eliminate the problem.

I would expect the battery to hold up for 2 or 3 weeks without use. Since the battery almost fully discharges in that time I would expect a drain to be present. Since the above described test doesn't show a drain, can it be something that energizes and draws current outside while conducting the test? Is there anything that is common across these cars with those symptoms? The family is thinking of getting rid of the car since they can't depend on it, especially in case of emergency, which unfortunately there are some. They aren't in a financial condition to afford that currently.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Art

 

are the keys being left close to the car?

Make sure you are measuring in Milliamps - sounds like you got a reading of 30-milliamps and not .03 milliamps. 1 amp = 1000 milliamps! .1 amp is 100 milliamps, 0.01 amp is 10 milliamps.

Make sure all the doors are closed and the car is locked, wait 10-minutes for the car to fall asleep.

You can try putting a video camera near the multimeter to see if it spikes at some point with something triggering the car or a computer to power on.

In the past, the Hands Free Link has been an issue (bluetooth) draining the battery but that's constantly on with 200 miliamps being drawn when it it's faulty.

 

Sorry, you are right that it is 30 milliamps. I mixed up my amp description. The car keys weren't close to the car the last time the battery died, but it was at times before. Reading through this site, I see many talk about the HFL module being a problem, but mostly for Gen3 TL. I also saw issues with the A/C clutch. My plan is now to disconnect the HFL and A/C clutch and see if that helps. I will keep that key location in mind.

Thanks for your help.
Art

 

the A/C Clutch relay can get stuck on sometimes, you can try pulling the relay out. If you leave the key too close to the car, it won't go fully to sleep or can "wake" up randomly killing the battery.

Yes HFL is more for the 3G TL than the 4G TL (very rare for 4G TL). Also, once a battery is flat/needs a jump, it's unlikely to hold another full charge so you might want to look into getting the 1-year old battery replaced too; should be free under the battery warranty.