j three

Hey CLers, two days ago my fathers 99 LS got slightly flooded and there was some standing water on the passenger side that we mostly took care of yesterday. I know there is an amp under the front passenger seat and I'm sure it's fried since the speakers are making strange noises when the stereo is off and no music comes out when it's turned on.

Here is the problem. There is energy being drawn that is killing the battery when it's parked and I assume it is the amp. Does anyone have an idea what else is on the floor that can cause this power consumption? How about fuses, is there a fuse that is tied to the amp under the seat that can be pulled to kill the power to it?

This is frustrating since the car runs fine with a jump, but it died over night. He just got a jump from a neighbor and drove about 30 miles on the freeway to visit a friend, we will see if it starts back up when he is ready to leave. I'll give an update. Thanks everyone the help is greatly appreciated!

Amskeptic

Geeze, why on Earth would you turn on anything in that car after a flood? Just for fun?
I would have disconnected the battery opened the doors and tried to dry out the car for several days. You do not know what crazy daisy chain of damage can occur when you send electricity into a sodden mess.

How about doing the classic negative cable/battery post amp test while you pull out fuses one at a time until the amp reading zeros or drops dramatically. Then you know what circuit you are dealing with. There is a memory current up at the head unit for station preselects, but I do not know what drain would occur at the actual amp unit under the seat. The amp unit may have sent the head unit a deadly spike when you attempted to turn it on.
Colin

j three

Update! The car did start up but was very weak so there is still something draining the battery. To clarify about the stereo thing, we didn't know there was water in the car right away. He initially thought the drain was due to him leaving the dome light on which he actually did. The water was mostly in the rear foot well so he didn't see it right away, and when I jumped his car the stereo started to make noise so he checked it out and no music played just noise. That's when I thought about the amp then looked around and saw the water in the rear.

We can't really open it up and let it dry out since we are having storms currently, but he is taking it to our mechanic today to check it out and maybe unplug the amp and fully charge the battery.