Hello all! I have a slight power draw on my 07 Gx470. As of now it’s not too big of an issue. The lowest it’s got after sitting for about a day and a half is 11.8v. Battery is pretty new. Installed over the summer. Passes a battery test. Alternator was installed at the same time and is charging normally. It’s going to start getting colder here and I don’t want to wake up to it not starting. Any known issues with these? Also I have to get a multimeter. Any recommendations? I don’t need a high end one but don’t want a crappy one either.

Thank you!
Mike

2007 Gx470
2010 Rx350

 

I got tired of buying cheap Radio Shack and Harbor Freight meters over and over again because they broke and/or were garbage, and finally bought a Fluke 115.
Worth it.
If you buy on Amazon or eBay make sure it's genuine - there are cheap Chinese fakes out there.

Chip H.

 

I wanted to get it by today so I can work on it Sunday. I got a decent one. I just didn’t have the $200 for the Fluke at the moment.


Thank you!

 

Check how much draw its actually happening.
Should not be more than 50 ma to be acceptable draw.

 

At first I was upset that the "BBB" people had stolen Eric's content, but then I saw that they were sponsors, so that's cool.

Chip H.

 

I’m looking at .89 amp drain. I’ve seen a few numbers that there should be no more than a .5-7. Is this something I should worry about?


Mike

 

.89 a = 890 ma is a ton..!
Closer to 50 ma ( .005 amps is acceptable)
Hope you're checking draw correctly as the video.

 

I followed it. The max milliamp the tool will read is 400. When I set it to milliamps I don’t get a reading. When I set it to 15A that when it reads the .89.

 

Yep, something is drawing a lot. You did wait about 15 minutes before taking your reading, right? Because sometimes it takes that long for the computers to go into sleep.

To narrow this down - start pulling fuses.

Chip H.

 

I did. Was about at least 4 hours. I’ll start pulling he fuses this week and see what I come up with. Thank you again. This is not my speciality. First time I’ve ever used a multimeter.

 

Started pulling fuses today. Pulled the 30A radio fuse and it dropped the draw to .122A. So the culprit has been found but I’ve got to figure out the next step cause I need the radio.

 

Did you ever solve this? I'm about to dig into this on my 2005 GX470 so I'm looking for known parasitic draws first.

 

I took it to a car audio place not long after. They checked it out for me and told me nothing was wrong