NEED HELP. Battery is being drained at 4.8 amps with the car off.
 

HELLO everyone This is my first post and go figure its a cry for help.
I just bought a 2005 LS 430 and it all seemed great until it sat for a few days. I found the battery had been drained to 5 volts. I charged the battery back to 12.5 to 13 volts over night, and placed my multi meter in the series with the battery and found the battery being drained at a 4.8 amps. I went through all the fuse boxes mentioned in the owners manual and pulled each fuse individually and it did not change the amp draw. I am hoping that some of you have seen this and can give me some direction. I have only had the car for 2 weeks now. I do not want to pay the dealership for service unless i just got to.

dunno if this helps or not.....my uncle had the same issue with a 2007 Acura RL. He took it to the dealer, and of course, they stated nothing was wrong, could not duplicate. An indie subsequently found that the bluetooth module in the car was drawing power, i.e. went bad, and even though my uncle doesn't use it, he would be unable to start the car if it sat more than two days. The indie apparently disabled the module. Apparently they traced it through the fuse boxes....

good info. thanks ill look at the blue tooth and see.
I have been reading the forums here and disabled the key bob search function. I drove the car today for about 10 miles to make sure the alternator is charging properly and it is. I still have a draw of 4+ amps but the battery is holding the charge better. I also cleaned the battery post, this may have been the culprit all along. As the post where dirty and my not have allowed the battery to charge. Ill check back and let you all know what i find.

Instead of putting a multi-meter in series to measure current flow, a better alternative is to use a Mini-clamp multi-meter that can read in the mA range, such as that you can simply clamp over the conductor.
Here is the power source flow chart for the 2001-2003 and 2004-2006 LS430. Starting from the branches out of the battery (Location 3 - Fusible Link Block) and work your way down stream until you find the individual fuse that is drawing the current. Please note that you may have more than one offenders.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...2f1295cbe4.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...24ca5074f4.jpg

Here are the locations of the various fuse and relay boxes...

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...a47efd94e2.jpg

great post there thanks.

You're welcome! Also be sure to give the car a few minutes to go-to-sleep before start checking for drain. The LS430 is configured to keep some lights and features on for several minutes after the car is turned off.

I just go my 05 recently also and on 2 different occasions I let it sit for 5 days and the car would not start. After I jumped it everything was fine. I tested the battery after it sat do a couple I hours and it has 11.5 volts. The previous owner bought this interstate battery back in 2013 so I'm figuring it's about time to change it.

I changed mine yesterday with a Bocsh AGM type, the old interstate Megatron II gave up...no start, since I am the 3rd owner and no document date from previous owner, I assume battery may be over 3+ years old. I borrow a Snap-on tools and did a battery test, it comes up these result, see photos, the blue one is the new AGM and I believed it's made by Excide.

My battery shows a date of 3/2016. its a optima red top Manufacturer's Part Number:9022-091. It is a high dollar battery for sure. I checked the battery a while ago and its holding 12.5 volts. It Must have been the dirty battery terminals not allowing the battery to charge. i will check it again in the morning. It does still show the amp draw. i wonder if that amount of amps is normal for the car in sleep mode.

It is not normal for the LS430 to drain the battery unused in a few days. Or weeks for that matter. Something is wrong.

Roger that.

For your reference, I just put a meter on my LS430 and got a 0.37A reading, with the SMART features on.

4.8A is excessive. On this 12V system, it is equivalent to burning a 57.6W light bulb.

4.8Amps of standby current draw has nothing to do with whether your terminals are clean/dirty or tight/loose. Gotta find out and fix where that current is going. rwk's method is the way to go.

Roger that. I have ordered the ESI 307M Buddy Mini Current Loops to use with my dc clamp on amp meter. I will find this critter. the Battery was at 12.3 volts this morning Down from 12.5 volts.