AaronGTR
11-20-2007, 08:38 PM
Anyone out there remember the old DRL kit that was available for sale for a while from some members here? It eliminated the DRL's as well as letting you turn the fog lights on with high beams and also letting you choose to turn the auto night time headlights feature on or off. Well it did all of that as promised... with the side effect of making a power drain on the battery.
I'd had a power drain for years and never could track it down. It would kill my battery within a week and I got tired of leaving a charger on it so I decided to fix it once and for all. The factory manual is very little help in diagnosing power drains so I had to do it myself. I hooked a digital multi-meter in between the negative battery cable and the battery and set it on DC 20 amp so I could measure the constant current draw with the car off. It was getting 0.20 amps of draw (with the interior lamps fuse pulled so they wouldn't throw off the reading with the doors being open). I then proceeded to pull every fuse and relay in the car and check for variations.
I got very small variations for the following fuses: radio batt, trunk relay/rfa/radio amp, rh hdlp, erls, l/h bec batt #1. Then I pulled the l/h bec batt #2, which is a 30a maxi fuse in the under hood fuse box, and the power dropped to only 0.02 amp. Plugged it back in and heard relays click in the box and in the interior (passenger side). Started checking relays and the DRL relay was warm! Pulled it out and put it in again and it clicked. Part of the directions for the old kit was to clip a pin off the DRL relay, so I went and got a new one and put it in, and the headlights came on. They designed the kit so it worked without turning the SVS light on... but it left the DRL relay energized all the time, even with the car off! :rolleyes:
I pulled the kit out and took it apart to see what was inside and saw this.
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/AaronGTR/DRLkit1.jpg
This was the other side.
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/AaronGTR/DRLkit2.jpg
Obviously they really didn't want it coming out or for anyone to see how the rats nest of wires and relays were organized. Anyway I took it completely out, returned most of the wires to stock connections, and used the directions in the DRL thread in the "how-to" section instead. Worked perfectly so I still have no DRL's and no auto night time lights, and no additional power draw.
Removing the kit and replacing the relay made the power draw drop from 0.20 to 0.11 amp. Removing the L/H BEC BATT #2 fuse makes it drop again to 0.02 and it still makes some relay in the interior click when it goes back in. I still have no reference for it in the manual so I don't know if that is normal or not. Heck, I can't even find a definition of what that fuse name means. It's obviously "left hand ____ battery"... can anyone fill in the blank? Also if someone else with a multi-meter could check their current draw and see if it's in the same range that would be great. I want to know if that's the normal draw or if I still have a problem somewhere.
I'd had a power drain for years and never could track it down. It would kill my battery within a week and I got tired of leaving a charger on it so I decided to fix it once and for all. The factory manual is very little help in diagnosing power drains so I had to do it myself. I hooked a digital multi-meter in between the negative battery cable and the battery and set it on DC 20 amp so I could measure the constant current draw with the car off. It was getting 0.20 amps of draw (with the interior lamps fuse pulled so they wouldn't throw off the reading with the doors being open). I then proceeded to pull every fuse and relay in the car and check for variations.
I got very small variations for the following fuses: radio batt, trunk relay/rfa/radio amp, rh hdlp, erls, l/h bec batt #1. Then I pulled the l/h bec batt #2, which is a 30a maxi fuse in the under hood fuse box, and the power dropped to only 0.02 amp. Plugged it back in and heard relays click in the box and in the interior (passenger side). Started checking relays and the DRL relay was warm! Pulled it out and put it in again and it clicked. Part of the directions for the old kit was to clip a pin off the DRL relay, so I went and got a new one and put it in, and the headlights came on. They designed the kit so it worked without turning the SVS light on... but it left the DRL relay energized all the time, even with the car off! :rolleyes:
I pulled the kit out and took it apart to see what was inside and saw this.
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/AaronGTR/DRLkit1.jpg
This was the other side.
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/AaronGTR/DRLkit2.jpg
Obviously they really didn't want it coming out or for anyone to see how the rats nest of wires and relays were organized. Anyway I took it completely out, returned most of the wires to stock connections, and used the directions in the DRL thread in the "how-to" section instead. Worked perfectly so I still have no DRL's and no auto night time lights, and no additional power draw.
Removing the kit and replacing the relay made the power draw drop from 0.20 to 0.11 amp. Removing the L/H BEC BATT #2 fuse makes it drop again to 0.02 and it still makes some relay in the interior click when it goes back in. I still have no reference for it in the manual so I don't know if that is normal or not. Heck, I can't even find a definition of what that fuse name means. It's obviously "left hand ____ battery"... can anyone fill in the blank? Also if someone else with a multi-meter could check their current draw and see if it's in the same range that would be great. I want to know if that's the normal draw or if I still have a problem somewhere.