Battery/circuit gremlins

[jrpitdog]

So I have a parasitic drain on my battery (optima red top). It's not a lot, it takes about a week of sitting for it to drain. I tested with a multimeter and found about 150ma draw. I pulled the fuses and discovered it was the circuit with my two autometer gauges, water temp and oil pressure, both electronic gauges. Because of conditions when this truck was built those are the only thing on the circuit. The gauges don't work without the key on so how are they drawing power? Second question, can anybody confirm Optima batteries being bought out and quality going downhill? I'm thinking Odyssey for my next battery.

[vin63]

How do you have the temp and pressure sending units wired? To a constant volt source or to a keyed source?

Originally Posted by jrpitdog

So I have a parasitic drain on my battery (optima red top). It's not a lot, it takes about a week of sitting for it to drain. I tested with a multimeter and found about 150ma draw. I pulled the fuses and discovered it was the circuit with my two autometer gauges, water temp and oil pressure, both electronic gauges. Because of conditions when this truck was built those are the only thing on the circuit. The gauges don't work without the key on so how are they drawing power? Second question, can anybody confirm Optima batteries being bought out and quality going downhill? I'm thinking Odyssey for my next battery.

[jrpitdog]

I'm not sure, I didn't wire the vehicle, but I was thinking that might be the issue. I'm not positive exactly how those gauges work, but if the sending units were always powered wouldn't the gauges be on all the time? When I shut the truck off the needles drop.

[blown240]

From what I understand the senders just supply a ground to the gauges. It could be that one of them is not working correctly. Are you able to unhook one or both of the gauges from the circuit to see if you can further narrow down the 150ma drain?

[jrpitdog]

I will try that next, thanks