Does anyone else have a big honkin' relay and 20A fuse wedged in just to the left of the fuse panel? Could this relay and fuse be part of the "Locator" (alternative to LoJack)? (I called the installer a couple of years back to update my wiring diagram, and was told that the unit is no longer available, and there's no documentation on installations. Nice. (gah)) I've pulled every fuse (one by one) in the main panel, and the car still draws over 80mA when off. It's not the stereo or amp, so I'm trying to catalog everything that wasn't installed in Italy. I would have thought it was the stereo, as it wasn't this bad before I had FoW remove the built-in radar detector (illegal in VA) when I moved from MA, and the radar detector and stereo amp shared a weird under-dash power switch. But no, I can yank the fuse on the amp, and the drain is still there.
You probably do not have a problem with the 80mA parasitic draw. A instruction book included with an automotive tester said that the amount varies by manufacturer, but that normal draw is generally about 100mA. Some more modern cars are much higher. There have been threads on this and I remember checking my car for somebody and I think it was 80mA too. This current is for things like: the clock, radio presets, and diode draw. Check the archives, or perhaps some others will reply with hard figures, but I'm sure 80mA is not too much. Mark
I seem to remember it being about 45-50mA when I was in MA. The stereo has a kill switch under the dash. I checked the amp first thing. The kill switch also powered the radar detector that I had FoW remove on bringing the car to VA. I've pulled the fuse for the clock -- still 80+ mA. (I had to use the 10A scale on the meter, as the automatic door locks cycled when I first connected, blowing the 330mA scale fuse on my meter.) So unless the alternator (rebuilt at the 45K in '02) is sucking a lot of juice, it's gotta be the recovery system. And if it's not too high, what killed my new Optima? (My Alfa has nothing running with the key off -- and the DieHard has been in that car since '93.)
