'95 Caprice Parasitic Loss

ledzilla

New member
Feb 15, 2020
29
3
The radio in my Caprice has never saved anything since I bought. Always have to change band and station. Figured it was a problem with the radio and decided on a new radio that some modern features, and during installation I'd investigate the wiring just to be safe.

So, the other day I'm talking to my brother-in-law, whose dad sold me the car, and I mentioned that I was putting in a new radio because the original wouldn't hold memory. That's when I find out that supposedly the fuse was pulled due to an excessive power drain. Well, figured I'd better check that out before installing a new radio.

So, get the battery disconnected, get my multimeter connected... There's no noticeable power draw at all. 0.000A with the car turned off. Seems a little odd to me, no draw to maintain even the computer. But, I then put in a new fuse in the radio memory circuit. Now there's a 0.23A draw.

So that leaves me with two questions:
1) 0.23A is definitely too high of a power draw, right? (NOTE: I poked at it some more, and noticed that the clock display does not turn off when the car is turned off, and I am beginning to think that's the problem)
2) Should there be more power draw with the car off and radio disconnected? Or do the computers in these cars somehow not draw power to maintaon memory?

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GP403

Administrator
Staff member
Aug 30, 2018
47
8
Rolla, MO
almost 1/4 A does seem high for basically doing nothing. If you could find a different but identical radio to swap in and see what happens that would tell you for certain if its supposed to be that high or not. The only thing I can think of to be sure. That the clock doesn't shut off is a tell. Could be something internal to the radio isn't right.
 

Dirtlord

New member
Jun 30, 2020
12
3
.23 amp or 23 millamps is a little high usually we see between 15 and 20 though with memory systems being used. Put in a better stereo system and check it again is my take
 

ledzilla

New member
Thread starter
Feb 15, 2020
29
3
Yeah, I put a new radio in it, and there's no loss from it. However, I can't get the multimeter to show any draw at all now until I turn on something or open the door. Os there just so little of a draw now to not be concerned then?

And I'm not keeping this radio. Bought it off of Wish for $23, figuring it ought to be decent enough to last a few months and eliminate the draw and memory issues. Well, those issues seem solved, but this radio is trash from the start. Bluetooth doesn't seem to work, SD card reading won't skip tracks and freezes the radio if you try to adjust the volume until you pull the card, it feeezes trying to read a USB drive, and the regular radio gets crap reception. Oh well. At least it was only $23.

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Shortfuse

Member
May 15, 2020
82
18
Sounds like you got it radios are a common source of parisitic drains. Also GM states that the maximum allowable drain is 0.05 milliamps.
 

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