How do I check for parasitic drain?

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

The Kawasaki's new-ish battery has dropped to 2 volts after a few weeks laying idle. In contrast the alarm-equipped R1 will keep a battery alive far longer. (Admittedly it has a slightly larger capacity.) A while ago I tested the Kawasaki for parasitic drain but the ammeter read zero, not even registering the clock. I think I might be doing it wrong.

YouTube showed me two ways to test:

Ammeter connected between the negative cable and the negative battery terminal.

Ammeter probing the individual fuses.

Do I need a fancy meter or should my £8 Halfords/Gunson one do the job?

[A100man]

HI

Your ammeter will do fine if it has a reasonable range (eg a few amps rather than a few hundred milliamps). Note that current measurement usually means reconnecting the positive test lead to a different terminal than for volts..

Checking 'in series with' or more likely 'in place of' the fuse(s) will then show which circuit(s) are contributing to your current drain.

Cheers
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[WD Forte]

Its best to know your meter first
My old Fluke will measure up to 300 milliamps without moving the leads
This is fine for normal drain testing and I'd guess most digtal meters
budget or not will read a similar current.
Any more and I'd have to stick the red lead into the 10A socket

I'd start by disconnecting the battery neg lead and after setting
the meter to read DC milliamps. (Straight line over a dotted line symbol)
Put the red probe to the neg lead
and the black probe to the battery neg terminal

My bike reads zero cos I aint not got nuthin running.
if I refit the alarm it will hopefully just show a few, <10 mA

If the test reads zero, maybe the battery is faulty
if you read more than a few mA, do the same test over the fuses
to try and isolate the section causing the drain

Clocks can be confusing depending on type
Some need a constant but small/tiny current, sometimes a few microamps with the display off
and not lot more with an LCD screen.
Some meters may not even detect them.
A few only take power in short bursts say once or twice a minute to charge a capacitor
Whatever, the load is small enough to ignore as a healthy battery should cope with it.
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[MCN]

A big drain is dirty battery case. Make sure you keep the battery clean.
Wash with fairy or similar.
Test this using your volt meter between the post and the top of the battery.
You will see some voltage leaks over a dirty battery (it's millivolts) clean the battery and test for comparison. People were amazed when they tried this.

I normally test amps between the positive lead and the positive post.
Test with your meter on 10amps (If it has that option) then if the load is smaller you can step down to lower setting.
Also check the battery leads for ground leaks. Using the ohms option. Battery Leads disconnected, probes between battery lead and ground (The bike frame/bare metal)
A rubber harness can leak power too.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[A100man]

[F18]

And if you tested it correctly but with a big drain - like something properly on - you may have popped the protection fuse (often 200mA to 2A depending upon meter) and not know it. Dead meter fuse, no (low) current, meter measures exactly zero.
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[Islander]

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

Thanks everyone. It sounds like I've been using the correct test procedure. I've just bought a new battery (Yuasa again) and I have it on charge, so I'll test again later. From experience, while my Optimate might resurrect a battery from 2 volts it will never be quite as strong again, so the "old" one is toast.

Interesting point about dirt between the terminals, but it's clean. The fixed Optimate connector is clean too. I wondered whether the seat was touching the terminals and conducting but the positive terminal has a rubber sheath and the underside of the seat is clean, hard, plastic so unlikely to conduct.

It's still a mystery. I'd fit a larger capacity lead-acid if one would fit. Not sure about lithium.

[A100man]

[MCN]

For the record, Rubber Harnesses are no use.

Fecking pre-meditation text.

I had a ctek 'smart' lead connected to the battery on one bike when parked in the garage. It was on charge for a month but the battery was flat as a dodo when I tried to.start the hoowur.
The smart lead circuitry was goosed.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

New battery in, checked my meter with an AA battery and got a reading , then repeated all the tests and got zero DC milliamps throughout. With the forum's guidance I'm happy the test is valid. No parasitic drain then, but a small battery in need of either regular use (like the bike used to get) or a top-up charge once a month, I suppose. Thanks everyone!

[garth]

If it's not used regularly consider a lithium ion battery.

I left mine for a year in my old 450 (single) and it still started it off the button, and it was only used once in the year before that.
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[Kawasaki Jimbo]

Found it after all this time! Several years ago the 12 year old alarm died and immobilised the Kawasaki. I removed the alarm, wired two pairs of terminals together on the remaining connector block so the bike wouldn't know any different, bound it all up with insulating tape and left it in the tail unit. Bike ran, all good until I noticed if I didn't use the bike for a few weeks the battery would still die (I'd always blamed the alarm) whilst my Yamaha's battery would still be good for months. A YTZ12S (same physical size but capacity up from the stock battery's 8Ah to 11Ah) fared no better.

Now, my fancy new clamp ammeter still shows no drain at the battery* but there is 200mA flowing through the remnants of the alarm loom. I guess I'll have to strip the bound bundle of wires as far forward as I can and look for chaffing.

* I can't figure this out.

[oilyrag]

How do you know it's drawing 200mA if you can't measure it? Are you sure your clamp meter measures DC? A lot of those clamp meters only measure AC.

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

There was a 200mA reading with the clamp around what's left of the alarm loom but nothing at the battery leads. Makes no sense, any thoughts?

Yes, my old clamp multimeter doesn't read DC amps through the clamp, only using the probes. Apparently they expected me to read the manual. This new one does use the clamp for DC amps. And I zeroed it.

[oilyrag]

I think to get an accurate reading with those clamp meters you have to measure a single wire. I think they work by measuring the magnetic field created by the current flow through the wire. If you measure multiple 12V wires at the same time the magnetic fields add and the meter registers a higher current than there actually is. If you measure a 12V and a ground wire at the same time, the current flow is in opposite direction so the magnetic fields cancel out and the meter registers lower current flow than there actually is. I don't know if that's what's happening in your case but I think it's correct that you have to measure one wire or your reading can be off.

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

Oh, crikey! I knew that, because I had thought about using multiple loops to amplify the value when using my old clamp meter (before I realised it was reading zero because the clamp wasn't for DC amps!). But then I stupidly went and measured a bundle of wires! Cheers oilyrag.

Maybe I haven't found it after all.

[oilyrag]

You could try the method using a test light or an indicator bulb. Take the negative wire off the battery. Connect the test light or indicator bulb between the negative battery post and the negative wire. If the bulb lights there's current flow. You can leave the bulb connected and remove fuses or disconnect components until the bulb goes out.

[Robby]

Ripping out the old wires is a good plan. If it's an old tape-together "repair" on a wire that is always live, then by now it will have a fair amount of corrosion. Corrosion causes resistance, so you have a resistor permanently wired to your battery, gently turning electrical energy into heat.