someone please help electrical problem with my ls

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ridin_ls_

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I've searched high and low on this forum for an answer unlike every other question I've ever needed answered I could not find this one. Currently my car is dyin roughly every hr or so I have a constant draw of 7.5 volts when the car is off. I tried to isolate the problem by pullin all the fuses in the car simultaneously , and the test light never shut off. (Letting me know if it was a short/problem with a particular instrment. I don't want to take the car to an auto electrican for the simple fact that they told me it could cost 500 or it could cost 5000. I'm hoping someone on here could throw a couple ideas out at me , give me some fresh thoughts. I've tested the battery and alternator and pulled every fuse, relay, micro fuse and I am still having the problem. Please if you have any kind of suggestion I am open to it. Thanks guys I appreciate it.
 
I know you said you had alternator checked, but not sure exactly what "checked" is on your end. Alternator can be working as far as voltage amount and have a draw with car off. I would suggest disconnecting alt. while checking for a draw and see if it goes away. Also may have to disconnect control units/modules to see if one of them has a draw. Any aftermarket stuff disconnect also while checking for draw, 7.5 is huge!!!
 
There are three fuse boxes on the LS. Did you pull all the fuses from all of three fuse boxes? If so, then your drain is almost certainly from the alternator. AFAIK, only the alternator and the starter aren't fuse protected. A drain from the alternator would be caused by shorted diodes or a bad regulator module.

Also, you can't troubleshoot this problem with a test light. You need to use an ammeter that you must wire in such that it is always connected while you are testing. The problem is that the electronics are complicated in that they interact with each other. You may kill the load by disconnecting one fuse, only to find that the real problem was another module that was telling the module you disconnected to power a load. Also, each time you do something you have to wait 20 to 30 minutes for the car to go back to sleep, otherwise you will read an amp or so that is normal until it sleeps. In sleep mode, you should see less than 50 mA of current.
 
I know I disconnected all aftermarket instruments , I had my meter hooked up while using every instrument in the car , the only drop I got was from the lumbar seat and it wasn't a drastic drop and went right back up. Like you said 7.5 volts is quite the draw. Local mechanic said the alternator was tested but don't know how much truth there is to that. I'm going to try the alternator now, thank you for your input and help I truly appreciate it.
 
I pulled every fuse joegr and from everythin I've read on here you are the person I wanted to respond to tthis post because you have indirectly answered so many questions for me. I'm going to check the alternator out and get back to you guys
 
How would I go about checking the alternator I'm not to familiar with the alternator aspect. Just discconnect and see if I am still getting the draw.
 
ridin_ls_ said:
How would I go about checking the alternator I'm not to familiar with the alternator aspect. Just discconnect and see if I am still getting the draw.
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That's probably the easiest way for you to do it. You can disconnect at the starter if you can't get to the alternator. Please note that you must use an ammeter or a DMM on the DC amps setting. Do not use a voltage setting (like you indicated 7.5 volts above) as that is a meaningless reading for this problem. You would always read some voltage (close to 12), even with only a 1 mA load.
 
I still haven't checked the altenator as I'm just trying to trouble shoot but to clarify I'm getting the draw from the negative battery post , I don't know if that means anything else.
 
Also how accsessible is the starter? I'm more familar with the foreign cars. Once again thanks for your help
 
ridin_ls_ said:
I still haven't checked the altenator as I'm just trying to trouble shoot but to clarify I'm getting the draw from the negative battery post , I don't know if that means anything else.
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Current flows in a loop. It doesn't matter if it's measured in line with the negative battery connection or the positive one.
 
Upon going to my mechanic after I tested the alternator and starter , he seems to think its a bad fuse box in the trunk. I found a used one on cheesebay for 50$ , does you believe this could be the problem
 
ridin_ls_ said:
Upon going to my mechanic after I tested the alternator and starter , he seems to think its a bad fuse box in the trunk. I found a used one on cheesebay for 50$ , does you believe this could be the problem
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Well, it could be, but if everything is as you described before, then probably not.
 
If it was a bad fuse box, wouldn't you have known that when you pulled all of the fuses?

How long have you owned the car? Did the previous owner install an aftermarket electronic gadget and left exposed wires somewhere, maybe under the dash?
 
Aftermarket things were put in but taken out before I tested it just to make sure it wasn't that , idk about any lose wires I'm getting the part thurs hopefully ill keep every1 updated and thanks for your help and input guys
 
This was the next thing to try I've gone through everythin that's people have suggested to me other than ignorance like blow up your car etc . I just need this car fixed and no one wants to touch this car mechanichally
 
If you guys have any suggestions or what to test I'm open to it but I've went through a good portion of the car
 
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