[ausev] Troubleshooting electrical drain issues

[Charlesvsi at aol.com]

The easy way is to put a switch or plug in fuse in series with each of the  
controls circuits. 
 
Then you can identify which one is drawing so much current. You may have a  
burned relay that is stuck closed ( I recently had one in our Honda Civic 
Hybrid  in the AC clutch circuit. The relay would sometimes stick draining the 
battery.  Would you believe that the circuit was hot even with key off?)( For lack 
of a  $19.00 relay, a dead battery occasionally)
 
 It may also be Easy to find, You should be able  to feel temperature of 
items that were all supposed to be off and not  drawing any current. Normally 
there is air flowing and temperatures are all same  under hood etc. But after 
sitting a while and battery drained down, the AC  Clutch was very warm to touch.. 
 
And of course there could be a wire with insulation worn so it is shorting  
to ground a strictly mechanical problem but hard to find. Again, divide and  
isolate.)
 
If you have a fuse panel with separate outputs for each controlled items,  
you may be able to isolate the problem circuit much easier. 
. 
Good luck. Chuck Simms 
 
In a message dated 6/24/2007 10:23:35 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
rob at zehicle.com writes:

All,

I could use some advice on tracking down a power  drain.  My various controls 
(fans, vacuum pump, relays, etc) are drawing  so much power from the 
Astrodyne DC-DC converter that it goes into "power  overload shutdown." The lack of 
DC-DC over draws my poor auxiliary battery  which turns off the contactors when 
I brake!

If I take the pump and  fans out of the circuit, the converts runs fine.  If 
I put them back in  then it immediately shuts off.

The relays, contactors, fans, and pump  are basically wired in parallel.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how I  could track down my power loads per 
circuit.  I have an ammeter, but it  only goes up to 200 millis.

Note: I was able to demonstrate that the  DC-DC converter is working fine.  
It recovers from overload after a power  cycle.

Rob
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Chuck Simms

Director, North Austin M.U.District  #1
e-mail: charlesvsi at aol.com
Phone: 512-331-9630
Cell:  505-331-1237



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