idle current drawn from battery?

[-=carlos=-]

Hi all, could anyone tell me how much current I can expect to see drawn from the battery of my M reg 1.3 Toyota Corolla (UK) at idle?

I charged the battery yesterday and the car wont start again today with a flat battery, i've just charged it today and want to test how much current is being sunk upon connection to confirm what i'm dealing with.

Thanks.

[-=carlos=-]

At idle I don't mean with the engine running btw, I mean at an idle state of ignition and nothing on.

If I were to have to guess I'd say a couple of hundred milli amps but if anyone knows for sure that'd be good.

[foodaa]

Key On Engine Off, 200 mA parasitic draw is a bit much. Less than 100 mA is ideal. Ofcourse newer cars tend to have more computers and electronic junk and will tend to draw more current. If you are trying to locate/isolate a circuit that you think is drawing too much current, start pulling fuses one at a time. If the parasitic draw disappears, then you found the suspect circuit.

[Hook]

interesting...on the odd occasion that I have to remove my battery poles to get work done, it sparks slightly when I'm reconnecting it...even with the doors closed and all devices switched off

so if I want to check this, I'm putting my ammeter in series with the +ve battery pole and the main fuses, putting the keey to the ACC position and pulling fuses one by one until I isolate the source of excessive parasitic draw? is that correct?

[karazy]

Leave the key out. You're looking for power loss when the car is off. Normal drainage from the clock, radio and sensors are there all the time, but you would be looking for something that shouldn't be there.

[Hook]

cool tnx the only draw should be from the radio then, cuz I'm carb'd and there's no clock

[thespud]

^^ And Immobiliser (or factory VSS) if fitted...

[Hook]

okie....got my battery and charging system checked 2day and I got the thumbs up...everything works gr8

the tech suggested that the small spark might've been coming from the amplifier's internal power supply's caapacitors charging....once they're charged at full, they don't draw any current and there's no spark when I reconnect the battery pole

[-=carlos=-]

OK as it turns out it was just a duff battery that was playing me around. The new one sinks about 20mA with the key off just to let anyone know.