Mr Anxiety will be leaving his Camry at the Airport for 9 days and is concerned about it not starting when he gets back. The resting battery was 11.5volts yesterday morning after a cold Wisconsin night.. I charged it up which only took 30 minutes, and it was then 12.7volts. Disconnected the charger and left it overnight last night... 12.45 volts this morning... Just used my clamp meter to test the resting discharge and it is showing 0.4amps which I think is a lot ? Is it a lot ? If I slip the negative lead off at the airport, will that lose my transmission 'learned' settings ? ps Never a problem starting and I often leave it for 3 days...
allserene
ok further report: I took the negative lead off the battery and used my REAL cheapo multi-meter (with leads) to measure (instead of the fancy clamp meter). It came out at 140 milliamps....(0.14 amps). Happy with that. I was disconnected for say 25 seconds and my radio was totally reset and I had to answer the boot-up disclaimer stuff... and my English stations are lost from memory.. That's ok I only had about 4 stations preset...I don't use iphone etc... I don't know of any way to know if the transmission stuff is reset.. But the initial panic is over and I can live with 140 ma draw ..AND if I do get a bad start in the future, I know it isnt a fault in the 'standing' draw and I will know I need a new battery... The alternator is fine and shows 14.4V across the battery when the engine running... ps I believe it's called "the parasitic draw" which makes it sound like it's got worms...lol....
400mA would have been very high for a normal modern car, but it can vary a lot depending on how long that the car has been left sitting after the engine has been shut off and the doors closed for the last time.
I've actually tested cars that showed roughly the same reduction in current (from 400mA to 140mA) after an extended period of sitting, like 30-120 minutes, during which time the computers and modules have finally all gone to sleep into a lower steady state of draw.
I have left my 2015 Camry sitting for over a month with no problem starting it up, I'm thinking two months or so actually(!), so maybe no surprise that I found a thin layer of sludge in the oil filter housing when I changed the synthetic oil after 7200 miles(?).
Difficulties starting cars very often have to do with the battery clamps tightness and condition of the few inches of thick wire emerging from the clamps, which suffer from the corrosive gasses. Note that newer batteries out-gas less than older batteries, my 2015's battery clamps look crusty at only 23k miles.
I've actually tested cars that showed roughly the same reduction in current (from 400mA to 140mA) after an extended period of sitting, like 30-120 minutes, during which time the computers and modules have finally all gone to sleep into a lower steady state of draw.
I have left my 2015 Camry sitting for over a month with no problem starting it up, I'm thinking two months or so actually(!), so maybe no surprise that I found a thin layer of sludge in the oil filter housing when I changed the synthetic oil after 7200 miles(?).
Difficulties starting cars very often have to do with the battery clamps tightness and condition of the few inches of thick wire emerging from the clamps, which suffer from the corrosive gasses. Note that newer batteries out-gas less than older batteries, my 2015's battery clamps look crusty at only 23k miles.
The one that's compatible for a engine in the Camry is less than $100 and when you're in a parking lot with a dead battery it'll be the best money you ever spent.
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