12v Battery drain and DOME fuse

When measuring current were all the doors closed including the rear hatch?

Doors have lights in them when open.

Also if your car has SKS key system you must turn it off using the button
Under the steering wheel because if the fobs in your pocket near the car it wakes up the ant/radio system for the fob.

Hundreds of posts over the years with people thinking there’s a draw on there 12 volt battery. Don’t think anyone’s ever reported they found one.
Usually they have killed the battery and then jump started it and it came back to life but if you discharge to 0;volt lots of times it becomes sulphated
And will not Hold a charge.

Do a load test. Measure 12 bolt battery at front jump point with car off.
Write that voltage down
Then with car still off turn on headlights in high beam and leave on for 5 mins.
At the end of 5 minutes with headlights still on what voltage is it reading now?

 

My 3 year old yellowtopdoes not drop 1 volt with the headlight test.

 

A third of an amp seems pretty high if it's an accurate reading and the car is in its normal "off" state. Are you certain that the dome/courtesy lights are actually off when the car's off?

Another possibility, if the load measurement is not right for some reason, could be just an old 12V battery that's not holding a charge.

 

Some things stay "hot" for a few minutes after turn-off and then shut down.

As batteries age, they "self discharge" internally.
That looks a LOT like an external discharge.

Time to get your 12 V battery tested.
If it is over 5 years old, probably should just replace it.

 

With the car off, connect your meter as you had it for testing parasitic drain. Have the meter oriented so you can read it. Open the driver door and verify the courtesy light on the door bottom is on. Press the small button in the door jamb, see if the light goes off. Obviously, your current readings should change when operating the button. Try it again to make sure it works, but use the door this time. This courtesy lamp /button has been known to fail on.

The black box next to your battery is a capacitor bank for backup power to your brakes. It also has been known to cause excess parasitic draw. With your meter connected as before, unplug the wire connectors to the box and see if the excess draw goes away. If so, sounds like a bad cap.

 

If you are measuring milliamp draw, with the car off, I would like to think the lower door courtesy light turning on/off WOULD make a difference. Was the light at the bottom of the door "on" with the door open? Did it turn "off" when you pushed the door jamb button in?

 

But if you have the meter set to the wrong function.....or to the wrong scale......you might not be able to SEE the difference.

 

Didn't someone have the same problem when one of the light bulbs in the door was burned out? I remember him saying he replaced the burned out bulb and the problem went away.

 

LBH, are the doors locked when you are taking these current measurements?

Yes, the DOME fuse feeds other circuits that need constant 12V. For example, the combination meter.

 

You would have to wait at least 20 minutes after all doors were closed and the make sure the key fobs are well away from the car before it will quiesce to 0.02 A.

So set up your ammeter so that you can read it from outside the car without disturbing it, otherwise the car will wake up and current draw will be a lot higher.

 

But what if the circuit thinks the bulb is burned out due to the low draw of the LED bulb? Did the problem start after you changed out the bulbs to LED?

 

Combination meter is the display that shows your speed, odometer, etc. I hope you are able to find the drain. I have replaced my door and dome lights with LED and have has no issues with the battery dying, but I have not taken any measurements.

 

While the doors are closed, the interior lights are off anyway, so they are not a factor once the timer turns them off. You could stick a wire in the socket and make a dead short and it wouldn't matter UNTIL you opened a door or otherwise activated the lights.

There's a thought. Just because the doors are all closed doesn't necessarily mean the interior lights are off.