Hi all,

First time poster. My daughters 1997 grand cherokee's battery has been draining and will only hold a charge for about 36-48 hours. We replaced the battery 6 months ago and just had it checked out and it is good.

It's been awhile since I've got into this sort of stuff but I whipped out my trusty multimeter and did some checking. I disconnected the postive cable, connected my multimeter to the post and cable and sure enough it was reading 188 milliamps of pull. I believe about 30 milliamps is normal for the clock, etc. I then proceeded to pull each fuse one at a time and when I pulled the 50A fuse, it dropped down to near 0.

According to my fuse box legend, this fuse (position 11 in the fuse box panel) is in line for the memory functions, power window, power door locks,power mirrors, remote keyless entry and the trailer tow package which we do not have.

My daughter told me that a few months ago the power door lock would not open the passenger side door which had to be opened by the internal latch of with the key from the outside. With this said, I definately see a connection between the battery drain (related to the power locks) and the door not opening when the power door lock switch is hit.

Any ideas on where to start would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

 

well, the way I check for a short or drain is like this.....

I disconnect the "negative" cable and throw a test light between the post and cable end.
If there's a drain, it will light.
Then, I do as you did, remove fuse by fuse.

 

*******************
Hi,
Thanks for that. I do indeed have a test light as well however that's a bit more primative and will only let you know is you have a drain. The multimeter will let you know if you have a drain but will also give you the exact milliamps of the drain. Either works of course.
Thanks

Edited to add: Also, if you disconnect the negative cable and put a test light between the post and the cable you should always get a light regardless if there is a drain since your re-connecting the circuit.

 

move this to the grand cherokee section

 

How do I move this to the grand cherokee section? Thanks

 

i would just repost it there then delete this one

 

No, you are checking for positive current in a "negative" line.
The positive end of the test light goes on the battery negative, and the other "negative" end of the test light would go on the negative end of the bat cable.
You should have no current or voltage in this line.

 

Thanks. Well I reposted on the Grand Cherokee forum but have no clue how to delete this guy. Help!!

 

Why...
Oh, I see there's a separate forum for those.