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1992 240 parasitic draw

i think ill remove the delay relay anyway. i was never a fan of it. especially how it only works for the drivers door.
 
Natural244 said:
Nope, my chime still works after removing the delay relay. The relay on mine was a small cylindrical metal relay that had a rubber isolation sleeve around it.
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The sneaky drain on fuse 8 isn't in the blue chime box, it is in a separate relay clipped to the steering column support. It looks just like Natural244 described. If you slip that rubber sleeve off, it reminds you of a fluorescent lamp starter in size and shape.

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I put this a solid #2 in the likelihood list of reasons for a dead battery after a few days, behind the insulation failure in the central locking switches.
 
Now I'm definitely going to remove it as a preventative measure as well as not liking the function. Thanks for the info Art.

Speaking of delay relays, what do you know about the rear window defrost delay relay? It makes me uncomfortable that I can't switch the defrost off and have to wait for the relay to time out. I think the old style was a simple 2-state switch which turns the defrost on and off. It would be nice to switch to that style. However, is it bad to leave it on too long? It would be nice if they designed it such that if you leave the defrost on, it will periodically cycle power to the defrost circuit to prevent overheating something (Although I'm not sure if this is even a concern, the heat here in Texas is intense and I'm afraid of melting something if I accidentally trigger this thing)
 
sloopy said:
...

Speaking of delay relays, what do you know about the rear window defrost delay relay? It makes me uncomfortable that I can't switch the defrost off and have to wait for the relay to time out. I think the old style was a simple 2-state switch which turns the defrost on and off. It would be nice to switch to that style. However, is it bad to leave it on too long? It would be nice if they designed it such that if you leave the defrost on, it will periodically cycle power to the defrost circuit to prevent overheating something (Although I'm not sure if this is even a concern, the heat here in Texas is intense and I'm afraid of melting something if I accidentally trigger this thing)
Click to expand...
Never gave thought to prolonging the life of the grid by interrupting the 10-minute cycle on the rear window defroster. None of mine work but maybe a few lines after 30 years. Maybe the original owners all ran them too much?

Anyhow, if you didn't want to add an on/off switch in series, you'd have to turn the key off to interrupt the cycle. Wait for a stoplight? Then you'll wonder if you're subtracting more life from your starter motor than the defogger grid.
 
On steering column above brake pedal? Do you have the interior time delay - when you close the doors, do the lights stay on for a bit? It may have been a factory option. Any power antenna? Any suspect aftermarket audio wiring?
 
i already identified the drain to be one of the center console lights grounding against a bracket. i found the light timer relay. it was attached to the clutch pedal bracket and not visible unless your head is against the firewall. interestingly: the relay says assembled in haiti with usa parts.
 
looks like i have another smaller drain. i know there will always be some draw, but this seems like more than normal. my clock seems to be failing (it's intermittent). probably the caps have gone bad. would this cause excessive draw?
 
You could try unplugging the clock and see if it makes a difference. The key-off standby current for the LH2.4 ECU is only 5 or 6 mA.
 
I've done exactly that and have recharged the battery and I'm going to be monitoring the battery voltage the next few days. I guess I should have been more scientific and wrote a log down, but I have a general idea of how quickly it was draining with the battery connected.
 
If you're very careful, you can use a multimeter on the 10Amp setting (to begin with) and insert it between the + battery post and the + battery cable to measure parasitic current draw. Make sure the doors are closed, key out, and lights off and see what the current draw is. If it's pretty low, you can switch to the 200mA multimeter setting/probe holes. Beware, if you exceed the multimeter rating by opening a door, etc., you'll blow the fuse in the meter. You'll also blow the fuse if you forget and try to measure voltage without first switching the probes back to the voltage holes.

Normally, a 240 will have a small draw for the ECU, for the clock, and for the radio.
 
I use a cutoff switch. Meter attached to each side of the switch, open the switch, THEN current goes thru the meter. Yeah, on modern cars if you hook up a meter inline, the lights/alarm/etc could come on and blow the $25 Fluke meter fuse.
 
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