This is the fifth video I've watched now on this subject and by far it was the most helpful and thorough.

One thing that I would add: Before you hook your DMM into series on the negative side, you should hook a 10 amp (or whatever your meter is rated for) fused jumper wire in place of the DMM. If the fuse blows, you know that there is more current flowing than your meter can handle. It’s a simple step that is quick and easy and will save you a bit of grief when trying to locate the source of the drain.

Being an engineer, I can tell you that your videos are simply easy to follow. Thanks. Create more videos.

Excellent! No useless commentary or super-dummy-level instruction like every other video-maker, he just gets right to the point.

I've watched 4-5 of these videos on the subject and not a single one of them was anywhere near as good as this one. Well done and thanks for the good description.

Some tips: 1) After you defeat the switches and sensors to allow access to all of the fuse panels, the vehicle will need time to go to sleep. It would be good to know how long to wait before a current reading is actually the proper sleep current or sleep current + a parasitic draw, so if you work on the same make of vehicle it might be helpful to test a "normally" working car to see what the sleep current and sleep timing actually looks like. Also, it is helpful if you ask the customer how the car is left after driving. If it is parked in a garage it may not be locked. A max normal sleep current is most likely 50mA or less although it really depends on the vehicle and accessories. 2) It is easier to use a clamp meter as an initial test, like the B&K Precision Model 316, which has a 1mA resolution on the 10 Amp range. The real challenge to using the 316 clamp meter is to get the jaws around all of the battery feed cable. 3) Once the vehicle is asleep if you disconnect the battery the vehicle will reset and the problem may go away after you insert the DMM. If you want to install a shunt (DMM) into the circuit do so in such a way that you do not break the circuit. DMMs have the disadvantage of having a burden voltage when reading current, and if overloaded may blow a fuse. Some perisitic draw problems actually require a key on to key off sequence to recreate the problem the vehicle may draw more than 10 Amps if you go key on. 4) Parasitic loads are not necessarily static in nature, they may be periodic or have a more complex waveform. If I see my clamp meter reading jumping around I know the parasitic draw current is dynamic. To get a better idea of what is going on I use my Fluke Scopemeter and Fluke current probe, both are battery operated, to understand the current signature. 5) Another issue with doing parasitic draw troubleshooting is usually when the problem shows itself the vehicle will usually not start without a jump. So when it arrives at the shop the battery is almost dead. Charging the battery fully to a point where it can be relied upon to provide enough energy to complete the testing will take time. A quicker option is to put the vehicle on "life support". I use a linear DC power supply with current limit and reverse current blocking diode (much like what is in the old fashion chargers called a rectifier or stud mount diode and heatsink). I can then increase the system voltage from the battery or jump start posts, so I can do my testing without the battery going dead. I can actually put a slight charge on the battery while I do my testing. Much like you may do when reflashing modules in a vehicle. I like the linear DC supply over a DC switcher because it has about 50 times less ripple or noise. 6) Parasitic draw troubleshooting is difficult to teach because the problems are so diverse. So it is helpful to have many different approaches to identifying the cause.

Really useful. Especially the tip about not removing the fuses. Thanks.

by far the most helpful useful video that actually works! THIS IS THE WAY they brought me a ford f250 with parasitic draw they took it to 2 different shop and could not find anything. thanks to this video step by step i followed and solved the issue. thank you for this awesome video

I've searched & watched videos on this for about an hour. You were the only one that explained where & how to hook up the circuit tester & with great focused video. TYTYTY

Excellent video. The way you explain it makes it easy to understand. Before I was confused as to why people were measuring a voltage drop instead of pulling the fuses and measuring amps.

Clear voice and precised demonstration very easy to understand. Good job men.

Great video and great explanation. I wish you went further where you finally would overcome the drain !

I like measuring the mV across the back of the fuses instead of removing fuses to see if the Amp draw drops like it says in other videos. In my case I KNOW there is a parasitic draw because I just got a new battery a few days ago and after letting car sit a few days (with everything off and all doors closed) so I won't need to mess around with disconnecting the battery cable to hook up the meter in series, I can just go straight to measuring the voltage across the fuses. Brilliant idea.

Thanks for the great vid, i'm a newly qualified level 3 technician and I have a lot to learn still I know but your vids are giving me extra diagnostic procedures to carry out and understanding. Cheers bud!

You explain everything so well and it’s very easy to follow and understand..

you have the MOST comprehensive and thuro parisitic drain testing in all of youtube. thankyou sir. subscribed.

Excellent video, most informed video on this problem. Wish all videos were this articulate. Will try this out, have had this problem with many cars and could never find a good video on parasitic drain. Thank you

Love this video!!! Kept it simple and to the point!

Awesome vid....the only thing i would add is if you have a large parasitic draw like in this video I usually start by disconnecting the alternator before going to the fuse box. From past experiences of bad diodes in alternators even if you pull all the fuses the drain remains

Thank you for documenting this and making it simple to understand !

Thank you I learned more from video like this then I do at my work shop. I am going to level 2 this year for automotive technician

worked a treat, most helpfully presented, thank you

Bravo Justin you have made my day so simple and works thank you sir excellent fast and simple no momble jomble crap talk awesome....

you are a great teacher, keep making more videos.

Would be awesome if there was a second part to this video showing how you tracked down the draw after figuring out what circuit it was on.

Real slick man i woud have never thought to watch volt drop across fuses thanks for posting

Thanks a lot! Recently my car drained out battery over night. After watching your video I've found that ABS is draining almost 2 amps. It turned out that ABS fuse and contacts in fuse box has been oxidized. Also last few months ABS light on dashboard popped out a lot. Now I know what was causing that.

Great tips, many thanks sandy

Wow such a detailed amazing video by far the most efficient and reliable video

This is an excellent video. That probably all of us have had to dealt with at some point, or even currently (battery drain). Will refer to this video.

my Honda Odyssey developed a parasite. This video gave me a lot of info. much appreciated. Keep up the good work!

Best vid so far. Thanks.

Good advice...I didn't know I could check those types of fuses like that...thanks

Super helpful. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.

Thank you sir, following your teaching, I was able to identify the problem, faulty radio circuit.

hey this is good video, strait to the point and informed, good job

I've just subscribed & rang the notification bell. Your video was my guide in tracking down a parasitic grain on my neighbors vehicle. Thank you. I've searched for a Battery Disconnect switch, however, I was unable to find one with small pins for connecting small alligator clamps to it.

Thanks man, you'r plan works, I had the same problem in South Africa

I've heard the rule of thumb vary from 30mA to 50mA. It really depends on the spec range of the car. Good vid.

Great video not confusing at all, great job Thank You.

Good video. One small observation and you fixed this at the end of the video but didn't point it out. When using vice grips, don't connect the meter lead to the handle that releases it. That handle is loose and floats on pins so it may not provide a good connection which could give erroneous readings. It is much better to connect to one of the outside handles or better yet, one of the jaws touching the post. Thanks for the video.

Check voltage drop on each battery post to its respective cable as well... Nice video, and thanks for your time

Superb!!!!! Just sorted my 2 cars. Thanks

Excellent video, best I've seen. I sure wish you guys could work on my Ford Escape, no one around here has a clue how to find and fix this problem.

Wow. That is very smart. Thanks for the power. Information is power.. one less trip to the mechanic

Awesome video..Thank you for your time and knowledge.

by far the best explanation on KZfaq.

Fabulous camerawork and commentary. TX a lot!

Justin I own a Euro shop and have fought with under dash fuses trying to hold both leads with a single hand and making a good contact across the fuse while watching the meter for years. It's like holding chopsticks and after 40 fuses or so behind a glove box your hand will have cramps and you will be ready to say screw this car. I was looking for a better lead to bridge the fuses in tight spaces and stumbled across a very smart technique from another techs thinking out loud that changed the game. They make things like the calvan amp hound and tweezer type connectors to make it easier to get on both sides of the fuse but under a dash it's still a royal pain. So here it is. Find an empty fuse hole in the block that is live with key off on the power buss side and stick a spade connector in it. Run it to your plus side of your tester. If you can't find this just run the lead to any battery plus connection up to and including the battery +. Now you can test all the fuses in the block with only the negative lead in hand having only to make one connection on the cold side of the fuses. Readings are identical to checking across each individual fuse. There will be a third thing you will see though besides dead zero and a small miliamp reading. When you check a fuse that is not hot with the key on you will usually get some type of a ground through the consumer on the circuit and your meter will read out of range for miliamps. This doesn't matter though because this circuit is not hot with the key off and isn't a suspect in your hunt for the parasitic draw. You can eliminate it. Enjoy!

great video Justin Miller. I have found that on older cars that have had a remote car starter installed that it is the remote starter box that is drawing current. Seems when they get old they don't shut down or something. Check that the alternator isn't the problem. I'm just working on a semi with 4 -1125 amp batteries that go dead in a week.

What a great video, helped to finally understand how to do this.

when you found the circuit that was leaking voltage, why didn't you pull the fuse to see if the amp draw dropped?

Nice tip, good for learning tip.....thank you.. well straight forward..

Good video but i've been taught at the nissan training center not to completely remove the battery terminal until the dmm is connected in series. This way you dont accidentally kill a intermmitent drain for example a relay

Great tips - IR thermometer gun works good as well but not on small ma. draws.

Very clear instructions a well done helpful clip thanks a million

Thanks for making this video it absolutely helped! 👍👍

Thank you for the video,, easy and true.

Thank you. That was excellent with an absolute minimum of idle chat and all of the details needed to do it right. And ditto to "urdu learner" the next step would be a useful followup video - yeah I realize every fuse leads down a different rabbit hole ... but maybe one of the simpler or most common ones?

You should have connected red (+) voltmeter connector to ground (-) connector of vehicle and the black (-) voltmeter connector to the negative (-) connector of the battery to avoid getting a negative value reading like you show us. Also you mentioned about the door latch to be closed so that the car thinks it is closed and ECU's go to sleep, but you might need the trunk open as well (if you have a 3rd fuse panel which is in the trunk) and also you need to close the hood latches as well. Thanks and good luck!

very clear and well done. Thanks. Is there a follow up showing how to fix problems?

Subscribed! Thank you man! Really!

This is such a great video but did you find out where the drain was coming from!? The suspense was killing me! 😂

great one, thank! from vietnam :D

Great video great explanation thank you your tips are awesome very grateful that you sharing this with us

Very good video, question is where I can buy the battery shutoff switch? And cost?

Thank you for the tip.

great video bro explained so simple nice job

Always set your meter higher than you expect the current or voltage to be, then you can set it lower if needed. Unless you have an autoranging multi meter you could damage the meter if you set it to low.

Great explanation Subscribed

Good Morning Justin Miller take care and have a great day Justin Miller Thanks 👍 Tutorial great 👍 👍 👌 👏 From Nick Ayivor from London England UK 🇬🇧

Great video thanks!

What do all the blue and pink things do the look like a relay of some kind 24 of them thanks ...

Good..clear.. video!

hi and thanks for the video it helped a lot , but quick question how do I fix it once I diagnosed the broken fuse? ( I'm not a mechanic btw, so pardon me if I sound ignorant)..

Thank you for your intuitive information I currently have a situation with my 2016 Ford Explorer it is having a parasitic draw on the PCM power relay I currently check fuses I pulled the 10 amp fuse that looks like the one in your video in the exact same position in the relay finally Powers down just curious if you would have any information on that situation thank you

Do the larger almost square fuses (the ones in the right front corner of the video thumbnail) to the right of the relays, also have contacts on top to read voltage to detect a voltage drop?

that pair of pliers is going to add a resistance, which will effect the readings, pliers are also coated so not going to get a good connection.

thank you amazing explanation

You pulled the pigtail of the hood switch, now put one wire in both pigtail whole to trick the car to think the hood is closed. thanks bill

great video... I've been having a drain problem on my 2012 Camry. How do you keep from activating the car alarm each time you reconnect the battery? I finally disconnected the horns on my Camry to at least not have to listen to them. Is there a better way?

Thank you for your good and comprehensive video. If I may, have two questions to ask you about this video. 1) When you disconnect the negative battery terminal from car, then all electrical should not be functioning. Why should one be concern about the door of the car being closed? Once one of the terminals of the battery is disconnected then there should not be any current passing through wires. Am I correct? 2) Why did you connect the red terminal, the positive terminal of the volt meter to the disconnected ground terminal of the battery? Thank you

PRODIGY Justin Miller My teacher Amazing what you know thank you very much for sharing what you know Take care and have a great day PRODIGY Justin Miller From Nick Ayivor from London England UK 🇬🇧

Justin, I don't think you can measure current across an un-blown fuse. it's the same as touching your two probes together. You "can" measure current across the fuse socket after you pull the fuse.

What kind of leads are you using? Not the alligator clips but the actual leads on you dvom? Look different than the ones on my fluke.

Hi Justin Please help, I am facing a Parasitic Drain on my Elantra, i have 300 mA drain, i used a different technique of pulling fuses, and noticed that the "memory fuse" alone drain 100 mA, alone with some other AC fuses. I checked the items related to each fuse, and made sure all is turned off, but still drain available and it is too high! The funny part sometimes it drains and sometimes it doesn't, so sometimes when i turn on the car in the morning, it starts, and sometimes not, although i make sure everything turned off after switching the car off at night! What would you recommend me to do next?

Very nice..my car 45 ah draw .05 amp on parasitic test when all doors are closed and everything is off. Is this too high since it drains very quickly in just 3 days only?????

Great Video, but I have a question about the voltage drop across the fuse. Wouldn't you want to check the fuse using a multimeter with the ground being on the neg cable and then touch each fuse instead of trying to get a voltage drop across the fuse? Aren't you just measuring the drop of voltage across the fuse and not the voltage drop across the circuit?

Find your videos helpful keep them coming .😁

great video thanks

So what was the source of that drain?

thank you for this video! would it be possible that one of those jcase fuses is our culprit for parasitic draw or short, if so how do you test it? thanks again!

What about if you don't have a second multimeter? Do you then just hook the battery back up before you start testing the fuses? Also, with your setup of the multimeter being in series, will that have any effect on the results of the fuse testing?

Good video, I also just watched erics. Im actually going crazy with my truck. It can sit for 1-2 weeks and start fine but then the next day it has a dead battery. I have put in a new alternator and battery. Have also had it at 2 different garages. No one can figure it out. Im starting to lose my mind.

(1991 Chevy S10) Doing the amp draw test, I got a .84 amp draw. I pulled every single fuse, and no drop in amp draw. I then checked the charging system, it appears good, but was jumpy, so I disconnected all the leads to the alt, (possible bad diode) and I still got a .84 amp draw. Can a starter draw .84 amps and still be a working starter? My next guess is to check all the leads to the starter, and disconnect it to see if it's the culprit. The only lead I can't check is a fusable link running from the alt to the solenoid, by disconencting the cables at the starter, how do I check this link, resistance? And, how do I decide if it's the starter without taking the starter off the vehicle?

Thanks battery cutoff switch is useful.

sir pls show any videos regarding automatic transmission

do you have to have the first multimeter connected to the battery terminal/cable to test the fuses?

great video, thanks Justin!!.. I"m wondering, what was the problem? What did that Fuse go to?.,.. thanks..

Great video, going to try to find out why my nissan qashqai is draining the battery through this method, but what do you do after you find a fuse that is draining the battery. do you change it, take out for good, how do you fix this problem, any thoughts?