How to test for a draw.

[Goose350]

What is the correct way to test for a draw? I have heard many ways of doing this but which way is correct?

[GoldieStroker944]

i was told from a ford dealer that you unhook one of the negitave battery cables and hook a fluke meter to the cable and neg post and see how many amps are there

[Goose350]

What setting would I use on the meter and what type of values should I be seeing?

[GoldieStroker944]

Originally Posted by Goose350

What setting would I use on the meter and what type of values should I be seeing?

not sure on a 6.0 if there is any difference to my 7.3 but i believe he told me anywhere from 3-6 amps would show up all the time anymore than that then there is something wrong...

[Goose350]

Originally Posted by GoldieStroker944

not sure on a 6.0 if there is any difference to my 7.3 but i believe he told me anywhere from 3-6 amps would show up all the time anymore than that then there is something wrong...

I will try it out

[symbols]

I've never checked a diesel before but generally anymore than 1 amp is considered to much from my experience. I don't see why diesels would be any different than gassers except you have 2 bats to drain instead of one.

[PreviousLife]

If you think the draw is pretty heavy you can use a battery charger. You could hook up the battery charger to the truck then unhook both batteries negative cable. If that show more than 1 amp it's too much. If your battery charger doesn't go low enough you need an amp meter that can read 2 to 3 amps. If the amps go over the meters ability you will pop the fuse in the meter. Maybe check with the battery charger first just to be safe.

[Davey~do]

Key off, door shut draw should only be in the milliamps. I did some nosing around when I thought I was having issues with my wife's 5.9 (turned out it was just 2 dead batteries) and found a good thread on the Cummins forum Parasitic Battery Drain that shows and tells you pretty much exactly how to isolate any problem. I know it's for a Dodge but the theory is exactly the same; only the values should be a bit different.

As well, check out this video Quad Cab Parasitic Draw for some additional info. It's pretty good stuff and helped me out a lot when I was troubleshooting my wife's truck.

[Goose350]

Thanks for the info.