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Ok so I went to Vegas for this past week (and lost money lol). I come back and my battery is dead completely. No lights or anything. I knew I had some sort of drain. I used a voltmeter and plugged it to my negative terminal and negative wire and was getting a reading of .37 milliamps. I did some research and a car should be around .05 to be normal. I have a big drain. So I started pulling fusing and when I pulled the Back Up fuse my volts went from .37 to .04. I found the problem but I am not sure what the fuse is doing.

I have a Viper Alarm with the Two Way Pager which is spliced into my ignition wires. When I had the fuse out the alarm still worked. I also have a sound system which is on its own 2 gauge power wire. What is the main purpose of this fuse? Do I really need it? What can be causing so much drainage? Thanks

 
Rep Power: 263

To clean it up I think you're saying you have a drain of 0.37 amps or 370 milliamps. As you stated anything over about 40-50 mA is going to be too much draw. The backup fuse runs constant power to the radio, immobilizer control unit, data link connector, keyless receiver, gauges/instrument cluster, and multiplex control unit.

Since you have an aftermarket sound system I would start by checking the wht/red wire at your radio. Maybe try unplugging the radio and see if there is a change in current draw on your meter with the back up fuse in.

 
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Ok so I decided to hold of for a little bit on checking my drainage after finding out it is the back-up fuse. Well yesterday I haven't drove the car for 2 days and to my luck the battery was dead again. Now today will be my search for the drainage on that fuse. Can someone give me pointers on what to start ripping apart that is connected into that fuse? It will help my search adventure go faster. Thanks

 
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I think I found the problem for the drain. My Sirius unit was wired up wrong from what I believe. The red wire went to battery while the yellow went to acc when I checked the manual and it was the other way around. My drain is now .08 instead of .37. You guys think that was the problem?

 
Rep Power: 263

80mA isn't all that bad and I'm willing to bet the Multiplex Control unit wasn't in sleep mode for that test otherwise the reading would have been even lower. You might have nailed it. If so, congrats on a successful current draw test and resolve.

 
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Thanks for sticking with me christmaspie. I'll update this if any problem continues. I gave you a rep point for helping me out. Thanks again

 
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Hi there,
My 2004 Civic Coupe have also drainage problem since 6 months. Alternator was
new, and the drain is corresponding to under-hood fuse #9, which is same as you. I don't know is it multiplex control module? keyless entry problem (remote for keyless entry is aftermarket) or audio??
Could share some your experience to me?

Thanks,

Gary in Toronto, Canada 2008/11/8

 
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Well you need to check everything that is plugged into that fuse. What I did was have a friend use a multimeter and find the fuse that has the most drain. We began unplugging my equipment and when I unplugged my Sirius box it went to the normal level. I had the wires wrong so it was on 24/7 but I couldn't tell since it was just a box. Try that out.