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I got a 99 honda civic ex in march, and the battery drains overnight.
The first battery was fine for a few months, then went dead, which happened soon after disconnecting fuse #23 to the srs air bags. Now the red srs light stays on all the time when I'm driving, but seems to go off when the car is off, so I don't know if that is the problem. The new battery keeps draining fast the same way that the old one started doing.

My first question is if I'm using the multimeter the right way. With the black wire in com and the red wire in 20A, nothing shows up in any of the 20/200m/20m/2m settings. Moving the red wire to mA, and the wheel to 20, shows .62 to 1.01 <--> is this amps?

If someone can answer that question, then I will start testing the fuses.

 
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By the way, I'm not driving the car. I leave it in the garage with the cables disconnected, because of the drain, and give it a good charge once a week.

A test of the volts shows 13.14 terminal to terminal, 13.14 clamp to clamp, and 13.14 from the positive clamp (or terminal) to the negative bolt on the frame of the car. The cables don't tighten very well (I can pull them off) but appear to not be losing any drain. I'm planning to get new cables.

 
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Sounds like a parasitic draw. Search youtube for a good how-to vid. They also have vids for how to operate a multi-meter. If you still can't figure the multi-meter out take a pic and post it.

You can also find MelJ and download the service manual from his sig.

 
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If you find the answer to my question from youtube, let me know.

Got it, thanks. However the microsoft file doesn't work on Linux.

 
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^^ Yeah, it's amps.

I'm thinking the SRS could very well be draining your battery. The SRS system has a capacitor that stays fully charged when it's connected to the electrical system and still pulls voltage when the system is off so the airbags will work even when the battery is disconnected during a crash. It thinks there's a problem and continues to draw power, thus draining your battery.

 
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start pulling fuses one by one til you find something that stops the extra draw.

 
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http://www.ehow.com/how_5073254_meas...ultimeter.html

you need to connect the probes in-line with the power system, meaning remove the + battery clamp, attach red probe to the clamp and black probe to the + battery terminal. its been a while but i think thats how i did it.

 
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Thanks very much!

Do you have an idea of how I can disconnect the capacitor?

 
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Will do. I'm excited to finally be doing this.

Actually I'm putting the probes between the negative terminal and clamp.
I think it doesn't make any difference, except the ground clamp is safer in case of a short.

The ehow page states:
"The low-reading terminal may be identified as 300mA, which gives readings
in milliamps; 1 milliamp equals .001 amps. (Divide) by 1,000 to get the figure in amps."
But 1.01 / 1000 =.00101 amps. It would make more sense to be 1.01 amps.

 
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its easier to think of 1 amp being 1000 mA. and yeah negative terminal should work also.

 
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Lazlong & Gearbox, thanks much for your messages.
Here are the results of checking the hood fuse box next to the battery this morning.

.62 amps - total drain
.10 amps - #10 - 7.5A - interior light
.40 amps - #12 - 7.5A - back up & radio
.12 amps - #13 - 20A - door lock, roof

That adds up to the .62 amps. This is good progress.
I'm not sure what to do now, in lieu of leaving the fuses out.

Any ideas, let me know. Thanks