GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hey guys, I am going to buy an ammeter sometime this weekend and I was wondering whether anyone know how to install them. I thought it might be good to know before hand so I can put it in sooner rather than later. I'm getting one for the reason that my battery keeps going dead (I drive my car maybe once every week and a half) so I suspect a short somewhere in the car. I'm gonna double check everything and disconnect stuff to see if that affects the flow from the battery and see if I can figure out whats draining all the juice from the battery

Simplest way to do this... What kind of ammeter do you have? Like..a gauge, or a multimeter?Typically the way it works is it has to be wired in the middle of a circuit, so if you wanted to see what the WHOLE CAR was pulling, you'd run it between the battery and the wiring coming from the battery. I'd suggest NOT doing this, however, because that can amount to a lot of current. You can use a multimeter, however, and carefully track down the circuit that's causing you problems. Basically by doing the same thing. With the car off, disconnect the positive of the battery. Connect one side of the meter to the battery, and the other to the removed wiring. If it reads more than like... 0.1 or 0.2, you might have a problem.If so, you would basically have to go fuse by fuse to determine where the issue is. You would need to take out the fuse for each circuit, and somehow get the terminals of the meter into the fuseholder, to see what circuit is drawing power.

Well I haven't bought it yet but it's probably going to be a guage, and I want to be able to see if the battery is being drained (even for future use after I fix the short). I suspect a few things that could be causing it so finding the problem shouldn't be too difficult. I just want to be able to tell in the future if something is draining the battery so I can fix it before the battery goes dead (I'd assume it's also a good way to tell if your alternater is working while the car is on)

Well..you need an ammeter that can handle at least probably 150 amps, if not 200. The way this works is you have to reroute power for the car through the meter, which means running two (at least) 4 guage lines from the engine compartment to the gauge, unless you can find one with a remote sender. So it'd have to go battery -> gauge -> car wiring. An ammeter with that large a scale, you'd probably never notice the 1-5 amps that you might be losing. It doesn't really help with the alternator either.You can tell if the alternator is good with a voltage meter. With the car not running, the battery should sit around 12 volts, when running, it should read 14, with varience.For the stuff you're trying to do, you need a multimeter with a 20a ammeter option. At least to hunt down your problem.

I have multimeter so I can find the problem, but I wanted something that I could attach somewhere in the car to see how much energy its eating up when the car isn't on (so basically running off the battery) is there any way to do that without the large pain in the @ss you described? Like the old battery gauges they used to have in Ford Explorers and cars from the mid 90's the showed the + or - amps

I think your best bet would be an automotive volt gauge at pep boys or something, but instead of hooking it up to switched power, hook it up to constant, then see what your power draw is with the car off. As said, if it's anything over 0.2 or 0.3 volts, you got something pulling power that shouldn't be...

I know it's annoying. The ammeter will help you most by determining IF the system is charging (and how much) while driving.I took another approach for the '84 VW 'vert I own. It already has an ammeter in the factory gauge cluster, so I know it's charging when I'm driving it, but the battery still discharges over time. I seldom drive it except in the summer, so I installed one of those 'quick disconnects' for the battery. They're probably less expensive than any other solution, beginning at about US$12.00http://www.calcarcover.com/pro...id=29Here's a link to more electrical system products for cars that aren't driven often -->http://www.calcarcover.com/pro...id=29

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That's something I've considered buying, but they aren't ideal if you have a radio that freaks out when the power is yanked (as does my Pioneer )

Yeah, honestly didn't think about that. The only thing my '84 is it loses the radio stations and the time on the clock. Pretty stone-age technology by comparison to the Vibe, I'm sure. The Vibe ECU would be constantly re-setting too.This $80 one (allegedly) auto-disconnects only when the power (amps?) drops below some pre-set threshhold, and auto-reconnects when you turn the key. If the battery was dead, you'd be jump-starting it anyway.http://www.calcarcover.com/pro...id=29Did anyone mention getting the 500(or whatever # it is) cca battery in place of the factory 310cca?

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Yeah thats my current solution (or sort of). I always keep my tool kit in the back seat of the car so whenever the car isn't running so I can just use the ratchet to disconnect the wires on one side. I also made a rubber cap for the terminal to make sure nothing metal touches it

I have a battery drain on my 85 vette which was driving me nuts. I isolated the wiring problem to be in the power windows/seat/dome light circuit by disconnecting one lead on the battery, hooking up my multimeter between the battery and the negative lead on the car, then began pulling and replacing fuses until I found the circuit that was the culprit. (I haven't fixed the problem yet, just have removed the fuse till I can fix it)

Actually...Coho's way of finding the leaky circuit is the easiest. You don't need to test by using the multimeter fuse by fuse, hook it up the way he did, and then just go through and pull each fuse until you find the leak. Though, be careful around the SRS fuses..

Hehe *POP!* Doh! that'll cost me a bit of money to reset....

Quote, originally posted by Smokin’ Rubber »Hehe *POP!* Doh! that'll cost me a bit of money to reset....Don't forget the cost for new SIR modules, and probably a new windshield cause when those fly open, they tend to shatter it...Wish I had pics of my Sunfire...that thing was DEMOLISHED!

ive read on a few different boards about groundwires draining batteries.i dont know how . but its a free and easy check. just take them off for a week.

I intend too. So of all the recent things I thought of that could cause electrical problems...1. Wires touching somewhere near sub amp (though it doesn't appear like any are)2. Wires in back of radio are slightly loose and contacting other wires3. Ground wires some how causing a minor short4. Wiring for LCD and Xbox the runs through the dash somehow came loose (not likely I did a very pro job on the install of the wires and they are tied down well).5. In dash lighter (I swear at some point it must have arced because the part the comes out was stuck in there almost like it got welded inside and took ALOT of force to get out. So its possible the connections in the lighter fused and are shorting)Thats my list thus far. I really hope its not a stock component of the car thats hard to get to because the car is barely 2 years old and only has like 11,000 miles on it unlike an '85 Vette which has had some time for stuff to become loose.

1) Good to check2) Also good to check3) If you disconnect the ground wire..you..won't get any draw. That's because if the ground isn't connected, the circuit can't complete. This is kinda a 'false positive' test, as you'd get the same result if you unplugged the positive terminal4) Possible5) Unlikely, the indash cig lighter only comes on with the ignition, so unless it's somehow showing power with the key off, it's not going to get any power to drain.Typically, the things that cause drain are: Corrosion, and loose connections. So keep an eye out for either of those. If wires are 'touching' and shorting, more than likely you'd have bigger problems anyway.

Well for the ground wires, you are correct except that typically the battery only has one ground wire attached which is bolted the chassis right underneath there the battery rests. So it's possible that with the car off (and the ignition not pulling in the power) one of the other ground wires that attaches to the engine near (within 3-4" i think) where the positive ignition terminal is could be drawing power through the engine block itself and "shorting" although obviously this would be hard to notice due to the fact that that little electricity traveling that far through thick metal would not produce noticeable effects besides possibly draining the battery.I dunno if that logic is correct but I would think it is possible

Eh..give it a try...it could be anything..