Battery Getting Drained

[Matts05runner]

The original owner of our 4Runner had a Viper alarm system and remote start installed. The remote start was nice on the rare occasion that I used it. Now that we don't drive the 4Runner daily anymore, the battery is too weak to start the engine after it sits for about a week. I'm guessing the after market remote start/alarm is contributing to draining the battery.

Anyone have experience with Viper systems draining batteries? Any solutions beside removing it altogether?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[black4vcobra]

The original owner of our 4Runner had a Viper alarm system and remote start installed. The remote start was nice on the rare occasion that I used it. Now that we don't drive the 4Runner daily anymore, the battery is too weak to start the engine after it sits for about a week. I'm guessing the after market remote start/alarm is contributing to draining the battery.

Anyone have experience with Viper systems draining batteries? Any solutions beside removing it altogether?

Thanks,
Matt

The wife has a '16 Accord Sport and it would have cost like $3500 more for an EX that has remote start. For Xmas in 2016 I got an aftermarket remote start installed (I think it was Viper) and by June of this past year the battery was shot. It never failed to start the car until that day and then after that it wouldn't take a charge.

I did a little digging and it sounds like this is a common problem for aftermarket remote start systems. Since her car is a 4 cylinder it has a tiny battery (like 400 CCA's I believe). I ordered the battery tray and tie down for the V6 Accord and installed a bigger battery. We haven't had a problem since.

I know it doesn't solve your problem but a battery upgrade might help.

 

[gshadow325]

The wife has a '16 Accord Sport and it would have cost like $3500 more for an EX that has remote start. For Xmas in 2016 I got an aftermarket remote start installed (I think it was Viper) and by June of this past year the battery was shot. It never failed to start the car until that day and then after that it wouldn't take a charge.

I did a little digging and it sounds like this is a common problem for aftermarket remote start systems. Since her car is a 4 cylinder it has a tiny battery (like 400 CCA's I believe). I ordered the battery tray and tie down for the V6 Accord and installed a bigger battery. We haven't had a problem since.

I know it doesn't solve your problem but a battery upgrade might help.

your accord has a notoriously small battery. look closely and see you can fit a much larger battery in there. honda is a bunch of penny pinching @sses. its a common arguement i have with service department for 2 of the honda dealers i do work for.

OP your battery is probably at its end of its life. the alarm remote starter doesnt help the situation either. yes there is a residual draw and can kill the best batteries in a week. once its been toasted, it will progressively get worse and worse.

 

[Bumbo]

Either remove the alarm or just get a battery tender / maintainer and use that as a solution.

I know you have a good handle on it, but I would at least confirm the alarm is the cause for parasitic drain then proceed with a solution. It’s a pretty simple test with plenty of online examples with how to do it.

Personally, I would just throw a maintainer on it and move on, very simple solution for a garaged vehicle. You don’t have to use it everyday, but if you are going to let it sit, connect it.

I like the ones from battery tender and Noco Genius. Both inexpensive and effective.

 

[Bumbo]

Also +1 on what [MENTION=93434]gshadow325[/MENTION] said… because of this punishment, the battery itself is probably running in a degraded state, compounding the problem.

 

[RonJR]

To drain a healthy 80 AH hour battery in a week requires well over 100mA (.1A) of parasitic current. If your remote starter is drawing that kind of current while sitting idle, it's a poorly designed piece of crap and I would personally chuck it into the nearest garbage bin.

Last time I changed the battery on my '06, I connected a bench 12V supply to keep all the presets happy while I had the battery disconnected. I believe the current draw on the supply showed about 2mA. That's an acceptable parasitic draw; > 100mA is not.

 

[Bumbo]

To drain a healthy 80 AH hour battery in a week requires well over 100mA (.1A) of parasitic current. If your remote starter is drawing that kind of current while sitting idle, it's a poorly designed piece of crap and I would personally chuck it into the nearest garbage bin.

Last time I changed the battery on my '06, I connected a bench 12V supply to keep all the presets happy while I had the battery disconnected. I believe the current draw on the supply showed about 2mA. That's an acceptable parasitic draw; > 100mA is not.

Not really related to the OP, but it made me think of this "one time at electrical band camp".

I helped a friend with his BMW M Coupe it kept going dead because it's not his daily driver... after not listening to me and 3 AMG batteries later I told him to bring it over and let me measure the draw.

100% bone stock car, 300mA, sitting there, doing nothing at all. I couldn't believe it, I actually though something was wrong with my clamp amp meter.

To make matters worse, that 300mA is only after it "sleeps" otherwise its drawing closer to 0.9 amps.

I was just surprised to see such inefficient in the electrical system of a factory car.

I agree with finding the closest dumpster, but a low end 750mA tender would solve the OPs problems without much trouble at all.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LX3AS6/ref=twister_B01M0PWX9Y?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[gshadow325]

[MENTION=134884]RonJR[/MENTION] you taking about completely draining it to zero? 4th get will not start when it hits 11.5 volts that can be accomplished in 3 days or less with anything.

 

[RonJR]

More detail on what I meant: There are 168 hours in a week. Dividing 80 amp hours (the typical size of a 4runner battery) by 168 hours gives .47 amps required to drain the battery completely in 1 week. So, 100mA is about 1/5 of that, which the battery should survive and still start the vehicle. My point was, the OP has a battery drain of at least 100mA, probably more, to kill his battery in a week. Any self-respecting engineer should be able to design a remote start accessory that doesn't draw anywhere near that in an idle state.

Also note that a battery measuring 11.5 volts at rest is considered pretty close to 100% discharged.

A lot of us regularly park our vehicles at a trailhead for a week while we backpack into the backcountry. We'd be pretty disappointed if the battery was dead when we got back and we couldn't get into town to get a cold one.

 

[Bumbo]

Since we are on the subject of state of charge / depth of discharge... I felt this might help.

Generally speaking for more lead acid / AGM type cells, you never want to exceed 50% depth of discharge. Going past that level for extended periods of time, you will start to sulfate the plates cause a degradation in overall life and performance.

Cells that have a high amount of degradation and still show a full charged voltage may appear healthy, but it’s the voltage drop under load that would be the problem. This is why some cells that appear healthy won’t start a car, it simply can’t deliver the current required.

 

[Matts05runner]

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. I'll try to get a reading on the parasitic draw to see what it actually is. I'll also test with the remote start disconnected to see how the battery acts without it drawing power.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Bumbo]

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. I'll try to get a reading on the parasitic draw to see what it actually is. I'll also test with the remote start disconnected to see how the battery acts without it drawing power.

Thanks,
Matt

Matt,

Do you by any chance have a DMM / Digital Multimeter?

You can measure the voltage over time, but if you can measure the amp draw, you would be able to answer these questions a lot faster.

A DMM is a necessary piece of equipment for trouble shooting parasitic draw. In a nut-sheet, instead of measuring voltage with the meter in parallel, you switch the meter into AMPS, and connect it in series to the power circuit.

You can then take a reading with and without the remote start unit connected, and you would have you answer real fast.

Bumbo