Nissan auto question

[LCHIEN]

Gonna test the collective forum knowledge.

My son's 1996 Nissan Maxima has had a problem with the battery dying after a maybe 5-6 days of sitting unused. New battery last March, took it out and tested it OK last night, both with my load tester and the one at the auto parts store. In my experience a car with a fully charged battery can be left for several weeks and still be able to start it.

So I was thingking maybe a sneaky parasitic load (with the ingnition off) and we measured 130 mA with the engine and all lights off. Some quick internet searching (Battery FAQ) suggested typical parasitic load should be well under 75 mA.

So we start unplugging fuses to isolate circuit branches. The BCM fuse, when removed, caused the current to fall to ~ 25 mA (which I think is the correct parasitic load).

The BCM is apparently the Body Control Module, a computer responsible for controlling all the lights with a timer for when lights are left on unintentionally. This protects the car from dead batteries due to lights left on inadvertantly.

I found a couple of cryptic messages on Nissan user Forums that hinted at nearly similar issues. But no answers. Is the BCM failing to unload a relay that allows the lights to be on... the relay is draining the battery even w/o any lights being on?

Anyone have any knowledge, suggestions where to find a solution?

[Greg.B]

Check the battery ground cable and conection to frame.

[JSCOOK]

Loring,

By chance does the BCM also control the power door locks on your Nissan, or does ANY of his power door locks seem to "stick"?

[gjat]

How about an after-market radio/stereo?

[cabinetman]

Loring

I've got an SUV that has the feature that the interior lights come on when the outside door handles get pulled, and stay on for a minute or two after you exit. I was experiencing the same battery draw after a week or so of not driving. I turned the dash/interior dimmer light switch to off, if I drive at night, rotate it to the on position. It's the same switch that dims and brightens the dash lights and interior lights.

Since I've been doing that I don't have the low battery problem.



A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER - John Keats

[MikeMcCoy]

I had an Xterra that would occasionally turn the interior lights on but never enough to drain the battery.

[sacherjj]

While that is a fairly high parasitic load, a car battery should be able to carry that for more than a week. I also have a 1996 Maxima, that I bought used at 192k miles, with power everything and heated seats. I haven't seen this situation to help out. I also didn't think that the 96 had the auto off lights. Although I've never left mine on for more the 20 minutes, they stayed on without the keys in it for that long. He isn't leaving the lights on and using the battery dying as the auto off, is he.

[eezlock]

Nissan parasatic load....

Have you had any aftermarket accessories wired into the vehicle lately?
A friend of mine had one of those pop up screen dvd players installed in his Chevy Silverado pick up, and after it sat idle for a few days the same thing happened to him that happened to you. He had that piece of junk removed
re-installed his factory Delco radio and the problems disappeared.
Truth of the matter turned out to be, that the little numbnuts character who wired it in at the car stereo place didn't do it correctly, it has two positive
wire leads with inline fuses, (1) is suppost to be wired to a constant hot terminal for memory on radio/dvd and clock (2) second hot wire is suppost to be wired to switched hot terminal so that it doesn't drain power from the battery when vehicle is not running. After all was said and done, plus buying a new battery, he found out he was better off in the long run with original
factory installed equipment!

Might also want to check, remote start, door lock functions as well,
if so equipped....these things can and do go haywire sometimes and will
cause more headaches than they are worth! eezlock