Hey guys.I’m not much of a mechanic.
multi meter says the draw is like 12..5 volts
the batter was at 12.8 volts.I disconnected ground side and hooked it to my multi meter and am getting 12.5 .I also pulled all the fuses and the volts NEVER dropped.WTF
ALL the videos I watch find their problem by pulling fuses.
this is my elderly fathers truck and I’m trying to fix for him.
it’s an 03 Silverado 2500

 

Well, I don't think the voltage draw/drop is 12.5, this is probably the static voltage from the battery. Looking at a problem with dead battery in the morning you will see a slight MA drop (or check with voltage) after the key is off. Check the voltage then, and after 1/2 hour or so, check the battery voltage. Leave the ground to the battery connected. If you are using a digital vom, and voltage is dropping over time, you should be able to see that. Is this an issue with a totally dead battery in the AM? What is the battery status, new old? Could just be the battery.

 

Toddintacoma - in order to measure the parasitic current drain, you must insert the multimeter leads in series with one of the battery cable AND the multimeter MUST be set to the AMPS function. Because I do not know what multimeter you have, please let me ask you this - is it a digital multimeter (DMM) and what is the maximum current it can handle (check the instruction manual for your multimeter)?

If you determine that the multimeter can handle say 10 AMPs (which is a lot of current), set you multimeter up to measure 10 amps, and then connect the positive (likely red) test lead to the positive battery terminal, and the negative (likely black) test lead to the disconnected positive battery cable terminal. You should now see some type of meter deflection (if it is an analog meter) or a number (if it is a digital meter) in the display and that is the parasitic current drain.

Now, depending on the various AMP ranges on your multimeter, you might need to go from the 10 amp range down to the 500 milliamp (1/2 amp) range if the number in the display is less than 0.500 amp. (Remember that 1000 milliamps equals 1 amp).

Now you can go ahead and start pulling fuses to see what circuits are drawing current from the battery.

Hope this helps.

 

Ok I have a PT brand digital multi meter.
I will go out and try what you guys said.

 

Ok yes the battery is dead in the morning.
New battery and alternator.
I’ll go out and try again

 

Man I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
I check the battery.it’s at 12.8 volts then I unhook the negative side and hook my multi meter to both ends.one at the negative battery post and one to the cable that hooks to the negative post after I took the cable off the battery and am still getting 12.5 volts.
what am I doing wrong

 

Well, it's kind of tough to figure out exactly what you are doing with you being where you are and me being where I am. However, here is a link to basic operations using a multimeter:

https://openlibrary-repo.ecampusonta...al-multimeters

Read through it, and it should help you set up the multimeter to measure voltage, current or resistance.

Good luck!

 

You are trying to check current with the scenerio you post, you have the meter set to volts, that is your issue. You probably have also blown the fuse.

 

+3 what they said. you don't measure parasitic draw in the volts setting. Volts will only show you battery state of charge.

how fast the battery is draining is measured in amps and the meter must be placed inline with the circuit.