My vehicle is 2012 Chevy Impala V6 engine. After a about a three short trips in one week and a few days of non-driving, the battery was dead in the morning: 7 volts. Since it was 5 years old, I got a new battery. It started the car right away. The alternator's output was over 14 volts. I decided to perform parasitic draw test. It was 100 mA after the initial surge. After opening and closing power door locks which presumably armed anti-theft system, the current draw went up to 250 mA. I waited for 20 minutes to see if it would eventually go down, but it stayed at 250. Being an electrical engineer, I am pretty sure that I connected my multimeter properly for the test: between the negative battery cable and the battery's negative terminal. After two days in the garage, battery's voltage came from the initial 12.8v to 11.9v. I called dealership and talked to their service advisor. The advisor, who sounded like a very young person, scoffed at my concerns: "250 mA drain current? It's nothing to be worried about! 11.9v battery voltage? Not a big deal either. If your vehicle fails to start, then we will look into it"?????
Can the advisor saying that 250 mA drain current is OK be right and everyone on the internet saying that it's way too much be wrong?
My other question is if there a way to permanently disable anti-theft system on this vehicle?

 

usual parasitic drain is between 50 - 100 ma. 12.8 is new 100% battery voltage. 12.6 is 75%. 12.4 is 50%. 12.2 is 25%

 

50mamps is the max...that vehicle should probably drop to 15mamps in 5 minutes when the modules enter sleep mode. aftermarket remote starts systems will add at least 10mamps draw. remove any after market stuff or anything plugged into the vehicle. close all door and hood/trunk and retake the measurement...if over 50ma....time to start pulling fuses

 

Welcome to the GM hell I've been in for the last 9 months. I have a 2013 GMC Terrain that is in brand-new, showroom condition with 17k miles on it that has been kept inside a garage. Every square inch of this thing looks perfect. I have spent about 2 hours a day every day for months trying to solve this problem because I have heard from many other TERRAIN and EQUINOX owners that taking the car to a dealer results in no fix, being without the car for weeks and spending thousands only to have the problem come back - and - they always want to start with a new battery even though I have gone through this with 3 brand new fully-tested, good batteries that can be fully charged both in and out of the car. I have gone over every aspect of this car from the top and bottom with flashlights, mirrors and magnifying glasses, multimeters ground wire inspections, you name it. No matter what - the battery dies in 24 hours unless the car is taken out and driven for 20 minutes every single day. Took it to both autozone and advance and was told everything was fine. I've spent about 3 hours a day online on every car repair forum and watched every youtube video there is related to the issue - nothing. I am never buying another GM car as long as I live.

 

I have a neighbor with a Hyundai having the same problem. GM isn't the only one!