SOLVED 04 XC90 another parasitic draw

Dust101496 said:

Alright here's an update. Tested the car again today and now I'm baffled. I did this twice too. Reconnected the battery, let the car warm up and shut her off. Opened up the hood, trunk and driver door and closed the latches and the car went to sleep. Waited 15min, then carefully hooked up my meter and slid the ground off the battery. Read .002A. I may buy another meter... I then proceeded to pull every single fuse and relay in the trunk, driver's panel, and under the hood. No changes at all. I did that twice. So now I've got a random draw that is sneaky. I decided to investigate around the scm area, looks like someone may have been in there before. I didn't pull the tire but the rivets on the wheel well were drilled out. If they replaced the scm I'd have my alarm sound back correct? I also did some testing on my alternator which was interesting. Not sure if this is normal:
Alt charge cold idle 14.38-14.49
14.40ish warmed up at idle, max and min readings were 14.1 jumped to 15 (voltage went down to 14.1 then jumped to 15 and then evened out around 14.4 again). I tried to do that ACV test and here's what I got: ACV . ~.02-.03 bouncing and occasional jump to .1v don't know if that indicates anything about my alternator diodes. Anybody got a guess or a direction to go next? Posted some pics, that's my wife's hands FYI definitely not mine 😂 also if I'm using my meter wrong please roast me View attachment 134946 View attachment 134947

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The upper picture shows the meter selected for small battery testing, but seems to be showing DCV. The dial should be turned to DCV, if you are trying for that. The way it is connected could result in the meter popping a fuse, or frying the meter if the headlights or starter were engaged, as the meter is in series with the battery and the load.. To simply measure battery voltage, touch the red lead to the positive terminal and the black lead to negative when DCV is selected and the leads are in the appropriate sockets. There may be a difference in the readings using the other modes.
The meter isn't hooked up quite right in the lower pic. The dial is set to DC 10A, but the red lead is not in the correct socket for that function. The meter seems to be reading mA values, and the red lead is in the correct socket for that function, although not selected by the dial. I wouldn't take it for granted, though. Generally, the extra 10A socket will be for a fuse protected connection. It could be that if the meter is switched to the mA detent, the reading will be the same, except for the decimal places will be moved over.
I looked for a manual for that meter to explore the finer points, but no joy.
It may be a good idea to do a little refresher on using that multimeter. There are many videos available:
Some may have misinformation, so beware, and skim the comments.
There's a thread here somewhere about a poster doing a current draw test, and it covered all the bases well. The big problem is that there has to be enough voltage and current available to lock the car. Accomplishing that is harder than it sounds because all the doors and hatches must be closed and the locks triggered with the remote. Only then will the system go to sleep with one eye open. That may be more current than the multimeter can handle, as all the lights and locks are powered simultaneously when that happens. A possible method would be to string heavier wiring with a switch in it to an open rear window, and the meter wired in parallel to the bypass so that it will read what happens when the baby is put to bed.
I hope this doesn't come across as a "roast", as I still think "every day is a school day" in my senior years. I look forward to new lessons every day!

There may still be a problem with the rear hatch open, keeping systems awake. Especially the dome light circuit. Dunno about the '04, but mine dims and times out the dome lights, which is a function controlled by an electronics module (CEM, REM, UEM?). That would be exacerbated by opening doors and pulling fuses. Part of the door-open sensor business is getting a DIM warning. Maybe try closing the switch, starting the car, and checking for open door/hatch messages. Then, maybe try opening the tailgate and closing the hatch to see if there's a message. The problems others have found is having the car truly "asleep" and with lowest current draw when testing.
Otherwise, I would re-visit the battery. New doesn't mean good. Now that you have an isolation switch, charge it well overnight, them flash off the surface voltage by starting the car. Then, shut it off and disconnect the battery. Measure the voltage directly from the terminals, and leave it alone overnight. Then, measure the voltage again. If there is a drop in voltage, continue to monitor it and see if it is the battery itself that is self-discharging. If there is a warrantable issue with the battery, I would pay the difference to get the larger battery that fits, preferably an AGM.