draw on battery when van is off

[colins84]

Here is a stumper.

When my van is turned off, there is an 11.68V draw on the battery. All the equipment in my 1985 Westfalia is standard. No inverters, no new interior lights. No Aux batteries. Nothing plugged into the cigarette lighter.

My battery is fairly new. 1.5 years old

I guess my problem is, I don't even know where to start to try to sort this out. It has become such a big issue that I now either have to jump start, or pop the clutch to get the van going.

Any help would be much appreciated.
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia (Subaru EJ25 w/ Peloquin)
1986 Vanagon GL (2.2L)

[toomanyveedubs]

you are going to need an electrical meter that can measure \dc amps to sort this out.

one thing you can try if you cant measure amps, pull all the fuses and see if it comes back up above 12V if you suspect there is a electrical draw causing this. the other thing to do is have the alternator checked out. how many volts at the battery when the van is running?

[CaptTurbo]

No help for you except to tell you that I have a similar problem with my '87 930 turbo cabriolet. It eats batteries like potato chips and I need to unhook the battery unless I want it to drain. It has been suggested to me that the alternator could have a short which could cause this. I plan to get back to it after I finish bankrupting myself getting the Syncro back to proper order.

[randywebb]

connect a multimeter in between the battery and the main power cable - be sure it can measure current (amperage) as noted above

measure the milliamp draw, then start pulling fuses - start with the car stereo, and the alarm system that some PO hacked into the wiring system somewhere incovenient to get to
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1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans.

[Wellington]

search this, radio #1 victim. Try unplugging the radio first and see if it goes away.

[colins84]

SOOO. after pulling the fuses 1 by 1, the culprit is the 3rd red fuse from the left. That is 9 fuses from the left. What does this fuse give power to?

I looked at my manual to try and find out what this fuse powers. No success.

After looking at other's fuse panels, I am not sure I have the correct fuses in place.

from the left to right:
6 - 8A fuses, 4 - 16A fuses, 2 - 8A fuses

is this correct?
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia (Subaru EJ25 w/ Peloquin)
1986 Vanagon GL (2.2L)

[colins84]

Well, I didn't look hard enough in the manual.

Wiring Diagram. Radio Connector. Good call Wellington.

thanks to the rest for the help on getting solving this!
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia (Subaru EJ25 w/ Peloquin)
1986 Vanagon GL (2.2L)

[morymob]

My westy was without working radio,in safe mode, installed a new one and pwr to presets, standby ckt etc drawing down batt, removed radio fuse 4 these ckts, easy to search for a station as i don't use radio much.

[joseph928]

I had this problem with my radio. Now I just take off the face plate at night and all is well!
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1987 syncro westy tin top sun roof , GW2.3, rear locker, decoupler, Gary Lee tire rack & winch mount, lift, south african grill, big brakes , rhein alloy ,15 BFG AT, Fiamma 10 foot awning ,140 watt rear 85 watt front solar , mppt, truckfridge, automatic fire extinguishing system, tencent oil cooler, And a RMW SS exhaust! - 1971 bug convertible 1776 engine- 2010 Subaru turbo - 1993 Toyota 4x4 truck - 1999 Harley 95 CI, big bore, Andrews cams . Also 80-84- vans. Stock 65 sunroof bug.

[davlance01]

Old post but for the future readers I had the same issue and it turned out that the previous owner had a radio power amp installed which pulled too many amps and melted a toggle switch that was behind the passenger seat.

Hope it helps somebody out there.

Dave
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Life is short and the road is long so if you want to see it all you have to drive fast!