Parasitic Drain

In this video, Garage Guru Mark Ingram walks you through how to properly diagnose a parasitic drain in your customer's vehicle.
For more information, visit our website at www.FMGarageGurus.com.
Like us on Facebook: / garagegurus
Follow us on Instagram: / garagegurus
For informational purposes only. We are not liable for any damages resulting from your reliance on this content.

[@Shiva-ld6bw]

Thanks for the perspective! I can listen to you all day my friend.

[@cassioabreu7376]

Great training material. Thank You very much for sharing!

[@whitetiger8652]

Excellent tutorial video!

[@chankokhoi4496]

This will save the time the way you teach is good 👍👍👍

[@jamesjones-xx1nx]

Great Way Of Teach... Thanks More Than Much....

[@goldcoastmotors37]

Good idea / approach! Thx 4 sharing.

[@steveanderson4553]

Excellent video !!

[@Procrastn8rsUnite2morrow]

Perfect..Thanks Mark!!!!!

[@DJ-tn7vj]

Excellent video

[@dougdrefus3554]

its not a wake up call as you pull the fuse - its a wake up call as you plug the fuse back in. Leave the fuse out as you check draw. Just remember where you took the fuse out

[@chankokhoi4496]

This can work!!!

[@AbuDujana692]

This makes sense....else, I was wondering on what did he say in the preamble.

[@E39M5SPEED]

Great video sir.

[@raulbotero982]

Excelent video.

[@frankvramos4956]

Gran video..

[@ACommenterOnYouTube]

1:30 Let me make some corrections here. Your meter is reading trickle voltage from ambient air. Tesla discovered electricity in the air, thats what the meter is picking up when your leads are exposed to open air. The potential difference between the 2 wires in the AIR ... Its not the cause of the meter, its what the meter was designed to pick up. Next, when you touch your leads to the fuse, you are essentially SHORTING out the wires so now the meter reads 0 volts on a dead fuse. Take your leads and short them out and watch that ambient air voltage go from X to 0. With an active fuse & current flowing across it, the meter will sense the electrons flowing between those 2 points on the fuse and show it to you as a voltage differential in the milli-volt range. But yes this is the best way to test for parasitic draw without pulling fuses to kick start something on.

[@ACommenterOnYouTube]

@@esaugalvez 🤣 👌 ok kid

[@ACommenterOnYouTube]

@@esaugalvez 🤣 yea ok kiddo 🤣

[@ACommenterOnYouTube]

@@esaugalvez bless your heart 🙏

[@mrcalico7091]

I don't understand, if the fuse isn't blown, how is he getting a voltage across a short (good fuse)?

[@ACommenterOnYouTube]

@@mrcalico7091 because he is reading the current flow across the fuse and that current flow is seen to the meter as a "voltage" aka a difference of potential between those 2 points. Its not a lot but its enough for the meter to see it as a voltage even though its technically not a voltage. So if you read like 150mV across the fuse while that circuit is active, shut that load OFF and watch that 150mV disappear.

[@chankokhoi4496]

Thank you very much Brother

[@davidweum]

Thanks Mark

[@vnesmuonnam]

Thank you

[@enockmakhathini]

I have got a problem on my 1989 Toyota Cressida, I performed the test as per the procedure and removed fuses one by one but the reading on my multimeter did not drop as it stayed on 12.45 ma. When I checked on the positive terminal of the battery I found that the thick white and red stripe wiring was connected directly to the positive battery terminal. I removed it and the voltage dropped to 0.03 ma.My problem is that I am wondering where must this wiring be connected then.

[@FitFrequencies]

Very informative

[@ContenidoGeneral]

I thought 50millamps was within specification not 25

[@nikhilchandrababu1342]

Great👍🏻

[@lacyfurmage8846]

On my 73 pinto, I unhook the stereo fuse so no drain there for memory/clock, but when I do the test with the light tester, the light just barely barley comes on for like 3-4 seconds then goes out.

[@DavidGutierrez-zi4dy]

thanks

[@altonrowell8137]

Cool.

[@MUHAMMADKHAN-pe7ez]

sir, if we can identify the culprit fuse(s) by multimeter, why we do need clamp meter??

[@FelixTheGhost]

How do you measure the fuses while they're still plugged in

[@Blakelikesfood]

There's little tiny exposed metal tabs on the face side you run your volt meter to.

[@Karrpilot]

Good luck trying to do this check on the sealed clear plastic fuses. Or some vehicles where one has to be a circus contortionist in order to access the inside fuse block.

[@dalix1951]

Yeah so easy right! Funny how they never mention all the other variables.

[@cbarkwell1000]

And he's evasive/ not Transparent on giving the audience a crystal clear picture of a lot of his investigations. Auto Professional background

[@1wtrahan]

Or in the trunk ,or floor board under front seat

[@Lambros_Stefaneas]

This is more complex diagnostic techniques. I will say, that the 80-90% of pasasitic draw, its covered from this video. And with low budget tools. For difficult cases, you can use thermal imaging camera ,which is a bit expensive tool.

[@snipersxxs]

I put on DC it give -11. 7 is that normal

[@user-pe8lg8vz3s]

Здравствуйте! Скажите пожалуйста какая марка и модель у этих токовых клещей?

[@csimet]

Great tip and frankly a much better way to diagnose. Just be sure you have and use quality meters that can read well down into the mV range (and mA range) and that you test them before use to make sure they are functioning properly. Bad leads will cause you many headaches! ;)

[@tuberider1171]

not being literate in electronics I'm curious as to how one tests for bad leads - any chance of an explanation please?

[@DependableAutoTruck]

what amp clamp were you using

[@jumper233]

The ES688 I believe. About $200

[@bobsue3639]

How do you measure voltage drop on a J style, box fuse?

[@crazycadillacman]

ThAts a very good question

[@ACitizenOfOurWorld]

The method would not work for those. Ford has a tech bulletin that states as much. It's one of the limitations of this method.

[@bobsue3639]

@@ACitizenOfOurWorld Thanks for the update, appreciate it!

[@batkotivalio4876]

how about your clamp meter? Can you tell us the model and the brand.

[@batkotivalio4876]

@@davidjacobs8558 thank you!

[@LMudfoot]

Sorry, I was interested in the brand & model # of the clamp meter & didn't see it anywhere. Any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. Have a great day.

[@pgreenx]

@@LMudfoot I bought an ES 687. It has to be a low current clamp. Hope this helps

[@LMudfoot]

@@pgreenx it does, thank you.

[@pgreenx]

@@LMudfoot good luck with it. Using the clamp meter was the easy part. Finding and fixing the draw in progress…

[@nazairetetreault181]

What if yu have an intermittent draw and the fuse checks okay so yu move to test other fuse and now the fuse yu checked ok now shows the intermittent draw on the fuse that showed ok. With your way of testing yu missed the intermittent draw

[@gavind78]

With the amp clamp connected you would see when the intermittent draw was occurring and test the voltage drop then.

[@pgreenx]

My clamp meter has a min and max and I left it on for 24 hours to see highest possible draw

[@DANIEL-tu6cd]

With that multimeter you are just showing the difference before the fuse and after the fuse.the drop in voltage is because you have increased the amps in the fuse so the resistance of that fuse

[@sivucit]

remember this is good only for fuse not for relay

[@parlosyou]

I can see that your measuring AC Voltage on your meter, shouldn't you measuring DC Voltage?

[@cfldriven]

Actually it is set to read low AC/DC voltage. If you look at the display it indicates a mV DC voltage.

[@parlosyou]

@@cfldriven you are correct, I was fixed on the dial and did not look at the screen..thanks for taking the time to correct me . Excellent information thanks!

[@cfldriven]

@@parlosyou Its hard to make out the DC markings with the light reflecting plus some meters stack the symbols while others place them side by side.

[@sciroccoR]

things do not read amperage. they measure current! amperage is a rating. not a reading. otherwise very good.

[@pipedreams57]

Hey poncho, you forgot to tell people that those 2 Fluke meters cost over $200 each and then the low amperage clamp meter is $400. Get the details right so people will not get sticker shock to learn that they are pretty much incapable of running this test without taking out a bank loan for meters. Sometimes even the best of mechanics and meters fail to find a parasitic drain, in which case the customer can go out and buy a battery disconnect switch from Amazon for about $10 or a Battery Tender/Charger for about 25 which takes care of the problem . Guys like you always forget to mention that the owners manual that shows what each fuse goes to is an important thing to have in hand also. Sheessssh.

[@jmullentech]

lmfao

[@MrKarlfebel]

Great video!!

[@raulbotero982]

Excelent video.