Battery Issues?

Is there a device that you can attach to any of the cables from the positive to see if it is indeed draining at all?

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm about 95% sure that if I go to the car and use roll the window motor up and down for about 10 minutes and maybe turn the lights on for only 10 minute, I bet the car wouldn't start. That to me is not normal, but I could see the Infiniti dealer saying you shouldn't do that.
 
You need one of these. Disconnect and measure the voltage of your battery in the evening and then again in the morning after it sits for several hours. Report back with your findings.

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You could also put an ampmeter in series with the negative battery lead but make sure everything electrical in the car is "OFF". That would show exactly what the current drain is in the all car assessories "off" position. Start out with the VOM in the highest current setting (i.e. 10 Amps).
 
This morning....car dead......late to work....pissed off stuck in my garage....got a neighbor to jump me and went straight to the dealer.....

I dropped it off this morning...I should get a call soon since it's been several hours.

I'm just worried they are going to say all tests passed and can't find any issues, and I got a new battery a few months ago OR blame it on the aftermarket sub even though the amp is off when the car is off.

What is interesting is I've had days when the car would be fine starting, then other times like this morning and bam dead.
 
We havent seen really any '09 & up FX come in for that. It looks like we had one or possibly two and one ended up having a warranty alternator replace. I guess it's not unheard of but definitely not the norm either.
 
Got a call from the dealer....so this is interesting....

They put in another brand new battery under warranty for me and they also found out what was causing it....the aftermarket amp/sub.

He said that after they installed the new battery, they did a parasitic test and when the car is turned off, normal is to drain at .05 and under. With the aftermarket connection going to the battery, it was draining at .20. So they are saying that the amp was draining .15.

This install shop knows what they are doing and have been doing it for 30+ years on very high end cars and do a ton of custom work, so I also have a hard time with why this is happening. Plus, if I look at the amp, when the car is off, the amp is off. So what gives?

The mechanic said that they should have a "kill switch" or something else installed that basically shuts the drain off the battery and removes any draining of the battery....

Doesn't make sense to me....do you guys know what they are talking about so I don't sound like a moron when I schedule an appointment with the amp install place? If the amp is off, then it shouldn't drain from my understanding...I do have a capacitor, but that is supposed to help the battery from big drains if anything.
 
Hi Jonas, so it is turning off, but not completely. The fix is $5.00+install (or free if they forgot to do it in the first place). You need a voltage controlled relay, it completely shuts off any parasitic loss like a "kill switch" as they put it to protect the battery from being discharged.

The installer might have thought the parasitic drain wasn't anything material so didn't install one. Newer digital amps probably don't have much if any parasitic drain, but you never know.

I'm really hoping this is the fix.

Is it possible the capacitor is draining power from the battery when the car is off to keep itself "charged"? You can have the guy double check that connection too to ensure it's wired correctly.

I think if just say "the dealership says normal drain is .05, now it's .20 -- can you help ensure everything is wired correctly to fix this parasitic drain?"
 
Thanks guys.

Andy, did you install a voltage controlled relay when you installed your amp? tchuck would probably know if the cap would drain the battery....but I've had other cars with caps with no issues. hmmm.

Even a 0.20 amp draw seems very minor....considering a dome light inside a car draws almost 1 amp, I would think even with a 0.20 amp draw, it could go for a long time unless these infiniti batteries suck even new.

---------- Post added at 06:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:00 PM ----------

got the car back. Battery was actually replaced January 2011. Found battery to be bad again....supposed to have 700CCA, but measured out at 0 during their test, so new battery...voltage was at 12.68 and amp hours at 2.1 They are saying that parasitic discharge from the aftermarket stereo causing the battery to eventually go bad.

Doing some research, I guess if a battery goes dead just a few times, then the battery basically is only holding a surface charge and that is probably what eventually happened to me. But still, not even a year and only a 0.20 draw? Are the infiniti batteries really that bad? Makes we wonder if I should just get a high end aftermarket battery eventually after this battery.

Looks like Guanche01 and I are not the only FX50 with battery draining issues.....
http://www.infinitifx.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=24517


The dealer also mentioned something very interesting....said that when the car is off, sometimes it will do self diagnostics....not sure if any of you know or heard this before. Interesting stuff...
 
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This makes more sense now. If you drain the battery, it's pretty much gone and won't hold a charge.

Deep cycle like optima yellow top will drain completely, but you can recharge it fully, granted only via trickle charge and may take hours, like 8.

Guess Infiniti is becoming more hi-tech, my BMW does that and must go into "sleep" mode.

Get a Optima yellow top, relay and double check all wiring that is connected to a power line or battery for your aftermarket sub.

Last thing you want is to be stranded in the winter.

I would hate to suggest you need to buy a good trickle charger and plug it in every night, that would be annoying.
 
I still don't understand why your FX acts like that and mine sits for weeks outdoors in below freezing weather and starts like a champ, and I have all the options . Definitely something draining it, and also did your alternator check out okay?
 
jdTrader said:
... tchuck would probably know if the cap would drain the battery....but I've had other cars with caps with no issues. hmmm.
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I'm not sure about this one. Theoretically, yes, but it would have to be wired "wrong" in order to maintain a closed circuit when the ignition is off. Which amp do you have again? It's also possible the amp itself is malfunctioning... :dontknow: Definitely get that thing back to the install shop while your new battery is still good. :tup:

Good luck!


Sent from my BlackBerry 9800
 
So I just did some tests at home.....

battery voltage after turning off car: 12.93 - good strong new battery
current draw with all: 0.44A
current draw when I disconnect the aftermarket amp red lead from the battery terminal: about 0.32A

Something doesn't seem right with these current draws......and the other question is why my numbers would be so off compared to the dealership.

---------- Post added 10-18-2011 at 12:10 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-17-2011 at 11:41 PM ----------

Some additional tests.....

My wife's car draws 0.00A - 0.01A....so it's not me testing it wrong and it's not my multimeter.

I'd be curious what other 2009+ FX35 and/or FX50 draw how much current when the car is off......without the sub amp, I'm drawing 0.31A - 0.33A....I'm extremely curious if this is normal because obviously didn't I just prove the dealership's test results were bullshit?
 
So here's another test I'm doing.....hooked up for amp draw....closed the hood, locked the doors... after about 10 seconds after locking the doors hood closed the amp draw went from 1.03A to 0.44A.....now I'm testing to see if by any chance infiniti has a "sleep" mode.....I've read online certain cars have BCMs that are alive for some time and then finally go to sleep....going to wait about 15 minutes and come back to see what the reading is....

It would definitely be interesting to see if the 2009+ FX35 or FX50 have similar drawings...anyone have a multimeter willing to check out their current draws? There might even be something unique with the welcome lighting on the mirrors that constantly monitors because I know when I approach my vehicle even after being away for days, it will light up the mirrors as I approach...maybe that is the cause for the FX50 battery issues....for those people that have this feature activated such as I. Not sure if it's part of the 2009 FX35, nor if the folks have this feature active.
 
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How far away are you when it starts the welcome routine? Could it be activating while you're in the house? Or do you maybe leave your keys close enough to keep it alive constantly?
 
It activates 3 feet from the car....it stays in the kitchen drawer form the garage, which is probably about 30 feet. I actually thought that might be it also, but I doubt it.
 
My 09 FX35 has the welcome lighting feature too. As soon as I approach the car it turns on all the interior lights and turns on the outside puddle lights below the mirriors. Never had any battery issues though.

Oh yeah and the service advisor at the dealership told me that before too. That when our rides are shut off they still perform self diagnostic procedures and all that and is constantly reading things. That's why it knows to turn on all the interior lights and stuff like that when your approaching the car before you even unlock it.


There's also a service bulletin I believe that when newer model Infiniti's are sitting on the dealerships parking lot for an extended amount of time, there is some kind of switch that shuts off the body control module (BCM).
 
Thanks Aaron for responding...

I read in the manual that if you don't ride your car for 14 days, the welcome lighting automatically shuts itself off.....maybe this is when the BCM turns off? If that is the case and it doesn't go into sleep mode, then our rides are drawing about 0.33 amps of current when not turned on, which is huge compared to another car and most suggest to stay under 0.05. It's not unheardof to be above this when you start adding aftermarket items especially alarms. My aftermarket sub/amp/cap pull another 0.10 - 0.15 amps which is not much compared to the BCM then.

I wish you, Ian, Wayne, or someone else with a 2009 was around...I'd love to see what current you are drawing to make sure we match up at 0.33 because if I am more, than who knows, maybe there is a tiny short somewhere, maybe that nav enable all the time is drawing a little bit from the relay, maybe the lane departure pulled out something silly like that....never know.

The dealer said the car is at 0.05 amps when off, so that is really throwing me off right now.
 
Jonas, it's dark out now, but I will check mine tomorrow (if it's not raining). Wish I had a garage.

My FX has the tech package, entertainment package and Nav, But when I approach the car it doesn't turn on all the interior lights and turn on the outside puddle lights below the mirriors unless I unlock it. Do I have to enable it somehow?
 
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GEE35FX said:
Jonas, it's dark out now, but I will check mine tomorrow (if it's not raining). Wish I had a garage.

My FX has the tech package, entertainment package and Nav, But when I approach the car it doesn't turn on all the interior lights and turn on the outside puddle lights below the mirriors unless I unlock it. Do I have to enable it somehow?
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Yes you have to enable it. Mine came disabled too so I had it turned on. There is instructions on how to do it in the instruction manual that came with the car. I forget which chapter it's in though.
 
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