Help, E39 Still battery drain!

[rusteee 52]

Hi guys

Thought I'd put it in a new one, save sifting through the other thread. I thought I had it sussed but appears not. In a nut shell, have been having issues with with the E39 540i, battery draining over 3-4 days of sitting. In a nut shell, have replaced battery, alternator is charging 100%, FSU is disconnected, all radio fuses and display, phone, stacker etc all disconnected, heater panel physically disconnected, after market amp, auxillary fan, alternator, interior lighting, seats, mirrors, window switches all currently are disconnected or have the fuses pulled. I have been through and pulled every single fuse 1 by one which made no difference. The car goes to sleep (the little park light goes out), but there is something that is drawing just over 900mA and I cant for the life of me figure out what it is. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Edited April 9, 2016 by rusteee

[Michael. 2313]

Have you checked for rodents in the exhaust? Sometimes they nest there, might be tapping into the electrical system drawing some power for their lights..

[rusteee 52]

Of course...Why did I not check that first? will peep out tonight and see if i can see some light coming from the exhaust

[allan 295]

Hi Russell a bit of a long shot how many leads do you have coming off the positive terminal of the battery or close to it? as some have a safety fuseable battery link some were in that cable.

[rusteee 52]

Cheers for that, but after hours of tearing my hair out, I gave up and have taken it in to the auto sparky today for them to sort out. After pulling every fuse in the glovebox, boot, aux fan and heater fan fuses, disconnected alternator and various other bits and pieces it was still drawing between 900mA and 1.3A all day yesterday. Will update when they find what the problem is.

[aja540i 1906]

did a little piece of you die when you had to take it to the auto sparky?

Will be interesting to see what they come up with.

[qube 3570]

although it would be nice if the solution was something simple and cheap, a part of me kind of wishes its something so wack that it would have been impossible for you to find -just so it makes you feel a bit better.

keep us posted on the result!

[rusteee 52]

Well turns out the GME is indeed faulty. Which is a bastard as thats the last solution I had come up with. I assumed they were going to plug in the tester and see if it was sending everything to sleep as I had discussed with them over the phone, but no. So 4 hours at $100 an hour of doing everything I had already done, they had confirmed it. Replacment ordered and on the way. I suppose the small bonus is he said I was bang on with my diagnosis hahaha sheeeeit. All ready for the new owner whom ever it may be lol

Edited April 12, 2016 by rusteee

[rusteee 52]

did a little piece of you die when you had to take it to the auto sparky?

Will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Massive piece of me died

[allan 295]

What was still connected to it then with what you had disconnected ?.

[rusteee 52]

Unsure, but whatever it was was drawing between 900mA and 1.3A lol. He got the same figures as me after pulling out all the fuses for the phone, lights etc etc once the car had gone into sleep mode. I'll check tommmorow when I pick it up, but must be some modules or something that it kept on? He did mention something about centre console lights, I wasn't even aware there was any.

[aja540i 1906]

Unsure, but whatever it was was drawing between 900mA and 1.3A lol. He got the same figures as me after pulling out all the fuses for the phone, lights etc etc once the car had gone into sleep mode. I'll check tommmorow when I pick it up, but must be some modules or something that it kept on? He did mention something about centre console lights, I wasn't even aware there was any.

Yeah, there are about 4 leds in the centre console, so i doubt it was them flattening your battery overnight!