Hi there Scotty! I got a 2018 rav4 fwd le (made in japan) that has 102k miles on it. Ive been having an issue with interior lights flickering for around a month now (I did replace them with led ones 2 months before this) and recently having slow start and even failed to start one time had to charge up battery, I tested the alternator its seems fine it stays at 14.2v while running and 14.0v under load, it has the original oem battery in it and i suspect its wither the battery or a parasitic draw. The battery seems to hold its voltage while unhooked from the car then i connected the postive terminal to the postive cable and tested the current between the neg terminal and the disconnected neg cable it reads 300miliamps. is this normal? What could be going on? Thanks so much! Seriously!
The battery seems to hold its voltage while unhooked from the car
That doesn’t tell you much. You need to properly load test the battery and get the measured CCA (and corresponding voltage drop).
i connected the postive terminal to the postive cable and tested the current between the neg terminal and the disconnected neg cable it reads 300miliamps. is this normal?
You have to make sure you perform this current measurement after all the computers/modules in the vehicle have gone to sleep (or in idle), so usually it’s a good idea to wait 10–15 minutes, sometimes as much as 30 minutes, before making this measurement. So, you can’t really test right away. Also, to not fool yourself make sure all internal lights of the car are truly off (every last one).
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A happy car likes to be less than 0.050 A or 50 mA with all computers in sleep mode.
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A few months ago I tracked down a drain on my battery so this is fresh in my mind, but follow everything MountainManJoe mentioned above first before going down this rabbit hole.
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And CarWizard’s video saved my bacon when I was tracking my battery drain.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEYGmSn01Bw&pp=ygUaQ2FyIHdpemFyZCBwYXJ3c2l0aWMgZHJhaW4%3D
Thank you!!!
Put the old lights back in.
Also remove any electrical accessories. (chargers, cameras, alarms, OBD dongles, etc.)
Probably dont need a new battery?
nope. But you can have it tested to be sure.
Thank you sir