battleborn

Well folks, I'm as confused as a baby in a strip club. Hooked up the meter again this evening. Started by pulling all relays in the main fuse box under the hood. No results. Same reading, about .22A. Then, pulled each fuse in the main box and put them back as I went. No change. Next, pulled all the fuses in the cabin fuse box. Took them out and replaced them one row at a time. No change, including the one that I pulled this morning that resulted in a drop. Should mention that I taped the door sensor closed while I was doing this. Next, pulled every fuse out of the main box, all at once. No change. Put 'em back. Removing the big fuse (120amps) in the main box drops the reading down to .001amps, but I'm guessing that's because nothing in the car has power without that. But just in case, hooked up the meter to battery and terminal of said fuse. Got same reading, which would seem to indicate that it's nothing in the wiring between the battery and that fuse at least. I'm stumped. Ideas? Thanks to everyone for all the help so far.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. 150mA does seem like a lot to me as well, but this is the newest vehicle I've ever owned so it's fresh territory. First thing tonight I'll pull the relays under the hood and see if that changes anything. Since the stereo has been acting funky, anyone know offhand which fuse is on it's circuit? The labels on my fusebox don't indicate. Was thinking of going through the interior fuse box, seeing which fuses were hot with a test light, and pulling those. Should save pulling a lot of fuses that, like you said, are cut off by the ignition switch anyway.

I ran the drain test again just to confirm. About the same as before. 225mA or .225 amps. Didn't have a lot of time before wife had to leave for work, but I pulled the fuses one by one in the engine compartment fuse box with no change. Didn't pull any relays. Started to pull fuses in the cabin, but the first one I pulled (unit IG 1) resulted in a drop to .07 amps or so. That's all I had time to do this morning...will try to find the right wiring diagram for that fuse/circuit today though and pull the rest of them this evening.

Well, the place where we bought the battery tested it and exchanged it since it was only a couple of months old. Put in the new battery last night. You're absolutely right about my old multi-meter, it had a blown fuse...but not from this project, must have been blown for a while because I never got a good reading out of it, and it just has one reading for amps up to 10 with three decimal points. Was thinking the same thing though, so bought a replacement fuse yesterday and was able to return the other one. Used old meter in all my tests last night and it worked fine. The reading was actually .229 amps, but now I'm doubting myself and meter so I'll double-check that before I go too much further. Good thing I slept well last night thinking the problem was solved. Once I saw the lower amount of drain, just figured that was it! For what it's worth, I did let the car sit for about ten minutes or so before I took the reading. Can someone perhaps confirm what a stock newer Legacy (this is a 2006) should have for battery drain? As Cougar said, the old cars had a 20mA drain. What should I be looking for?

Got home and did the wire trick as fairtax4me mentioned above. And guess what - that problem is solved! Current dropped down to 229mA. From what I've read, sounds like that is within normal range. So this whole issue doesn't seem to actually have anything to do with a battery drain. The alternator is charging at 14+ volts. I wasn't worried about the battery before because it had just been replaced. But now I'm thinking that it may have a bad cell or something. Going to yank it out and take it back to the place we bought it. Hopefully they'll exchange it, and I'll keep a close eye on it from here on out. Anything I'm missing? Thanks for everyone's help. This board is awesome.

TajMan, Congrats on the cool find. Just thought I'd chime in with some info on the car title. You said that it belonged to his sister, who lost the title. So you actually have options to get it titled. I understand that it might not be practical to contact the sister, and might be impossible to get her to go to DMV, get title, and hand it to you. But that doesn't mean it's the end of the road. I just went through this with a Triumph motorcycle that I'm building. In a nutshell, I learned that the DMV won't help you at all. But here in Nevada, you can sue through small claims court to get a title. No idea about Utah, but it's worth checking into. The court will basically do what the DMV should do, which is run the title history and try to contact the last known owner. In my case, the VIN I was after was last registered to a 'Dummy Record' in Arizona, so they just issued me a court order for the DMV to give me a title. Cost me fifty bucks and a few hours time, not counting the days I spent wrestling with the DMV before that, of course! Anyway, might check into it. Don't ask the DMV about it, though. They know it can be done, but don't like it. They'd much prefer to just tell you no. Check with your local court.

Fairtax4me, thanks! That's a great tip. It's likely causing my intermittent readings as well as contributing to my excessive draw readings since I'm essentially hooking the battery up every time I check the drain. Also explains why it usually spikes to almost one full amp before settling down to .78 amp. I found an official Subaru doc outlining the same procedure, but didn't get a chance to try it last night. Your explanation made much more sense anyway. But here's the document just in case anyone else with a similar problem finds it useful. 07-62-072 Dark Current or Excessive Battery Draw .pdf

Thanks guys, good advice. I haven't pulled every fuse out yet, will do that when I get home tonight. No aftermarket items at all. Everything is unplugged from cabin power ports. The CD player (which is integrated with the heater controls) did freeze up a while back and I haven't been able to get any of the CDs out of it. Figured that it would be easier to listen to the radio and eventually add a mini-phone line in than to fix it, so haven't bothered to pull it out. That's the only thing that has been acting up at all. I don't remember a switch on top of the steering column, but will check that too when I get home. Haven't heard any clicking relays or humming, but yes, keeping an ear to the ground for that. Thanks for the tips. I've been banging my head against a wall on this for a few days now. Helps a lot to have some more eyes on it.

Hello everyone, I've been reading every post I can find on this topic and have spent a good bit of time pulling fuses! It seems like I've got some twists to my problem that are unique, and I've got some specific wiring questions, so hopefully starting a new post is appropriate. First, what started it all: the battery goes dead after sitting for 2-3 days. We just got the car about six months ago, so the first time this happened I checked the charging system and replaced the battery. It's doing it again, and obviously this isn't good for the new battery! So - cleaned electrical connections, charged battery, made sure all interior lights/acc are off, checked all door switches. Found out my old multi-meter (that I bought ten years ago or so) was acting funky, so went and got another one. Disconnected battery cable and placed multi-meter inline with setting at 200mA and got - zero. That's not right. So I put it to the 10A setting and it eventually settled out at .78 amps. Wow. No wonder I'm having trouble, right? I've gone through the fuse box and pulled EVERYTHING one by one. The problem is intermittent. Sometimes it'll show a drop to .35 or so, but if I recheck it the .78 drain is back. The only thing that's made a solid difference so far is removing the 120amp SBF from the main box under the hood. I'm trying to figure out where the SBF 120 fits into the wiring, and my Haynes manual is less than clear about it. Unfortunately I don't have access to a factory service manual. I found one for an '06 Impreza online and it looks like it's for the Power Supply Circuit, assuming similar wiring in my car. Is this correct? I've disconnected the alternator with no result, and also the headlight relays (shown on the power supply circuit diagram). Will start to trace the wiring further, but wanted to make sure that I'm barking up the right tree here. Also, isn't .78 a lot of draw? Seems like there should be a really obvious cause here. Also, that same Impreza diagram shows another SBF 30amp joined into the charging circuit. Anyone know where this is located so I can check it? Diagram attached. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi there everyone, Have been lurking and reading posts here for a while and thought I'd finally sign up. I've been around Subarus for years - worked at a Subaru specialist shop for four years or so when I was just out of high school, and in the course of doing that fixed up an '87 Loyale for my Mom, got my little brother an '85 as his first vehicle, and met my girlfriend (many years later, wife!) who was driving a '93 Legacy at the time. We just sold that car in good running condition with 220k on it and replaced it with a 2006 Legacy Outback. Anyway, I'm trying to track down an electrical issue on the 2006, which is my ulterior motive in signing up here. I'll post my questions in the appropriate forum, and look forward to helping out where I can as well. Thanks!