How to Test Car Battery Drain with a Multimeter

[LeAaliyah]

Methods for testing car battery drain with a multimeter: 1. Select the correct range. The multimeter has settings for measuring voltage, resistance, and current. To measure car battery drain, you must set the meter to measure current. Since modern vehicles use DC power, you should ultimately select the DC current range. 2. Choose the measurement range. When measuring current, always select the range from largest to smallest. 3. Open the hood of the vehicle to be tested, turn off all electrical devices in the car, and lock the doors. For vehicles with remote keys, use the remote to lock the car. 4. Use an appropriate wrench to remove the negative battery terminal, then connect the adjusted multimeter's red probe to the vehicle's ground wire and the black probe to the negative battery terminal. 5. After completing the above steps, wait for 30 seconds and read the value on the multimeter to determine if there is a battery drain issue. Modern vehicles have numerous electrical devices, and a dark current below 50mA is normal. If the reading exceeds 50mA, you should inspect the draining device.