Re: 2002 S60 AWD Okay, so I have taken advice from many sources and one was correct, but that didn't stop the drain completely. So far I have replaced the fan motor controller for HVAC, and disconnected the alarm siren. I have a good battery, load tested and fairly new. I have cleaned the connections at the fuse panel under the hood and battery. I inserted a test light between the battery cable and the fuse block. I have pulled every engine compartment fuse and relay, the cable to the starter, the big plug in the under hood fuse box, all fuses in the inside glove box and the drain remains. No courtesy lights on. Test light stays on regardless of my actions. What am I missing and what is the smaller + cable on the battery for?

 

check the wiring diagram to see how the alternator is wired in. If as you say you've isolated every major circuit path via the relays etc, that'd be the next place I'd look. Unless of course you missed one of the fuse boxes etc - so again the wiring diagram would give you a check list of circuits. Out of curiosity what are you seeing as your quiecent current draw?

 

I just used a test light in series with the disconnected battery cable and fuse box post. I only know of the the two fuse panels - is there a third? My voltage after car is setting for 2 days only dropped to 12.4vdc. But when I engage the starter it drops to 9.6 and doesn't recover until I jump it and start the engine. This usually would indicate a bad battery but I had it tested as step 1 in the process.

 

how old is the battery? what you can do is buy/rent? a clamp meter to measure the current draw with the engine off vs using a probe light. to drain a battery in 2 days really is a pretty small amount - say 50 mA above normal. If this measures normal then I'd suspect the battery is weak. If the current is higher than say 25 mA, you can try pulling fuses and relays again to see if anything changes the reading and go from there.

 

+1 How old is your battery? If it takes x days to drain the battery have you tried disconnecting the batteryfor x days. Then reconnect to verify there is actually a drain and there's not a problem with the battery?
"disconnected the alarm siren" - I trust that means you unplugged it at the module - not simply removing the fuse.(the alarm module if still hooked to the CAN network even without a fuse can cause network activity.)

There are 5 fuse panels in your car (a,b,c,d,e)

A and B are under the hood, C on the end of the dash, D and E next to the battery and in the REM.
Using a test light in series - will only get you frustrated. If you try that with an ammeter in series (or an inductive ammeter) You will see any action you make (such as pulling a fuse/opening a door) will/can turn on modules - and those take a long time to turn off. Several minutes sometimes. Disconnecting and reconnecting your test light or ammeter will turn modules on also, sometimes giving you false readings/hopes.

You must use an inductive ammeter if you want reliable results. Open all doors, trunk, and manually latch all the latches (so the car thinks everything is closed). Then you can ATTEMPT to find a drain - spending a lot of time waiting for modules to turn back off, after you disturb power to them.

A story - A customers (with a s60 about that year) battery continued to go dead after a few days parked and locked (son at college, did not use car very often, but was parked on campus so it was a PIA every time it was dead) ) After my techs gave up on it - then I spent a few days trying to figure out what the draw was (with an inductive ammeter.) Could not find it (battery only went dead when car was locked) and I refused to sell them any parts I could not prove were bad. Also - (they had several Volvos for many years) so I did not charge them any labor. They get frustrated (of course) and took it to another shop, which sold them all sorts of stuff. Latch assemblies, alarm stuff - for a whole bunch of money,
Month later they are back - same problem. Other shops new parts - did not fix anything.

They decided to simply not lock the car - for the battery stayed charged if unlocked. Thinking about it now - could have been a problem with the CEM - but that would have been an expensive guess!!!

 

I had this problem and traced it to the glove box light switch.
The light in the glove box was always on, draining the battery. You cannot see this because catch-22, you cannot see inside the glove box when closed.
My solution was to remove the glove box light bulb. That fixed the problem.
Or you can replace the switch.

 

the trick for testing the glove box light is to put your phone in video mode then place into the glovebox and close it... That said, glove box and vanity lights (including any lights in the trunk) are usually the first thing to look for (as well as devices that go into the 12v "lighter" sockets. Good to hear you were able to sort this out. thanks for the share.

 

I've got the same issue. Same model and same year S60. I've found when tracking down the drain I've got front doors and trunk open with latches latched, my multimeter is set to amps and in series between the batteries negative terminal and the disconnected cable.

The Drain is a little intermittent. After waiting for everything to sleep, I usually will get a 0.55 or so amp drain. Sometimes it will drop to 0.05 and sometimes it will even go down to the 0.01 that it should be.

So while pulling Fuses I found one fuse that if I pull it, it will drop down to 0.01 drain instantly. This fuse is the #32 fuse labeled "Central Electronic Module -ECPS - Courtesy Lamps -Glove box Lamp"

I've pretty much figured out that the Glove Box Lamp switch is working like it should. I've found no other lights on anywhere. I've seen in other posts that some people have had to remove their CEM and clean out some corrosion. I'm thinking of trying that.

 

Unless of course you missed one of the fuse boxes etc - so again the wiring diagram would give you a check list of circuits. Out of curiosity what are you seeing as your quiecent current draw?