My 97 850 Wagon seems to have a draw when sitting. Unfortunately I don't drive it very often anymore since I have a vehicle provided for work. While sitting 5-7 days the battery will go dead if I don't keep a "trickle" charger on it. The battery is about 5 yrs old but, I had it tested and it tested "good". I also went ahead and cleaned both battery connections and terminals and all major ground wire connections in the engine bay.

I tried using the method from the ( https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...g-101-a-42655/ ) sticky from boxpin and I can't seem to get any results that make sense. I can't even get a reading for "normal" draw of .01-.07 amps as listed in the post. I think my meter is capable of reading draw but, I'm not an electrical expert by any means. I have added a pic of the meter I was using.

There are 3 places to insert the red or positive lead. I tried all 3 since it didn't specify in the sticky. The only place I got any reading was when I had it in the 300mA spot. Here I got numbers somewhere in 120.00 range (don't recall exact numbers, seemed strange so I didn't record). I did wonder if maybe I just needed to move the decimal over. I also tried both positive side and negative side of the battery.

For lack of any good testing data, I went ahead and disconnected the light in the glove box, since I had read in other posts that is a common cause of parasite draws.

Thoughts?

 

I like unplugging the glovebox lamp. I would also suggest troubleshoot in the dark at least once. If there are lights on you may see that.


The 120 may be 120 milliamps, which is reasonable, although not in the range .01 to .07 amps.


If the battery is surface charged, then it may not have enough capacity to provide the 120 milliamps for a week.

 

JR, Did you prob across the various fuses? Most of they typical culprits (vanity lights etc) are fused. Things that should draw power when off include the ECU and alarm system (a good topic to research for current draw and common faults etc). using the amps = watts/volts formula and that a typical interior bulb is about 1W, the glovebox bulb would draw about 120mA...

 

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...g-101-a-42655/

 

Also check to see if your rear wiper is "parked". Over the years the shaft between the motor and the arm can get stuck in it's aluminum sleeve and seize. If it's stops anyplace but in the parked position it will still be in an "ON" state and will draw the batter down.

I've had the same problem with mine going dead but it's infrequent and I still can't track it down. For me making sure all the doors are locked (tailgate is manual) seems to help.