2000 Toyota Echo - amp draw problem or nah?

Hey guys. I have a 2000 Toyota Echo, 1NZ-FE, lightly optioned. 263k of salt-free, but hard miles with a ton of skipped maintenance.

I seem to have a draw of 70-75 milliamps on this car. It's a bit of a nether region where I feel a simple car like this should be far lower, but it's within the bounds of reason. Still, I pulled all fuses and relays one by one from under the dash and under the hood with zero change. I then pulled the connectors for all of the goodies underhood (coils, injectors, MAF, etc.), and again zero change. Am I paranoid? What's drawing amperage which isn't on a fused circuit?

Thanks in advance. I'll have a few other questions but this is the most vexing one at the moment.

Alldata doesn't have the spec for that car. It does sound a tad on the high end. The last car i did was a BMW X5, and the spec as 45ma (0.045amps), but it would draw over 500ma for a half hour after the doors were locked and the alarm was armed.
Are you giving it enough time for everything to shut down?
In the end, I guess there's really no need to reinvent the wheel if you're not experiencing any adverse symptoms.

Thanks.

I did take 45 min for any modules to shut down, although I don't think it's terribly sophisticated. Sitting 45 min in a car doing nothing so I can bend awkwardly to pull fuses ain't nothing, lol.

I'd agree that if I drive the car every day it's not an issue. But it sits for three weeks at a time and killed a battery before I started checking for it. Currently I just unhook the neg cable and all is well, but I'm picky and don't want a problem which I could fix. Car was free and is mechanically strong with all its factory hard parts but for a VVTi solenoid still on the car, so I feel I owe it a bit of gratitude.

Jcp123 wrote: Thanks.
I'd agree that if I drive the car every day it's not an issue. But it sits for three weeks at a time and killed a battery before I started checking for it. Currently I just unhook the neg cable and all is well, but I'm picky and don't want a problem which I could fix. Car was free and is mechanically strong with all its factory hard parts but for a VVTi solenoid still on the car, so I feel I owe it a bit of gratitude.

I completely understand.
The closest thing I could find to a specification was a post on an engineering forum
DanEE (Electrical)10 Oct 10 09:26 Toyota's published specification for parasitic drain (published in their factory service manuals) is 50ma maximum..


Somebody here may have access to the specification. It does sound closer to what I would expect.

I did take 45 min for any modules to shut down, although I don't think it's terribly sophisticated. Sitting 45 min in a car doing nothing so I can bend awkwardly to pull fuses ain't nothing, lol.

Can you manually close the door latches with a screwdriver, or clamp the door ajar switches so you don't have to sit in it?

Well, TBH, the door ajar switch thing is a moot point now. That time is already a sunk cost. But door ajar switches seem themselves to be a Toyota issue for parasitic draw, though so far I have found this only in Tacomas and Highlanders, all newer than my Echo.

The 50mA guideline mirrors some of the other reading I have done. Good circumstantial evidence that my hunch of an abnormal condition is correct.

With that, it looks like a straight hunt for what's causing it. I suppose there's nothing to do but test individual components?

EDIT: the fact that the draw seems to be on something which isn't fused, confuses me. Is there any possibility that a weak battery (almost four years old, down in the Texas heat) with an internal short would present an amp draw with a multimeter inline with the neg cable?

Jcp123 wrote: Well, TBH, the door ajar switch thing is a moot point now. That time is already a sunk cost. But door ajar switches seem themselves to be a Toyota issue for parasitic draw, though so far I have found this only in Tacomas and Highlanders, all newer than my Echo.

The 50mA guideline mirrors some of the other reading I have done. Good circumstantial evidence that my hunch of an abnormal condition is correct.

With that, it looks like a straight hunt for what's causing it. I suppose there's nothing to do but test individual components?

Not entirely moot if you have to repeat the test At least this time it will be easier to pull the fuses with the doors open.

I'd want to investigate this further if it was my car too, especially considering the battery has run down on you all ready.
70ma must be too much.
You could try disconnecting the alternator. I think if the alternator were to blame, it would likely draw more than an extra 20ma, but it's worth a check if you've gone through all the fuses with no result.

I know you said the car is practically show room stock, but it's worth it to ask if there is maybe an aftermarket stereo, alarm, or remote start.

All good thoughts. I might try again with the door switches. Can't remember if the front door switches are on the B pillar or by the kick panel though, if the latter I'll try taping it down.

The others are good thoughts but I disconnected the alternator harness already, thinking about bad diodes. No dice. I'd also think that'd be well over an amp of draw anyway. The stereo is factory (but has its own set of problems) , and there's no alarm, keyless entry, or remote start. Nor, for that matter, power locks. I have never seen any hacked up wiring aside from hanging wires from missing rear speakers under the package tray, although a rub-through isn't out of the question given its previous rude treatment.i taped those wires off good and tight, though. Plus, they dangle nowhere near any metal.

My answer would be 70ma is ok 80ma is the top limit of high normal. Repeated deep discharges (ie. discharging a battery below 50% of its amp hours capcity) especially coupled fast recharges reduce the amp hours capcity of lead-acid batteries.

I would suggest you get the battery tested with hi-tech digital battery analyzer (sometimes called an AC Impedance tester or a Conductance tester), this will give you an estimate of the true Amp Hours of the battery, the effective cranking amps and predict the life remaing as a percentage.
Don't be surprised if your battery which started out as 50 to 60 amp hour battery now only has a 15 to 25 amp hour capacity left. If you replace the battery consider the slightly more expensive AGM battery type as they stand up better to this type of use pattern. As you live in a sunshine state also consider using solar charger when the car is not in use.

This is the low cost battery analyzer I use

Is it wrong to chuckle at sitting in the car for 45 minutes? Sorry.