I woke up to a pair of batts that woulldn't crank the engine. Batts are a bit over a year old with no problems so far. I was able to jump start after hooking wifes Jeep up for a few minutes. The same scenario happened after work. It has been between 105 and 115 degrees during the day here. Alt shows solid 14V charge while running. I disconnected both neg cables and alt and found 367mA flowing between ground post and ground clamp. Hood light not involved and nothing else on. Is there something i'm missing? could a starter develop a 367mA leak? Could this drain two batts overnight?

 

If you can get into your fuse box with your meter do the same testing, fuse by fuse. Some systems are ignition on only, othes can be energized with switch off. An aftermarket stereo can sometimes cause problems as at least one of the circuits is designed as continual draw [clock etc.] and a malfunction there can cause IOD [Ignition Off Draw]. If nothing shows up out of fuse panel try to figure if anything is not fused but drawing current. I wish it was easier....

 

333 mA X24 hr a day would be 8 Ah drain per day. Lawn tractor and motor cycle batteries are typically about 19 Ah. I think you have different issues. 300 mA would light 15) 20mA leds. 300 ma will also Charge a cell phone. 13.8V times .3 A is 4.14 watts, 4 watts x 24 hrs would be 96 Watt/Hrs. A dome lamp is 7 to 15 watts. A dome lamp could kill a single batt over night , but i would think dual batts would still hold it lit.

What is more important is what voltage you see when you are driving. If your voltmeter is not at or above 13.8 V, you arent charging. Jumped to the jeep you see 14V, but when its running (1000rpm) and you disconnect the jeep, does it drop?

 

....you also need to run a shunt when testing for amperage drain. The meter won't allow enough current to pass for some of the modules to go to "sleep". What kind of batts are you running? Year old or not, have them tested.

 

Bad batts. I took them back to AutoZone and they failed miserably. The guy there said that low water levels caused the cells to short. The water levels looked fine to me. No difference, the warranty covered anyway( I bought them on 4 July last year). So I have two new Duralast Gold crankin away. Thanx all.