Miata Mailing List: March 1999, Message #125

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Hey group, long time no hear!

I've been lurking and reading but not as active since my boss seems eager to
feed me all kinds of work... Hey Gary, I'm coming back to Tenafly to teach
another class so I'll be sending you some e-mail about when I'll be there,
perhaps we could meet for a beverage this time.

In any event, I have a question.  ICE-CUBE has gone through THREE batteries in
the last year and I can't imagine that I've been that unlucky, there must be
some other force at work.  I went away from the gel-cell; our local dealership
offers a regular battery that fits and has done quite well for the members of
our local chapter.  Well, if I leave the car in the garage for the brunt of the
snowy days, I can only drive it once a week or so.  Does the battery drain all
the way down if you leave it for 7 days??

Its a '93 C with airhorn, fog lights, trunk light, H4 headlamps, lighted mirror,
and hidden kill switch added on (other add-ons of course, but these are the
electrical ones).  I put an AMP meter in series with the battery to check for a
"leak" somewhere in the system and with the car and everything else turned off,
there is still 127mA coursing through the system.  Is that normal?  I pulled
every fuse out of the trunk, fuse box, and under the hood and the only circuit
that registered anything at all was the interior light circuit.  Pulling that
fuse (which was hard since I had my knee on the button by the door to keep the
power off) gave me 12 more mA.

Here are my questions:

1. What's on the interior circuit other than the map lights and my lighted
rear-view mirror?

2. Is 127mA normal for a pre-94 Miata?

3. Should I plan on disconnecting the battery when I don't plan to drive it for
a week?

4. Why does my idle hunt like crazy for a couple of days after disconnecting and
re-connecting the battery?  Is there a way to get around or to fix this?

Thanks everyone for your help, and don't be shy about saying hello!!

Phredd, do you have any whiskey left?


kjw &
ICE CUBE (formerly known as TIC-TAC)