Gryphon killing battery

[408F150]

For quite some time I've noticed that anytime I leave my truck parked for 5 or 6 days the battery is almost always dead or near dead, and I recently decided to go probing around with my multimeter to see what was killing the battery. For a long time I didn't have my seperate work vehicle so the truck never sat long enough for this to happen.

After testing all my fuses and accessories I was able to determine that the Gryphon display unit is drawing 3.9 volts while the vehicle is completely "at rest" (takes a while for the ECU and all the peripherals to shut down after you turn the truck off). What could be causing this issue, and is this normal? Thanks for your help.

[Jeremy]

Its normal, your parasitic draw seems like its high though.... I've learned to just unplug it if the truck is going to be sitting for awhile.

[Longshot270]

Does your multimeter check amps? If not do you have access to an amp meter?

A voltage reading is not very useful. The voltage meter is subject to inaccuracies from corroded wires and such. Voltage can best be compared to the pressure in a water hose that is spraying out of the end. A large hose will experience less of a pressure difference than a small one so the results are dependent on many other factors. The amps are best compared to the number of gallons that flow through the hose and splash on the ground, this can be accurately measured and compared regardless of pipe size (wire gauge). Finding the parasitic loss is very difficult with just knowing voltage (not impossible, but you'd have to take wire size, wire length, resistance, etc. into account).

I know that the monochrome gryphon pulls around .05 amps but the new color ones might pull a tiny bit more. This is not enough to show a 4 volt drop in ANY standard automotive wire you have access to.

Here is what I would look for...

Check the pins of the OBD port. Wires wiggling in there causing all kinds of crazy issues are not unheard of. An easy way of troublshooting this is to get a reading of the amp draw on the cigarette lighter loop with everything plugged in as usual. Then unplug the programmer to see what the amp difference is.

Next would be to check the connections on the cigarette lighter and everything else on that wire. If there is a wire wiggling out it could easily touch bare metal and kill your battery charge or pull enough amps to give you the voltage drop you are seeing. Check for worn wires while you are going through connections since they can do the same thing.

Also, what is the condition of the battery? When some batteries get old their amp capacity begins to suffer which is closely followed by a voltage drop.

[Jackpine]

I'll add to what Longshot posted. I've determined I have a 0.05 Amp parasitic draw in my truck with it in the "stock" configuration. This is all "keep alive" power for things like the radio, clock, seat position, power door openers, PCM and so on. The monochrome Gryphon pulls an additional 0.05 Amps for its keep alive needs. This is a total of 0.1 Amps, or 2.4 Amps per day. This will kill a fully charged battery in 21 days.

Most batteries are not fully charged. When you shut your truck off, there is a period during which there is a much higher draw on the battery - the interior lights stay on, the headlights may stay on, etc. And, if you open a door or unlock the truck during this "off" time, it creates an additional spike in battery draw for a period.

Your battery may be on its way out - it would be worthwhile to have it load tested.

My truck is a bit of a "Garage Queen", so it lives in my garage with a battery tender plugged in at all times it is parked there. You may want to try a similar solution.

- Jack

[408F150]

I'm running a 1 year old Optima yellow top battery so I hope the battery is not the issue. I'll check for amperage draw next time I feel like monkeying around with it, I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't an unheard of phenomenon. I have the original monochrome unit and I don't drive the truck a ton anymore since I have a work vehicle 5 days a week, it just seems weird that it would kill a mostly charged battery in 4 or 5 days. If it helps, my truck drew .43 volts with the Gryphon unplugged which I'm sure is mostly the constant fuses in my truck that are keeping the clock and radio set and the alarm running, but an 80% drop when the Gryphon gets unplugged seemed like a lot.

[88Racing]

Unplug the gryphon when parked or invest in a solar powered battery tender or a plugin one.......