2006 Cayman S Parasitic Draw

Hi all, I'm attempting to track down a parasitic draw on my battery . (2006 987.1 Cayman S ) Ever since I removed my center console, the battery will go dead within 5 days of not using the car. Like 8 volts dead (it's an AGM battery so it has been able to be recharged). I put a multimeter on the battery and noticed about every 30-45 seconds, the current will jump from expected to around 8 amps over expected. this jump will last for around 5 seconds and then go back to normal. I pulled every fuse in the driver footwell (one row at a time), the center console wiring harness, and all the relays in the driver footwell (one at a time) and none of those caused the random spike to stop happening. I'm at a loss, wondering if anyone has any advice. Maybe there's a fuse box I dont know about?

What was your objective in pulling the console? What else were you working on? Since it only manifested after removal and replacement of the center console I would remove it again, then I'd check the draw first, if said pull is eliminated by removal then you're on your way to solution. When something changes due to maintenance then the first place to look is retrace your wrenching pursuits.

This..and I would check the cig plug (s) first.

I am pasting a section of a post I had going earlier this year. Your issue has some similarities to what I had going on. Not all my findings may be directly relevant to your situation, but the troubleshooting process should still apply. The odd thing is the cycling of the amp draw and lack of you identifying it upon fuse pulls. If car is doing that, there likely one thing that is triggering a cascade of current drawing devices activating. You need to find the root one. You should pull one fuse at a time and replace the previous fuses, so only one circuit is disabled at a time. Let it sit and watch the meter. You can pull the frunk light as previously mentioned and just leave the door open until car goes to sleep. There are several fuse boxes in the car. I have a 981 , so it may be different, but the left front is where I found my issue. In the 981 there also are fuses in the passenger foot well as well, and fuses and relays in the trunk under carpet near right taillight, and also near battery in frunk. Relays are all over the place. You need a wiring diagram to isolate all the pieces. My W.A.G (wild *** guess) with limited data is since this did not happen until you did console work, it might be a bad ground. The ground bolts in many cases have multiple items screwed down on each bolt. If you have any one of those grounds not making good contact, it might be causing the issue. Also, I would replace the battery so you at least can rule out a very low battery from being the cause. When car goes to sleep, at least in 981 , relays trip that turn off active components. Maybe if battery is too low, there is not enough juice to complete that process and it keeps trying causing amp load to spike (another W.A.G.) An antigravity lead acid battery monitor ($35 item) attached would also track battery draw to verify if still occurring after replacement (you don't want to keep flattening out even a new battery or you can cause damage to it as well if issue is still present). <previous post> I have resolved a high current draw issue killing my battery in a similar time frame in a 2015 Boxster . Your situation seems very odd as you should have been able to spot what circuit is causing the issues. I have a question for you. Did you initially confirm the current draw using a dc amp meter around the positive cable on the battery ? Easiest way is to use a clamp on meter that can be used without needing to remove a battery cable. This will show the actual current draw occurring as you perform next needed tests. If you did not have an issue, when your car is off and all systems are asleep (can take up to 30 mins or so for this to occur), you should see ~ 50 milliamps or so drawing under normal circumstances. You also could see variable draining occurring, which is what happened to me. There was a rhythmic cycling of a bunch of relays that caused amp draw to spike up to 5-7 amps intermittently when car was off. This would kill battery in a day or so. Next step was to identify what circuit was source. All you need to do is pull one fuse at a time and look at the amp reading. If the reading does not drop, put fuse back in and pull the next fuse and repeat until you see a stable reading. Once that occurs you will have identified the circuit that likely is the cause. Get a schematic of the car and see what equipment is on that circuit (can be multiple devices). If there are several, and if it is easy enough to manually disconnect each device (such as an amplifier, or module), pull the connectors and see if amp drop stops. Once you get to a device that does that, you likely have found the culprit. Also check for rusty or corroded ground connections. If you had water damage and the grounds bolts corrode, it can increase resistance and cause intermittent loss of ground under load. That can cause current draw to increase. You had mentioned splices too. Those can have water damage and corrosion under the tape which can cause shorts and similar ground issues as a corroded bolt. Don't assume that if a device you might have finally identified on a problematic circuit seems to function normally it means it is OK. My car had a defective instrument cluster as source of drain, however it seemed to function fine. Once the connector to it was removed, all current draw stopped. Plug it back in and problems started again. Once it was replaced, all was good. Also be aware that it is possible to have cascading current draws occurring if the faulty device has other modules or relays downstream from it on other circuits. This can cause you to think they might also be bad or the source of the problems. Once you pull the device out that you identify as possible draw source, you should see amp meter reading normal. As another suggestion, you can get an antigravity battery monitor. This is a cheap but effective device that connects to your battery and charts your current draw over time. Uses bluetooth to connect to a phone and easily identifies when you have current draw occurring. It also measures starting capacity and alternator function. Very useful. This is a tedious process, but if done in proper order, you should be able to identify your bad circuit. Hope this helps. See my 981 parasitic battery drain thread to see how I solved my issues. 981 Parasitic Battery Drain - Troubleshooting done - Who... Have an issue with battery drain while car off, asleep and unlocked. I am providing my diagnostics that identified the following results, and my conclusion as to source of problem, but I have no idea what a solution could be: 1) After car goes 'to sleep" (dash displays blank out) there is are... www.planet-9.com

Glad it was a help... it seems almost all cars now have a "must be driven every ## hours" sort of date now. Back when cars were simple, you took the key out and the battery was basically providing no current to the car since nothing remained on. Now with things like keyless entry, alarm systems, remote button unlocking/locking, fast-on headunits - there is never a time when no current is being drawn from the battery - even in full sleep mode. It may not seem to be much draw - but some cars simply eat the battery even when off. Leave one of them for 2 weeks unattended and it's going to be challenging to start it.