What is parasitic Drain

I choose to write about this topic because of its complex but yet simple nature, what is a parasitic drain?

Have you ever experienced a situation where you park your car at night to wake up the next morning, preparing to dash off to work, for an important meeting early in the morning or for a very vital engagement,
only to discover that your car won't start because you have a dead or flat battery?

THAT IS WHAT PARASITIC DRAIN IS ALL ABOUT.



In a  simple language parasitic drain is a situation where faulty or malfunctioning electrical components in a car drain the battery over a period of time.

These components could vary from faulty relays, bad headlamp switches, a defective audio system in the car, bridged wires bad alternators, and even a bad battery on its final stages.

CAUSES
Like I mentioned above parasitic drain could be caused by the aforementioned components and even more
these components gradually drain the life of the battery over a period of time, particularly over the night.

Also, a defective battery on its own could result in a parasitic drain,  when a car battery is usually on its last lap one of the few symptoms which would come up would be a parasitic drain.





Also Read: 5 Simple Ways To Make Your Car Engine Last Longer

SOLUTION

There are two types of solutions to parasitic drain these solutions could be categorized as preventive and corrective solutions.

Preventive solution involves taking off the positive battery terminal whenever the vehicle is to be parked for a long time to prevent these defective appliances from draining power from the battery, this method is most common today, this method can sometimes be a disadvantage because frequent removal of the positive terminal of the battery can sometimes lead to sparks which ultimately would have a damaging effect on the E.C.M (brain box) on some sensitive car models. please be sure that this is done properly.

Corrective Maintenance Involves the act of resolving the real issue behind this drain, be it replacing the battery, finding and fixing these onboard devices that lead to the drain,this could mean, replacing defective battery, finding and replacing faulty relays( this is usually the main cause) checking alternator for faulty diodes that returns current to the negativity terminal of the battery or replacing faulty onboard devices.




OVERVIEW

The best solution to a parasitic drain would be the corrective maintenance, this could be done with modern day diagnostic tools which when hooked up to the onboard computer would tell immediately which area the drain is coming from, on the contrary in older model cars which do not support diagnosis (the pre 1996 era cars equipped with d O.B.D 1) software but are fitted with onboard computers the use of a multimeter could come into play.

For more on multimeter testing please visit
http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Parasitic-Battery-Drain