Spent 4 hours hunting a parasitic drain that was staring me in the face

Had a 2015 Civic come in last Wednesday with a dead battery every morning. Pulled out my multimeter, started pulling fuses one by one. After 3 hours of frustration and coffee, I finally noticed the trunk light was staying on because the switch was stuck down. It took me almost 4 hours to find something that took 10 seconds to fix. I felt like an absolute idiot walking the bill. Has anyone else spent way too long on something that simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_walker24d ago

Did you at least check the dome light switch or the trunk plunger before you started pulling fuses lol? I feel like that's the kind of thing you kick yourself over but every tech has done it at least once. What was the final straw that made you look at the trunk?

sandrat2424d ago

Wait, you mean to tell me you actually pulled half the fuses in that car before thinking to check if the trunk was slightly open? That's wild man, I would have been kicking myself for a solid week after realizing that. I bet you were staring at that dome light going crazy for like an hour trying to figure out what sorcery was keeping it on. Gotta say though, we've all been there with the super obvious stuff hiding in plain sight, so at least you got a good story out of it.

the_margaret23d ago

Claire_walker, wait, you pulled fuses for three hours before noticing the trunk?