gps companies

pugboy · Postby **pugboy** » February 18th, 2025, 5:39 pm

anybody ever come across situation where gps system runs down the car battery after 2-3 days parked up?

i am on second car battery it has done this too and fed up.
took it back to company twice and they hooked up ammeter in series to show the parasitic drain on whole car was about 20-30 milliamps yet it still drains battery.

VexXx Dogg · Postby **VexXx Dogg** » February 18th, 2025, 6:02 pm

Defective unit, maybe.
Pull the fuse on the gps unit alone, in case it’s a faulty door switch, trunk switch or glovebox light that is causing it.

That can help isolate the issue to the gps or not

88sins · Postby **88sins** » February 18th, 2025, 6:18 pm

That eh sounding right, and I seriously doubt the problem is the gps unit itself. dem ting does barely use power. If you had say after a month while the car parked up, maybe, but still doubtful.

pugboy · Postby **pugboy** » February 18th, 2025, 6:40 pm

i agree, based on that current draw it should last at least 2 weeks.

the car never had issues before the gps was installed and it has had less usage since it was installed.
would be used mostly on wed and thurs
and sparingly on friday’s

88sins wrote:That eh sounding right, and I seriously doubt the problem is the gps unit itself. dem ting does barely use power. If you had say after a month while the car parked up, maybe, but still doubtful.

alfa · Postby **alfa** » February 18th, 2025, 6:45 pm

Check your charging system as well as put the battery under a load test to eliminate those. Parasitic drain to small to cause that

matix · Postby **matix** » February 18th, 2025, 6:55 pm

pugboy wrote:anybody ever come across situation where gps system runs down the car battery after 2-3 days parked up?

i am on second car battery it has done this too and fed up.
took it back to company twice and they hooked up ammeter in series to show the parasitic drain on whole car was about 20-30 milliamps yet it still drains battery.

Grounding issue, faulty unit, slack connections. A lot happens during installations

pugboy · Postby **pugboy** » February 18th, 2025, 6:56 pm

charging system is very good, i fedup with this gps now

Skillys · Postby **Skillys** » February 18th, 2025, 7:39 pm

pugboy wrote:charging system is very good, i fedup with this gps now

Let a good electrician check out the vehicle it may not be the gps.

killercow · Postby **killercow** » February 19th, 2025, 12:27 am

pugboy wrote:charging system is very good, i fedup with this gps now

GPS units require very little current to operate, so I highly doubt it's the GPS (unless during the installation a wire grounded off or something like that). As recommended above, get a good electrician to run through your vehicle and find the correct source of the problem.

pugboy · Postby **pugboy** » February 19th, 2025, 7:35 am

thing is an electrician will probably do the same thing they did
disconnect battery and run a current meter in series then see what parasitic draws there are
if the company messed up some wire and have something loose shorting intermittently it will take some serious searching

88sins · Postby **88sins** » February 19th, 2025, 6:20 pm

pugboy wrote:thing is an electrician will probably do the same thing they did
disconnect battery and run a current meter in series then see what parasitic draws there are
if the company messed up some wire and have something loose shorting intermittently it will take some serious searching

The gps unit should have a fuse on the + line. Once it does, do a parasitic draw test and while doing the test,, and pull the fuse. If no change, it's not the gps unit itself.

The problem is quite possibly current leaking through the shielding of a wire that was cracked or scratched or spliced in order run power to the gps. Some of the wires they running in cars these days the shielding REALLY thin, so it easy to strip or crack.