Chasing a draw in my 03 Cobra, GEM wakup?

[dumbstixlars]

Hi all,

So I have had a problem with the battery going dead in my 03 for a while now. It draws 210 milli amps when sitting. I was wondering if hooking up the battery will activate the GEM. I was pulling fuses and when I got to #39 (the GEM) it dropped to 40 mill amps of draw.

My procedure is I unhooked the battery last night, I got up this morning, I have the hood up, I pull a fuse, shut the door, then hook up my ammeter (which then powers the car). Could I be getting an initial current surge from the GEM powering things up?

The car also has a Viper alarm on it that I am suspicious of, but I haven't gone down that rabbit hole yet as I don't have enough evidence that is the problem. I put a new yellow top in the car last Sunday and it was at 13.1 volts when I put it in, last night when I checked, it was down to 12.4V. When idling warm the car charges at 14.3-4 volts.

 

[01yellercobra]

It could be the GEM. I want to say you need to wait 10 minutes to get a true reading. But don't quote me on that.

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[dumbstixlars]

OK, I hooked it up, it sat there for a while pulling 178 milliamps (lower setting) for about 30 minutes. Now it is sitting at 41 milliamps. This is with the alarm disarmed though. So I am going to switch to the higher amperage rating on the DMM, arm the alarm and see how much it pulls after 30 minutes.

 

[ninty9cobra]

If the Viper alarm is hooked up to the Gem module fuse it does not let it go into sleep mode and will drain battery. My brother's 03 had a LoJack system and power was hooked up to Gem module fuse and would drain battery.

 

[dumbstixlars]

I armed it and let it sit for a bit. After about 30 minutes with the alarm armed it was around 70ish millamps down from 210-220 milliamps. Hard to say cause I was on the 10 amp resolution of the meter. I tried switching to the higher resolution setting, but that is protected by a 200 milliamp fuse and it immediately let go.