New vehicles battery drain and phone chargers?

[brods]

My son's 2016 Chrysler 200 cannot sit for more than a week when driven 24 miles on the weekend. I missed one weekend and it would not start on a Thursday, so 11 days. I assume the 24 miles is not enough to fully charge the battery and will be buying a battery tender of some kind. The battery was replaced by the dealer several months ago.

My question is with these new "never sleep" cars can something like an Iphone cable left plugged in be enough to keep one or more of the electrical systems awake?

I've also read where any similar key fob coming close to the vehicle will cause it to wake up and ping the key fob to see if it is its owner's. The key fob is kept in the house about 20 yards from the vehicle. Is that far enough away? Our nearest neighbor has all Fords and the shared road is 15 to 20 yards away from where the car is parked. Could a passing car in the road cause the car to wake up?

 

[B.G. Smith]

There should be a IOD fuse (ignition off drain) might try removing it and no, 24 miles is not enough to fully charge the battery. I don't know if the phone charger pulls power when no phone is plugged into it? bg

 

[Bob4x4]

The 2016 is a Fiat based vehicle,not sure it will have an Iod. Phone chargers usually do have at least an indicator light that stays on if it is in a batt fed outlet instead of an ign on socket

 

[sag2]

The only way to tell is to measure the IOD by pulling a battery cable and putting a DVOM set to amps between the battery post and the removed battery cable. Make the connection a good one and leave the meter on for a couple of days that it sits. Walk by the car every chance you get and see if it wakes up from time to time. Try it with the phone charger in, then out. Leave a window down so you can reach inside to unplug the charger. The normal IOD after it goes to sleep should be 50 milliamps or so. It will wake up from time to time to do some housekeeping items (evaporative emissions) but should return to sleep after a bit.
My wife’s 2015 200 sits for a week or more at a time in the garage and has never failed to start.

 

[brods]

Thanks for the info Sag2. Would the factory service manual include information about which systems activate and when that occurs, like the evap system you mention? I’d like to know more about the evap system operation and why it needs to wake up to do something periodically. It would be crazy if the battery drain issue is because of something silly like a loose (or critter munched) hose or gasket on the evap system.

Back when I first posted I hooked up a meter, tried two different meters in fact, and felt the results were not trustworthy. When first connected the amp draw was 2.23 amps. After about 1 minute it was 0.97 amp and after about 2 minutes it was 0.12 amp. It was more the way the meters jumped around that made me doubt them (that and they are cheap meters). I had unplugged the phone charger cable that was in the console USB port when I came across it before the original post, but since then it has made no difference.

I took the easy way out and bought a battery maintainer to keep the battery charged so the alt doesn’t have to work overtime every time the vehicle is started after sitting a week or so. My son is back this week from a semester abroad so it will become his problem again.

 

[sag2]

Thanks for the info Sag2. Would the factory service manual include information about which systems activate and when that occurs, like the evap system you mention? I’d like to know more about the evap system operation and why it needs to wake up to do something periodically. It would be crazy if the battery drain issue is because of something silly like a loose (or critter munched) hose or gasket on the evap system.

Back when I first posted I hooked up a meter, tried two different meters in fact, and felt the results were not trustworthy. When first connected the amp draw was 2.23 amps. After about 1 minute it was 0.97 amp and after about 2 minutes it was 0.12 amp. It was more the way the meters jumped around that made me doubt them (that and they are cheap meters). I had unplugged the phone charger cable that was in the console USB port when I came across it before the original post, but since then it has made no difference.

I took the easy way out and bought a battery maintainer to keep the battery charged so the alt doesn’t have to work overtime every time the vehicle is started after sitting a week or so. My son is back this week from a semester abroad so it will become his problem again.

Sorry, I didn't check back.
There really isn't anything in the service manual that would be specific enough. But the draw you saw is not that unusual. But the 120mA you ended up with is still too high. The best way to watch it is to hook up the meter with clips and then watch it over 5 minutes or so. Most of the time it should be less than 50mA after a few minutes. If you wake it back up by opening and closing the door it shoud jump up to 3 or 4 amps, then settle back down to 30-50mA after a few minutes. As the different modules go to sleep the draw continues to go down.
To answer your question about the emissions, it monitors the EVAP system for leaks after shut down. It looks out every once in a while to watch the fuel tank pressure sensor and a timer that is running in the PCM in the background.

 

[Killer223]

aftermarket radio and amps?

 

[brods]

Sorry, I didn't check back.
There really isn't anything in the service manual that would be specific enough. But the draw you saw is not that unusual. But the 120mA you ended up with is still too high. The best way to watch it is to hook up the meter with clips and then watch it over 5 minutes or so. Most of the time it should be less than 50mA after a few minutes. If you wake it back up by opening and closing the door it shoud jump up to 3 or 4 amps, then settle back down to 30-50mA after a few minutes. As the different modules go to sleep the draw continues to go down.
To answer your question about the emissions, it monitors the EVAP system for leaks after shut down. It looks out every once in a while to watch the fuel tank pressure sensor and a timer that is running in the PCM in the background.

Yep, the manual showed up a few days ago and is a disappointment when it comes to IOD information (ie nothing other than what the max IOD should be after the car is fully asleep). In the emissions section it mentions the tank pressure sensor function, but doesn't go into any detail about what wakes up, how long it stays awake or amp draw. My son is graduating this year with an EE degree and has been doing his co-op at Chrysler so, imo, it would be a great learning opportunity for him to figure this out, especially if he is going to be involved is designing these rolling computer abortions. Apparently he doesn't see it that way and will likely just take it to the dealer. kids today

 

[The patriot]

Phone chargers pull anywhere from 1 to 3 amps.
IMO I doubt that would do it.
I've left my radios on for almost a week and it didnt even make a noticable difference when cranking.