Found the culprit to my battery leakage.

"nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul" (nfamouscj)
03/01/2018 at 19:42 • Filed to: None

Ironically it’s the item tasked with helping me keep my vehicle running healthy - except when it’s left plugged in, constantly running and searching for a Bluetooth connection for two weeks.

Possible coincidence but my dash lights aren’t flickering anymore - assuming I had some loose LED bulbs. That could be from the temp changes though.

So just a PSA: Unplug your Bluetooth or wifi OBDII adapters.

DISCUSSION (18)

Wacko > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 19:52

I had my ultraguage plugged in all the time on my sx4 with no problems, but on my 97 jeep tj it would drain the battery very quickly.

My ultraguage was not Bluetooth and the screen would be off when the jeep was off.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Wacko
03/01/2018 at 19:54

Wonder if there’s a difference between PCMs allowing the obd port to be accessible when the vehicle is off or not between vehicles?

cbell04 > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 19:55

That’s funny I couldn’t find where I put mine yesterday then it dawned on me that the place I was going to use it (the wife’s van) was the last place I had it. Sure enough it was still plugged in.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > cbell04
03/01/2018 at 19:57

As small as they’ve gotten, once plugged in you’d never know it was there unless feeling around for it. Maybe I’ll hook up an LED to it so it shines a light on the floor when it’s plugged in....

Decay buys too many beaters > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 19:59

Additional PSA

Get a OBD2 Extender cable and use that as the main receiver for the dongle. The female ports put in most cars are not rated for that many insertion/removal cycles, they will loosen up over time and eventually fail to communicate, adding an extender moves these cycles to an easily and cheaply replaceable component

cbell04 > Decay buys too many beaters
03/01/2018 at 20:02

Makes sense mine feels like its about to snap off when I put the obd2 reader on.

facw > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 20:02

In my old car I just left mine in all the time, wasn’t a problem. Power draw from a modern BT radio shouldn’t be too much. Guess it depends on the car and adapter though, as well as how long you are leaving it.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 20:05

In my experience the OBD port is always powered whether the ECU is on or not..

Decay buys too many beaters > cbell04
03/01/2018 at 20:06

Bought one of these years ago, has the side benefit of allowing me to relocate the port to under a seat so it doesn’t get kicked during track days

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085WMKU8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Decay buys too many beaters
03/01/2018 at 20:11

That’s not a bad idea at all. Could relocate mine somewhere more visible as right now it’s behind the lower dash panel.

Brickman > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 20:11

Or if it has an on/off switch. Which is surprisingly hard to find now days. My Veepeak VP16 has a switch

Urambo Tauro > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 20:16

I wonder what the actual amp-draw is when it’s left plugged in?

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Urambo Tauro
03/01/2018 at 20:23

According to someone in the Amazon reviews/questions they tested theirs at 122mA - so there we go.

Urambo Tauro > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 20:33

Yeah, that’s more than double the maximum drain my car is supposed to see when parked. (YMMV based on whatever clock/memory/presets your car has to keep alive, its battery capacity too.)

zipfuel > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/01/2018 at 23:06

For this reason I’ve never really used mine as a heads up display or to track fuel economy etc despite how cool those features might be.

Holden-SSV > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/02/2018 at 18:49

The OBDLink series of dongles will shut off after a few minutes of activity. You’re not going to get one for $12 like all those Chinese ELM clones, however.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Holden-SSV
03/03/2018 at 00:22

This one popped up on my phones Bluetooth after a week when trying to connect to a Bluetooth speaker.

DarrenMR > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
03/04/2018 at 23:58

I have a bluetooth one that I use with my phone. I wired up an on/off toggle switch.