2002 S60 N/A Alarm causing battery drain?

vmaxmike · Post by **vmaxmike** » 07 Feb 2015, 10:07

Suspecting a parasitic battery drain, i checked and with alarm fuse installed, there is a constant drain on the battery of around 165 milliamps.
Without the alarm fuse installed, milliamp reading drops to almost nothing (maybe 10-15). So the alarm is drawing around 150 ma.
The alarm system is completely stock so was wondering if these readings are normal? The battery does seem to get week after sitting a few days. Would driving / parking the car w/o the alarm fuse cause any issues other than a vulnerable to theft car?

draser · Post by **draser** » 08 Feb 2015, 17:16

If alarm is original its battery has leaked and it may not even be functional. Do you get the alarm service message? I'd test alarm to see if it works. If it does I'd cut open to assess damage, and try cleaning the board and plug back in to check current draw.

vmaxmike · Post by **vmaxmike** » 09 Feb 2015, 12:46

unfortunately on this s60, the informational message display does not work unless its an option that the car did not get!?. the reset button on turn signal lever is there but seems non functional. The alarm does work! Where exactly would I find that board to investigate??
Another peculiarity is the check engine light does not work either! I have to plug in a scanner periodically to see if there are any codes. Any advice on how to fix display /check light would be great too!

draser · Post by **draser** » 10 Feb 2015, 07:29

The alarm control board is inside alarm module. Normally, module is cut open at the seam, and battery remnants are removed and module is cleaned of any salt deposits. The engine light and message display are part of DIM - driver info module. That will need removed and repaired - a lot of info on this forum and others on that.

Post by **regent** » 10 Feb 2015, 11:25

On our cars (I have an '02 S60 n/a) the alarm module is hidden in the passenger side fender; you will need to peel the liner a bit to get to it and to 'hack' the security fastener to remove it.
In general, if any control module is faulty, it talks rubbish to the network (or does not talk at all) and you should be seeing related Comm Fault Codes with a VIDA/DiCE setup, in addition to the partial loss of functionality and/or parasitic drain.
I would talk to the car to see if there are alarm-related codes before I tackle the module. But statistically, at this age they fail (very close to 100%)
I wonder how you get to pass emissions if they cannot test the MIL