Wanted to post this up in case someone else runs into this issue in the future.

2009 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS, 70,000 miles.
Car is all stock with the exception of aftermarket headlight assemblies.

If car sat more than a couple of days, battery would be low and sometimes would not start.

The battery was old so I replaced the battery with a new one, which didn’t solve the problem.



In order to test the load on the battery I did this (using some small test wires with alligator clamps):

. Took off the neutral terminal

· Placed one lead of the tester on the neutral battery post and the other lead on the neutral cable (that was hanging to the side). This completed the circuit.

· Turned the meter on to DC 10 amps (or some high range)



With all the doors shut, the car would initially pull about 1.6 amps…. Waiting about 10 seconds it would drop down to around .6 amps.

Waiting more it would stay at .6 … would not go down anymore.



Using the service manual wiring diagrams, did this:

· Pulled the #30 fuse under the hood. This is the fuse that has all non-ignition switched load. Pulling this, the meter instantly went to .1 amps and then settled to .03 amps.

· Fuse 30 serves fuse 7-9 in the fuse block inside the interior of the car (drivers side).

· To isolate which fuse inside, I plugged back in fuse 30 under the hood and then pulled Fuse 7. Based on other google searches, this was the first place I was going to look. Pulling fuse 7 had the same result as before, amps dropped down to .03 amps.

· Another google search indicated one guy had his Bluetooth device cause this issue…. And per the schematic, the Bluetooth device is on fuse 7 circuit.

· Then… pulled glove box.

· Pulled out inspection panel under dash.

· Located Bluetooth box which is mounted on the front side, right under the airbag.

· Touching the box, it was noticeably hot….. BINGO.

· Unplugged it.





Retesting the circuit showed load down to .03amps over time.



Problem solved.