When battery is connected, the door locks activate. Huh?

[john70t]

After charging the battery a couple of times, I believe I'm chasing down a parasitic draw and/or a short somewhere.

First I put a voltmeter between the negative post and the disconnected negative wire.
It read 13V...so something is returning current with the car being completely "off".

But when making that connection using the ammeter function, the door solenoids click.


Factors:
1. When using the DVOM amp function it reads .05 which seems like it should be normal draw.
I thought .02 to .05 was ok.
May I'm reading the meter wrong.
The battery will drop below 12V less than a week after being fully charged.

The usual suspect for any small amp draw would naturally be the radio (or an alarm) but the voltage differential does not change after pulling that fuse. Overhead light was switched off and that fuse pulled. Doors were closed repeatedly and that fuse pulled. Still no change.

2. I pulled all of the main fuses in the engine bay but no change.
That one should include the alternator.
(There's another specific fuse sub-panel under the dash which I haven't messed with yet.)

3. The passenger door solenoid has randomly failed to lock in the past, maybe once a year or so, but all other times it has worked fine. Today's temps were in the 50s.

4. The rear door latch lock has always been crusty due to the door filling up with water from a cracked trim piece. I wanted to disconnect it and re-test for change, but unfortunately it is wired into the plug with all the rear lights.

5. For the parasitic draw, a shorted Neutral Switch seems like the major suspect but I haven't been able to locate it yet.
The car won't start in "Park". Only in "Neutral".
Stepping on the brake doesn't unlock the shift from the Park position anymore. It requires manually pushing down the tab.
There used to be some clicking of a relay somewhere behind the dash but that sound has gone away.



The parasitic draw and the door solenoids activating might be related. Or not.
Right now I'm at a loss and a bit stumped.

[john70t]

Almost every single thing on the Subaru is half-broken but still works. Somewhat.
It has Michigan terminal cancer and jacking it up is more than a bit sketchy.


(bonus pic: I broke the rear latch handle and fixed it with literally duct tape and bailing wire)

[Bob Kontak]

John, maybe this thread can help you with the MM setup. I did not have mine set up quite right and the numbers looked odd.

There should be less than fifty one-thousandths of an amp draw when car is "sleeping". One twentieth of an amp.

Parasitic draw test - how many milliamps am I seeing?

[john70t]

Thanks Bob. I'll read the instructions again.

The door-unlock feature with the battery may be a safety feature and I'm chasing a ghost there.
I was thinking there was an actuator solenoid sticking.

[flipper35]

The brake/park issue may be a bad brake module not sending the signal to trip the solenoid to the shifter.