I’m trying to track down a parasitic draw.

With an ammeter in line with the positive lead I get a draw of 3.8Ma with everything shut down. That didnt seem so bad to me.

But ive found something else which is more sinister.

I noticed my brake lights acting funny. Either dim, or non existent. Then with the rear running lights on, the brake pedal would turn off the rear lights, and not light the brake lights.

I initially put this down to the trailer lighting I installed years ago, but inspecting that looks fine. I removed it for good measure.

But then I noticed a significant tick from the centre console, and the Park light next to the shifter goes out.

Before I rip into the centre console, is there a usual suspect in there that can cause these things?

EDIT. Reading around, the centre console click is normal. But should the park light go out? Have I just noticed that.

So the real issue is that the brake lights dont work, and the rear lights go out when I press the pedal.

 

3.8 megamps?? that's huge.

 

Have you done some work lately on it for this issue to pop up ?

 

So, changing the stop/tail bulbs fixed it. Duh.

my old bulbs were really dim, and the inside of the glass had started to go dark.

odd they didnt just blow.