Current Drain

[Iestyn]

My 2000 Rav 4 (136,000 miles and still going strong) has developed a drain on the Battery even with everything off (about 0.55 mv. I checked the drain and found that, via the fuse (10 amp under the bonnet), that the circuit labelled Dome Light was drawing most of the current. Is the Dome light the interior light?

I would welcome any suggestions as to what I can do next.

Thanks for reading this.

[IanML]

The dome light is the interior light.  It could be water ingress (do you have a sunroof?)

Open it up and inspect for water ingress.  Thoroughly clean and dry (iso-propyl alcohol aka propanol is good for that).  With everything clean and dry, measure leakage again.

[gjnorthall]

550mA is an acceptable parasitic Battery drain - albeit at the top end of the acceptability range. You may find that the dome light fuse feeds other things such as the memory power supply for the radio. 

[Gerg]

As well as all the above, does the Rav4 have a boot light or a glovebox light?  If it does, do you know that they are off?  Perhaps they are fed by the same fuse?

 

[gjnorthall]

Meant to say that 55mA is an acceptable parasitic drain. Not really sure what the drain is in this case - it's stated as 0.55mV (?). It may be worth confirming the value - otherwise you may be chasing shadows.

[IanML]

The other services fed by the Dome fuse are the map light, the ignition key cylinder light, the boot light and the lamp on the dash which indicates whether a door is open.