I last drove my car on Sunday evening...so I will "try" my best to not drive for a couple of days and see what happens with battery. I will post any issues I may have with mine.

Please note I did not do my hack. FD Motorsports did mine and he did follow the instructions from the thread.

 

Thanks for the heads up utkinpol. I did the hack over the weekend. I have a multimeter and would be glad to check, but not sure how to go about it?

 

I made the "utkinpol DRL hack" on Wednesday March 7th @ noon time. On the morning of Friday March 9th @ 6:00 am I parked the Porsche after driving ~ 50 miles with the full headlights on. The light switch was turned to the off position & the car was locked. On Monday March 12th @ 6:00 pm (sitting for 84 hrs. w/o a battery tender) she fired right up just like she has always done without any sign of a weak battery. Tomorrow we head to the beach & I will be able to get a hold of my multi-meter & I will check to see if I have any amperage draw in the off or home position.

 

Having the switch in the home position for 48 hours or more would tell us all we need to know...or if you get that meter on it to see that there isn't a draw.

Thanks na011

 

I plan on taking the ground lead and touching the door catch on the door jam. I will take the hot lead and touch the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together.
Without starting the car the first test will be with the switch in the off position.
Without starting the car the second test will be with the switch in the "home" position.
Third test will be with the switch in the "home" position and the engine running.
Fourth test will be with the switch in the "home" position and the engine just turned off.

 

Found my older multi-meter at the house & made the tests this morning.
Drum roll - Results are in:

Test 1:
Without starting the car & with the switch in the "off" position I took the ground lead & touched the door catch on the door jam. Took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter jumped to 0.2 mA & the fog lights turned on.

Test 2:
Without starting the car & with the switch in the "Home" position I took the ground lead & touched the door catch on the door jam. Took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter jumped to 0.2 mA & the fog lights turned on.

Test 3:
With the car running & with the switch in the "Home" position I took the ground lead & touched the door catch on the door jam. Took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter jumped to 0.2 mA & the fog lights stayed on.

Test 4:
Doors closed & locked & without starting the car & with the switch in the "off" position I took the ground lead & touched the seat track screw. Took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter jumped to 0.2 mA & the fog lights turned on along with the rest of the lights & the alarm.

Test 5:
Doors closed for 1 min. & lights on the inside were on & without starting the car & with the switch in the "off" position I took the ground lead & touched the seat track screw. Took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter jumped to 0.2 mA & the fog lights stayed on.


Test 6:
Doors closed for 1 min. & lights on the inside were on & without starting the car & with the switch in the "Home" position I took the ground lead & touched the seat track screw. Took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter jumped to 0.2 mA & the fog lights stayed on.

Test 7:
Doors closed for 10 mins. & lights on the inside turned off by theirself & without starting the car & with the switch in the "off" position I took the ground lead & touched the seat track screw. Took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter stayed at 0.0 mA & the fog lights stayed off.


Test 8:
Doors closed for 10 mins. & lights on the inside turned off by theirself & without starting the car & with the switch in the "Home" position I took the ground lead & touched the seat track screw. Took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter stayed at 0.0 mA & the fog lights stayed off.

Because I did these test this morning & the car has been sitting since Friday March 9th @ 6 am & the only start was a brief one last night @ 6 pm I plugged in the 2 amp battery tender. The battery tender charge light came on & when I checked 10 mins. later it was off.

__________________

 

Thanks for taking the time to do that. Looks like it is safe to say that the hack that utkinpol discovered will have no ill effect on draining our batteries.

 

It looks like we are safe with the switch in either the Home or Off position. If anybody wants to replicate the tests I highly recommend not repeating Test #4 unless you want change your underwear. That test was a good morning wake-up call.

 

I'm not an electronic or electrical engineer (only a chemical one), but sounds like something may be wrong with this test methodology.

Touching the -ve lead to earth and +ve to the splice you should have been testing voltage potential (not current), so the mA Readings are not meaningful. To measure current draw you'd need to open the circuit and use the multimeter to complete the circuit (e.g. by disconnecting battery and putting multimeter in series with that)

The fact that you measured a current draw does suggest there could have been a a voltage potential however - so certainly reason to be concerned.

Can you repeat (at least a subset of the tests) on just a voltage setting on you MM?

Thanks

 

Good test, I would also suggest to put needles on multimeter pins and try to measure if there is any current at all between those wires we tap into while switch at default and 'home' positions.
As I understood both wires should be at 11v with switch completely disconnected. But I did not try to check wires with switch on - we may have a drain from 'home' wire into circuit sitting on fogs wire, I cannot think of anything else.
But it does not mean anything what I think until it gets tested.

 

On both Test 7 & Test 8 I put the Multi-Tester on the DC-V setting & took the hot lead and touched the top of the metal "splice" that hacked the 2 wires together. The meter stayed at 0.0 mV & the fog lights stayed off. I did not try any DC-V test with the wires un-plugged from the switch. Also I did not try this with Tests 1 - 6 since the fog lights lit up when I touched the metal splice to ground.

 

So what you are saying is that there is indeed no power drain, precisely when there should be no power drain (doors closed, home or off position, after 10 min)?

 

Yes, you are correct.

 

So, is the final conclusion that this is a safe hack with no battery drain?

 

As far as I can tell it's safe. 8 days & counting & no problems.