Battery drain

I have a 97 Sahara. About 3 weeks ago I went out to start the Jeep and the starter just clicked and then silence. I removed the battery and took it to the local mechs. Showed weak battery. replaced battery and all is well. Jeep sets alot now and isn't driven alot. About 1wk passes and I drove it about 30 miles to town and back no problems. About 1 wk ago drove it to my brothers about a mile away and back. No problems. Tonight tried to drive it and starter clicked and silence. Had battery and alternater checked with volt meter and they seemed fine charging at about 14.4 volts. Checked with engine off and shows a draw of 2 milliamps. Pulled fuses while checking draw of amps and found it stopped on the 40 amp exterior light fuse under hood. Any idea what could be doing this. Bad ground? Kinda stumped. Has anyone had this problem?

2 mA is not enough to drain a battery that big, that fast.

Acceptable parasitic drains are as much as 25-50 mA. With a battery in good condition, that should pass the 2 week mark easily. Thats about 40 hours to drain 1 amp from a 600 cca battery. or about 5 amps /week.

if the 2mA is not the actual amount (less than), then there is some light on the exterior light circuit that may be staying on.

Double check the 2 mA drain figure.

JD

I left the battery charger on trickle last night and it was full charged this morning. I will monitor it over the next days and weeks to see how it is doing. Thanks for the info JD.

I forgot to ask - what did you use to measure the parasitic drain on the battery and how did you connect it??

Just wondering........

JD

I measure with volt meter on Amp setting. One lead on positive battery terminal and other on positive battery wire disconnected with the engine turned off. Actually my brother did it. He is an electronics technician for a oil company and works with alot of backup battery power sources.

I think I figured out the problem. The newly purchased battery had apparently set on the rack awhile and lost some charge or wasn't fully charged to begin with. I assumed that it was fully charged and didn't drive it enough for the alt to charge it back up to full charge. The somewhat weakened battery then drained. I haven't had any trouble out of it in the last few weeks. Thanks everyone who posted info and help.