Strange Parasitic - MICU?

1600 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by CarParts.com, Feb 23, 2022

Bellatrix

Discussion Starter · Feb 17, 2022

I have a 2009 Civic Coupe LX, my battery drains every couple of days. I found a parasitic draw of about 150mA through fuse 2 (ignition) in my under-hood fuse box. According to the wiring diagram, the only device directly connected to this fuse is the starter relay in the under-dash fuse box. I removed the starter relay, the parasitic still exists. I remove fuse 2, the parasitic goes away. I noticed searching online that the 2008 Civics had a failure in the MICU where it would not go to sleep correctly and it would draw incorrect current when the car was off, thereby draining the battery. Can anyone tell me if my condition sounds like the MICU failure? I would appreciate any help on this.(Also, before I found the fuse 2 parasitic, I had removed all of the fuses and relays from both the under-dash and under-hood fuse boxes except for the main fuses, and the parasitic still remained).
Thanks.

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Bellatrix

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 23, 2022

CarParts.com said:
Hello,

Are you referring to the #2 multi-fuse? That fuse is actually two fuses (50 amp and 60 amp) in one assembly. The 50 amp side provides power to the ignition switch and the 60 amp side provides power to several fuses. In other words, that big fuse provides power to a lot of circuits...

Thanks & yeah I know about the #2 fuse. We've had this car for several years, it has been paid off for some time. I found the cause of the parasitic: the dealer we had bought the car from had installed a GPS tracker, powered off of the starter/ignition line after the under hood fuse #2 50A side. The device was placed well up in the driver-side dash and connected to the power so that none of the connectors (spliced into the wires) or the GPS device itself were visible. I was just able to see the wires powering it far up in the top of the dash when I laid with my back on the floor under the steering wheel, not a very easy position in a small car. Anyway, I pulled on the wires and the device with its connector slipped out of a small ledge that was completely out of sight. I disconnected the spliced lines and the current draw instantly went down to ~20mA. I know that Honda Civic's have had issues with parasitics throughout their existence, and until I found this I was looking at the MICU possibly being the cause itself, glad it wasn't. Hope this helps anyone else that might be experiencing a similar parasitic, and thanks for your reply, much appreciated. This is one I won't forget, and I think I'll keep the tracker as a small trophy.

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