positive battery cable getting hot

[speedygonzales]

Based on what you are saying, it sounds as though the positive cable is getting hot even when nothing is turned on. Is that correct?

To save a little time if that is the case, you should do a few things.

Assuming it is getting hot, you will not be able to measure the current draw with a normal multimeter since it will require more than 10AMPs to make the cable hot.

With regard to high draw, I've seen time and again, aftermarket audio equipment and alarms are the reason for it. So if you have any aftermarket audio equipment or alarms, disconnect them and try this.

Remove the positive cable from the battery and just touch it back to the battery post and look for a strong spark.

If it does have a strong spark, start removing loads one at a time then touch the cable back to the battery. When the spark becomes tiny, you have found the cause of the load.

Start with a single fuse at a time. If that does not produce a tiny spark, unplug the ignition switch.

Once you get to the point where the draw is reasonable (less than 10amps) you can start looking with an amp meter.

NOTE: One word of caution regarding amp meters. Regular multimeters (not inductive) have fuses for current measurement. I have yet to see someone elses meter have fuses that were NOT blown. The problem with that is if you are looking at a circuit that should have no current draw and the fuses are blow, you will see NO current. Be sure you measure a known current draw to be sure your fuses are not blown before you look for ZERO current draw.