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Issue: 477 Section: Technical Features 23 April, 2008

Using Multimeters, Part 3

More automotive uses

by Julian Edgar

Click on pics to view larger images

At a glance...
Using multimeters on cars

Measuring voltage drops

Measuring high currents

Measuring pressures

Measuring carbon monoxide

Part 3 of a 3-part series

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Last week we covered making the normal measurements with a multimeter – volts, ohms, amps, duty
cycle and frequency. This week – in the last of our three-part series – we take a look at some more
automotive uses you can make of a multimeter.

Measuring Voltage Drops

Voltage drops occur in all wiring but are much more likely when high currents are flowing. A voltage
drop means that the voltage available at the battery is not reaching the load – there is resistance
along the way.

Voltage drops can be easily measured with a multimeter, especially one that has a Max/Min hold
function. Simply set the meter to read Volts DC and then connect one probe of the meter to the
positive battery terminal and the other to the positive supply at the load. Any voltage that shows on
the multimeter scale indicates that there is a difference in the voltage between the two points. No
voltage drop equals no difference – IOTW, no voltage is being lost between the battery and the load.

This can be a good check to perform on headlights

which don’t seem to be as bright as they should
be. Here the voltage drop to the high beam of a
mid-Eighties BMW 735i is being measured with the
engine running. As can be seen on the meter, the
voltage drop is 0.434V. Obviously zero would be
better but anything less than about 0.5V is usually
deemed to be satisfactory.

Another voltage drop that can be measured is

during engine cranking. This is an especially good
test of the earthing system of the battery and
engine and again, it can be easily tested.

Place one probe of the meter on the negative battery post and
the other on the engine earth strap. Prevent the car from
starting (eg by pulling the main EFI relay) and then crank the
engine with the starter motor. In this BMW the voltage drop
between the neg terminal of the battery and the engine earth
strap was 0.333V during cranking. Again, this is below the 0.5V
rule of thumb. If it had been a high reading, you could move
the multimeter probe around (the one that was connected to
the earth strap) and try it next on the negative battery clamp,
for example. If there was a major voltage drop across the
clamp/battery post connection, this would indicate that cleaning
of this junction was required. By making the measurement at
different points it’s easy to isolate the area in which the major
voltage drop is occurring.

Measuring Other Stuff

Once you get used to using a good multimeter in car modification you’ll start hankering after a meter
than can measure more than just electrical values. Like, wouldn’t it be great if you could measure
peak boost, or other physical parameters? Well, you can. We already briefly touched on temperature
(many multimeters will take the direct input of a thermocouple) but there are also adaptors available
that will measure nearly anything that’s measurable and then turn it into units you can read on your
multimeter.

Unfortunately many of these adaptors are quite expensive so you’re unlikely to have them all in your
toolkit – but having one or two becomes viable if you do a lot of development.

High Currents

DC current clamps are devices that have a

moveable jaw that clamps around the wire carrying
the current. The clamp – which has its own internal
battery – can sense the amount of current flowing
through the wire (yes, without even touching it, let
alone requiring that it is cut!) and outputs a
precise voltage per amp that it measures.

For example, a clamp might have an output of 1

millivolt per amp. This makes measuring the
clamp's output easy - if the multimeter shows a
measurement of 5 millivolts on its voltage scale
when connected to the operating clamp, the current flowing in the wire is 5 amps. If the voltage
displayed on the multimeter is 100 millivolts, the current flowing in the wire is 100 amps.

Current clamps should be used primarily for measuring currents too great for a conventional
multimeter to handle – eg over 10 or 20 amps. This is because their accuracy at small currents isn’t a
strong point. But one of the beauties of using them is that you don’t have to worry about blowing the
fuse in your multimeter if you’re trying to measure an unknown current.

For more on these designs, see Current Clamps.

Pressures

Adaptors are available that output a precise

voltage per unit of pressure – for example, 10
millivolts per psi, or 1 millivolt per kilopascal. In
the same way as with a current clamp, you plug
the device into your multimeter and then read off
the pressure. The beauty of the approach is that (if
your meter has the functions, of course) you can
very easily measure Maximum, Minimum and
Average pressure levels. Turbo boost, fuel
pressure, brake fluid pressure, oil pressure – all
can be measured in this way. If you have a data-
logging multimeter (either internal or through a PC
interface) these measurements can also be logged.

As with the current clamp, is pretty well impossible to damage the multimeter by too high an input
(although of course you can always blow up the pressure adaptor if you exceed its limits!) and the
system is portable and safe. WRT the latter, when measuring fuel pressure for example, the adaptor
can be inside the engine bay with long leads connecting its output to the multimeter in the cabin. This
means that dangerous fluids aren’t brought into the cabin.

The usefulness of pressure measuring is very high,

primarily because you can see details that would
otherwise be impossible to find. For example,
shown here is the pressure measured between the
throttle and the turbo after the throttle has been
abruptly closed. Without a blow-off valve, pressure
waves bounce back and forth as the pressure
gradually dies away. This pattern of pressure
change is nothing like the one most people imagine
happening in turbo cars without a BOV...

Carbon Monoxide

It’s not going to be top of your list, but a carbon monoxide

probe is ideal if you need to keep a watch on engine
exhaust levels inside a workshop. Like the other probes, it
simply plugs into the multimeter, with carbon monoxide
levels read off as 1 millivolt equalling 1 part per million CO
levels. Again, max, min average and trends can be logged
with the right multimeter and/or PC interface.

Conclusion

Over this series we’ve shown you how to select and use a multimeter – from the basics of on-car
measuring of volts, ohms and amps to the more sophisticated uses including measuring physical
parameters like boost and temperature.

Summary? A good multimeter is one of the most effective tools in your workshop.