Battery keeps dying

[koi]

Been having problems with starting the car for the past few months...

RAC were out and said battery was fine but something was draining it, took it to a garage to be checked out and they said it was fine but battery was faulty so swapped it. Same thing happened again and they just changed the battery again as they can't see any problems.

Will be taking it back again but is there anything I can check? Already taken the stereo out and replaced it with the standard one. Don't want them to just swap the battery again and have the same problem all over again. Car starts fine but if not driven for a couple of days it will struggle to start and need jump started.

 

[Stefan.]

Alternator?

 

[robgooch]

My mate had a battery drain on their focus, it turned out to be the interior light in the boot. Obviously when you open your boot, the light comes on, terrier you don't know if it has been on for ages or whether it had just come on. The way he located the drain to the boot light was when he saw a faint glow coming trough te sides of the Patel shelf at night. You could get inside the car and pull the seats down to see if te light is staying on?

 

[koi]

Alternator fine and charging the battery apparently...

Will check out the boot light, good thing the seats fold back or would of had to ask somethone to lock me in the boot to check.

 

[koi]

Can't get it to the garage till next month so got a loan of a multimeter and took some readings. Manuals rubbish so need to work out how to measure current drain with it.

Battery is 12.39v so needs a good charge I reckon.
When started I get 14.41v and then 14.35 with the lights on so should be charging ok.

Checked the rear number plate holder and the bulb had rusted itself into the holder, thinking this may be causing a drain (wishful thinking for an easy fix) so will get a new one ordered.

 

[Thrill]

Maybe just try cleaning up the number plate light with some WD or some contact cleaner? Save you buying a new unit

 

[koi]

The lens has gone a bit yellow and only a tenner or so brand new anyway.

 

[jenic]

From another thread

Alternator can still be faulty if it's charging well but also drawing power when not running.

I had this problem:

From the +ive terminal there are 2 wires.

One goes to the engine/alternator, one to supply the accessories (I think)

Disconnect -ive terminal on battery

Disconnect the +ive one that supplies accessories (this goes towards the fuse box)

Put multimeter on current (amps)

Test between -ive terminal and the wire you removed from that terminal.

If reading is unusually high then its likely the alternator thats packed in. (check by removing it at the alternator and amps should drop to normal)

If it isn't then remove the alternator side and connect the other side on the +ive terminal.

Test again, if high amps remove the fuses one at a time to see what drops it and thats your problem.


As for what amps are high or not, I don't know for sure so someone else will have to confirm. Mine read low miliamps when it was on the accessory side, the alternator was the one dragging it down and was drawing about 1 amp IIRC.

This is what we did with mine anyway, could be a load of tosh and a much easier way to do it.

 

[Dan@SJM]

Do as jenic has said. Anything over 0.05amps is too high.

 

[icebergsar]

Havin same problem, check u can't hear blowing from fuel tank, could be fuel pump staying in with keys out!

 

[realnumber 1]

From another thread

Alternator can still be faulty if it's charging well but also drawing power when not running.

I got a new one for this exact reason the other week. Thankfully I only had to pay £35 for the new one fitted.

I'd suggest getting AA breakdown and repair waiting 2 weeks for it to kick in and have it done using that.

 

[koi]

Wll give this a shot tomorrow, thanks for the advice.

 

[koi]

I got a new one for this exact reason the other week. Thankfully I only had to pay £35 for the new one fitted.

I'd suggest getting AA breakdown and repair waiting 2 weeks for it to kick in and have it done using that.

RAC have been out twice before and advised me to take it to auto electrician, been there twice and each time they just changed the battery as everything was fine. Will be going back for them to take another look but just seeing if there's anything I can do in the meantime.

 

[realnumber 1]

RAC have been out twice before and advised me to take it to auto electrician, been there twice and each time they just changed the battery as everything was fine. Will be going back for them to take another look but just seeing if there's anything I can do in the meantime.

Have you got long to run on the RAC cover. If not then put up with it for a while then join the AA through quidco for the money back and also get the repair cover. Get them out and get them to do what you've already confirmed and then send it to the garage to have it fixed cheap.
It'll cost less than just taking it to the garage to have done (if it is the alternator) and you'll have up to another 4 claims for the rest of the year... Garage I chose to do mine would have wanted around £400 to do it normally!

 

[koi]

RAC ran out on the 24th so will check out the AA route.

 

[koi]

Not sure if I'm doing this rigth but I disconnected the negative from the battery and connected the meter as above in line to complete the circuit and gave a reading of 0.17

 

[Dan@SJM]

Your correct, you are seeing too much drain. Do the same and remove the fuses 1 at a time in the cabin and see if it changes.

 

[koi]

Thanks Dan, at least I know I'm on the right track now. Start pulling fuses one at a time till the current drops, that's my weekend sorted...

 

[koi]

From another thread

Alternator can still be faulty if it's charging well but also drawing power when not running.

With the alternator side disconnected only getting a drain of 0.01A so guessing this is fine.

With just the alternator side connected it jumps to 0.12A, when I disconnected the cable below it drops to 0 so guess the alternator is faulty. Is this easy enough to swap out? Had the bumper off before so no problems with that but guessing that's the easy part.

 

[jenic]

Sounds like you need a new alternator then.

You need to untension the aux belt, remove the old one, new one in, retension belt. Easier said than done ime, I'd get a garage to do it, I'd replace the belt too, maybe even the whole aux kit if it hasn't been done before.

 

[koi]

Bugger that, garage job it is then!

Belts just done about 10k ago by Fred so will be fine. Just so happens I'm heading down to Silverstone in a few weeks so will give him a bell and see if I can squeeze it in.

 

[koi]

Well alternator changed and things are looking good finally.

Voltage engine off, 12.44v
Voltage engine on 14.56v
Drain now 0.01a

Hopefully that's the end of that and cars running 100% again.

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

Who did you end up taking it to for the work matey?

 

[koi]

Had a trip to Silverstone planned so just went down a day earlier to get it sorted by Fred.

 

[realnumber 1]

What did that set you back?