battery drain!!!

[waynos 0]

i have a corrado 1.8 16v (1989) and my battery cannot hold a charge for more than a day.i know its not my starter motor or alternator because they are new and i have also left them conected to the battery and it didnt drain.

 

i have heard of a test that can be done to check for a drain with a multimeter in series with the earth wire, but i get no reading.

 

some one please help its driving me mad!

[bcstudent 0]

Well if you're sure your testing correctly with the meter then your battery is likely to be knackered. How old is it?

[waynos 0]

i know its not my battery because its less than six months old and when i disconnect the live wire goin into the car it does not go flat.well im not too sure im doing the test right, do you know how to do the test?

[Stan 24v 0]

I reckon its your alt! Just cos its new means nothing mate! I had a new one that would add voltage for each rev that was added!!!

 

Stick a voltmeter across the terminals with the car running. Around 14v DC should be good. If it fluctuates, up or down, then the bushes may be buggered.

[dr_mat 0]

It's kinda tricky to measure leakage, but in principle you just need to get a multimeter, put it in "10A" DC current mode, and place it in series with one of the battery connectors.

 

Sorta:

 

Battery - Meter - Normal battery lead..

 

If this reads more than 100mA then you have a problem. From here on in it's a case of pulling fuses until you find which circuit is causing the majority of the drain. I would say that it's not unusual for Corrados to have minor current leaks, and even brand new fully charged batteries won't keep a Corrado alive for more than a couple of weeks without the engine being run.

 

Also good advice above on testing the alt, there the meter should be on the 20V DC scale though, obviously... ;)

 

Don't, whatever you do, accidentally leave your meter in 10A current mode and put it across the battery. You'll be holding a charred piece of melted plastic before you can say "I'm off to maplins to buy a new one"...

[TimothyClaypole 0]

Mine's doing exactly the same, new alternator, new battery, dead in 24 hours. :lol:

 

I blame the alarm(s), total waste of time and nothing but hassle to the owner.

[selbekk 0]

I had the same problem. turned out, the entire loom was more butchered than a mutha ;) Let's hope this is not your problem.

 

A simple check for if there are something inside the car draining power, is when you reconnect the positive lead to the terminal on the battery. If it sparks, there is something draining your battery even when it's off.

[bighands 0]

Old thread revival time :-)

 

I have just put the NEW multimeater i brought, between the two terminals, and it blew the fuse on 10amps?!?!?!? So does this mean i have a 10Amp plus battery drain?!? it would kind of explain the 4-5 hour charged to flat batt?

 

Oh and the new fuses, maplin where i brought it dont have, and can only find them on the net so have to wait for them to be delivered now :mad:

[Stan 24v 0]

Im sure it kicks out a lot more than 10 amps on charge mate???

 

Can you still use the voltage reading? If so, go and check that. It should be aroun 14.7 DC iirc

[BeavisJem 0]

Check the main earth to the battery (the thick one) mine was corroded through and sometime the car would start and others it would sond like the battery had died.

 

Beavisjem

[bighands 0]

No that was with the ignition off, when its running the charge is at around 13.95 volts, so good i think and if i miss out the altonator wire its around 14 dead on, so loosing a TINY bit on resistance throught that, but the battery goes flat with all the doors shut, ignition off just stitting there!?

[BeavisJem 0]

Boot light, ICE amps.

 

Is your central locking wirring when its off.

 

Hope you find the problem

[bighands 0]

no boot light, no amps ect just head unit and no wirring!

Just weird its blown the fuse on the multi meter, with a 10amp rated fuse, thats a HELL of a drain?!

Bevis jem, that sounds like a plan, cos it turns over slow compared to the golf, but still wouldnt explain the mega drain? Where was yours corroded?

[bighands 0]

Help!!

[Supercharged 2]

I think you need to start pulling fuses while testing to isolate the circuit where the problem lies.

[bighands 0]

i only brought 10 new fuses for the mulitmeter lol maybe pull them all and put them back in one at a time!!

[DUB 0]

Sounds stupid but I had this a few months back now - but check the conections it worth spending a tenner on new terminals to get the best out of the bat

[Roger Blassberg 0]

Sounds as though you did precisely what DrMat said in April NOT to do, ie shorted the battery through your multimeter on the 10A DC range (very low internal resistance = very high current = blown fuse. A shorted battery will give several hundred amps, more than enough to give you a very nasty burn). You need to connect it in series (ie in-line); disconnect one battery lead, connect one lead from the meter to that battery terminal and the other to the free battery lead to see if there is current flowing with everything switched off.

 

Best wishes

 

RB

[bighands 0]

YEa, thats what i did, and it blew the fuse!!! thats whats worrying me slighty, that the drain is more than 10amps??

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

Pull out all your fuses then put 'em back one by one until you find the one which kicks you over the 10 amps...

(Note down which go where before you pull 'em out though)

[bighands 0]

Yup thats the plan when the fuses arrive, tomorrow hopefully will keep updated as im sure its gunna be a biach!

 

Andy

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

It's possible its more than one curcuit that's doing the damage too..

 

Anyhow - good luck!

[bighands 0]

Weeeeellllll FOUND IT!

Fuses got here after the wrong ones being sent the first time round!! That’s a boring job by the way, constantly running round the from of the car but glad i have done it!!

Right this is how it stands. , there is an overall drain of 0.21 amps so thats 210 milly amps right? Sounds fairly good to me, compared to what some of the others seem to have!!

But . . then u plug in the stereo fuse and it goes crazy!!! it fluctuates all over the place but seems to be around the 0.8ish mark +/- 0.4 so think that’s the problem and has to do with the horrendous wiring behind the stereo i suspect

 

Couple of questions tho,

A, Why does it fluctuate

B, Whats the average drain of a headunit]

C, With 0.21 amp drain, how long would it take to kill the battery in theory? (its standard bosch silver)

 

Andy

[G60Jet 1]

Pull out the head unit and disconnect it, that way you can tell if its the head unit or something on the same circut. you never know whats been wired onto that same circut on an older car.

[bighands 0]

It only pulls about 0.1amps think it was the head unit warming up/resetting its self when you first plug it in that was making it go mad! So none the wiser to it all now, but wiring is a right mess so will tidy everything up and put some new speaker cables in while im there and have the whole pannel removed! is there a way of testing a battery with a multi meter, so i can rule that out, even tho its only just over a year old so i wouldnt of thought so?? should be getting about 12.5 volts yea?