S1 battery not lasting

[jimbo]

Mine was only drawing 1.8amps from the immobiliser when the AA came out last week. He said there was nothing draining my battery, and that I should last for weeks without going flat, regardless of the temp. Reckons that the battery is just pretty crap/faulty and suggested that a Bosch replacement might be a better bet. So annoying!

Sent from my TITAN X310e using Board Express

I presume you've got a decimal point in the wrong place. (According to google) an 063 battery capacity will be about 44 amp hours so with a 1.8amp draw from your immobiliser it'll be flat in just over 24 hours.

Yeah that's my mistake! meant 0.18 amp

Sent from my TITAN X310e using Board Express

[woody]

Thanks Robin, will have a look this evening.

Jumped it this morning, brought the car into work and removed the alarm fuse. So will see what if any effect that has.

and Donkey The Aerospace spec folding boot lid stay is still on the list.

[robin]

Remove the alarm fuse and throw it away. Job done

[woody]

Remove the alarm fuse and throw it away. Job done

I tried that. It dosen't start.

[woody]

Hi Woody,

Well either you had no current draw at that moment or there is something wrong with the way you are doing the measuring.

A 44Ah battery will provide 1mA for 44,000 hours, roughly, and you measured way less than that (it really sounds like you measured 1.4 micro amps, which the battery would provide for millions of hours).

Assuming on the 10A scale it will measure down to 100mA (it will probably display 00.1 for this) and given 100mA is borderline OK current draw (440 hours = 18 days) I suggest you move the red probe to the 10ADC socket and select the 10A scale. Now to test it does something sane you should be able to turn on the side lights (NOT THE HEAD LIGHTS) and you'll see somewhere between 3.00 and 6.00 I think.

Assuming you get that working, then switch off the head lights and post up what the reading is when everything is off, all fuses in.

Cheers,
Robin

Taking the fuse out didn't work. Jumped it at work, left it running once home while I tried the voltage across the battery. 13.8v running, 12.5 switched off.

Tried as you describe. No reading at all. No reading when I tried what I did last night either.

[robin]

Does no reading at all mean the screen is blank, or it's showing 0 or it's, perhaps, showing 0L?

Are you disconnecting ALL the cables from the battery terminal, then inserting the meter with red wire to car loom side, black wire to battery -ve terminal?

Are you sure that the red/black probes are making good contact with ALL of the cables on the disconnected battery terminal?

Do the side lights turn on when your meter is in line?

If you remove your meter, do the side lights immediately go out?

Cheers,
Robin

[woody]

Does no reading at all mean the screen is blank, or it's showing 0 or it's, perhaps, showing 0L?

Are you disconnecting ALL the cables from the battery terminal, then inserting the meter with red wire to car loom side, black wire to battery -ve terminal?

Are you sure that the red/black probes are making good contact with ALL of the cables on the disconnected battery terminal?

Do the side lights turn on when your meter is in line?

If you remove your meter, do the side lights immediately go out?

Cheers,
Robin

Been back out and double checked, but nothing again. Meter is reading 00.0.

Side lights are not making a difference.


ETA: just read your reply to cjm. As my car is also only getting 13.8v across the battery, it may also be a poor earth? I have cleaned the inside of the battery terminals before the car was back on the road as well as the chassis side earth to the gearbox. The battery to chassis earth doesn't look like it'll be in a fun to access place.

[robin]

OK, then you haven't got the meter hooked up properly - if you remove the meter while the side lights are on and don't reconnect the cables, do the side lights go out? If not, then you haven't got the meter in circuit with at least that part and perhaps more ...

You can bypass the chassis earth for testing purposes - get a long jump lead (or two short jump leads clipped together end-to-end) - clip it to the engine block or gearbox - must be a good connection! Clip the other end to the battery negative terminal (leave all the normally connected cables on the negative terminal also - i.e. you are adding this cable to working car, not replacing anything).

Now run the engine and see if the voltage at the battery is any higher than 13.8?

Cheers,
Robin

[tut]

Very similar to my on and off earth problems over the last couple of year. Standard earth leads seemed ok, and I thought that Craig had cured it when he attached another earth lead from the engine block to the chassis, was good for a couple of months then re-appeared.

My symptoms are when I just get a clunk or barely a whir on start up, and the headlights come on in any gear but reverse, though even that is not consistent. Sometimes I can turn it over in gear to give it a jump, and it then sometimes starts as normal, but other times it does not work and I need a push start. However what always works is Robin's suggestion of clamping a jump lead to the battery negative then back to the engine block, job done. I now carry it in the boot but have only had to use it once lately as it has been behaving itself.

I also had the same problem with N1 TUT, but Craig Wallace ran a permanent earth lead through the transmission tunnel in the car to the block, and that also did the trick.

tut

[woody]

Just back in. Voltage with earth direct to the gearbox was 14.05 and the same again when I took the lead off.

Still can't get anything other than a zero on the meter when reading amps. Red meter lead on the earth lead, black one on the battery terminal. Can see the finest of fuse wires in the meter fuse at the same time.

[robin]

Woody.

When the side lights are on and you remove your meter, do the side lights turn off?

If so your meter is broken.

If not your technique is broken

I could perhaps swing over and take a look, or as the car now works, we could rendezvous somewhere in the middle - if your location on the board is correct, that would be somewhere up the A702.

Cheers,
Robin

[sjohnston777]

This may sound strange, but have you had the new battery checked? I replaced the battery on my girlfriends earlier this year and the new battery couldn't maintain charge.

Cheers

[woody]

Found out the issue this week, with a little help from Robin when I was through in Edinburgh.

Something's went awry in the alternator, causing that to draw current. New one in order

[Stu160]

Regardless of the battery problems, all I can say is WELL DONE MATE

Stu

[woody]

Regardless of the battery problems, all I can say is WELL DONE MATE

Stu

It's in bits again this week.