ABS Battery drain

Hi guys,

In need of an electrics guru to help with a fault with my 03 TD5. I have a battery drain, I think because I mostly only use the car to and from work which is about 3 miles either way, over the course of about two weeks the battery will drain as I'm not really going far enough to charge it properly.

I did a draw test tonight and the amps dropped slightly when I pulled the 15amp OBD fuse in the cab and completely when I pulled the 30amp ABS fuse in the engine bay. I'm no electrician, and not entirely sure what I was doing with the multimeter, I was going to take photo's but the battery died completely so I couldn't recreate it.

If it helps I disconnected the positive and used the multi meter from the terminal to the lead. It started at 4.3, I pulled the OBD fuse and it dropped to 3.6 (ish) and when I pulled the ABS fuse it dropped to .03.

I'm not entirely sure what to do next, I have a multi meter and a hawkeye total to play with but no clue with electricery. Any useful pointers greatly appreciated

David Moore said:

I did a draw test tonight and the amps dropped completely when I pulled the 30amp ABS fuse in the engine bay.

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in the spirit of this site
dont put it back in

doesn't really help i know

David Moore said:

If it helps I disconnected the positive and used the multi meter from the terminal to the lead. It started at 4.3, I pulled the OBD fuse and it dropped to 3.6 (ish) and when I pulled the ABS fuse it dropped to .03.

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First off, sadly your figures are frankly meaningless at the moment; if the reading is 4.3 amps then there is a problem, but if it's 4.3 milliamps then there's not much to worry about.
There are a few other details which could help to point to a possible cause.
How old is the battery?
When the vehicle is running, what voltage do you measure across the battery? It should be in the region of 14.5 volts.
When you're measuring this "parasitic current", what conditions have you set up? The vehicle should be completely switched off, including lights, radio and any other electrical equipment, the vehicle should also be left to stand with your ammeter connected but do nothing to it for about 15 to 30 minutes (although I can't remember off the top of my head how long it takes for the vehicle, mainly the SLABS to go into its "sleep" mode.
With a fully charged good battery, the vehicle should be able to be left for many weeks before problems occur. You aren't really doing the sort of mileage to do anything for the battery, maybe you should find some time to go for a 10 or 20 mile run in it. The charging system uses an alternator which if both it and the drive belt are in good condition should be able to supply more than enough current to charge the battery.

Hi, some info needed:
1. is your vehicle with SLS, coils from factiory or converted to coils from air?
2. name the exact number of fuse you removed according tgo the scheme on the fusebox's lid or was it a fusible link?
3. i repeat what Brian asked cos it's important, how old and what spec(AH/CCA) is the battery?

according to your answers i'll try to help

First things first, battery is under a year old and in good condition, alternator is fine, voltage at idle is 14.4.

Conditions were as you described, everything off, vehicle off, battery off, ammeter connected, cuppa made and watched the news went back out and took the readings, pulled the fuses etc.

Yes its milliamps, I didn't think it was a big drain but that made sense to me seeing as how it was taking two weeks to get to the point of not starting. It is a recent thing though, it was sat for a couple of months earlier in the year and started first time.

No fault codes on the hawkeye

will pop to the garage now and have a look at the battery and fuse but original SLS fitted. back in 5

So the fuse was F11 Battery is 570CCA 70AH

David Moore said:

So the fuse was F11 Battery is 570CCA 70AH

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That's way too weak for the job, you have no other problem than the unproper battery, you need minimum 110AH, buy this one https://www.tayna.co.uk/C31-1000-BulletBatt-Car-Battery-P9699.html and you'll be fine, the SLABS goes to sleep 1.5 hour after the ignition was off and wakes up on any door open input so if that time was not elapsed or you opened a door the measurement is irrelevant

Thanks Sierra, reading up earlier I know your right and I'll swap it out for a bigger one but we've had the car almost 10 years, that was a direct replacement for the one that was in when we bought it and we've never had a problem before. I have just started using it for the short hops to work regularly though. Would that explain it? Seems a bit ridiculous even by LR standards

David Moore said:

I have just started using it for the short hops to work regularly though. Would that explain it?

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Yes it would cos that weak battery looses more power on start-up than it gets charged on a short run, maybe while it was newer it was a bit stronger but LR didnt fit 110AH battery from factory for no reason... check the charging too just to rule it out

Thanks Sierra, I didn't know it was supposed to be 110, I just bought like for like in halfords, interestingly, I just searched halfords and it came up with a 68ah and the 70ah which is the one I have. I'll leave early tomorrow and take it for a good blast and swap it out on payday.

Thanks for the advice, on the one hand I'm happy I'm not pulling wires out looking for shorts at the weekend on the other more £££££'s........

you can put stronger than the factory fitted but never weaker: