Battery Drain??

Hi

In a rare move of cunning I left my light on the other day and killed the
battery. Anyway, I got it jump started and then charged it overnight when I
got home.

I tried to start it the other morning and it was dead. More charging and I
got it to fire up and then checked the voltage on the alt. With neg
connected to chassis and engine idling (300tdi) I got about 13.9 volts on
two of the alt teminals and about 6.5 on the other (strange?).

When I charge the battery it seems to continually draw about 1 amp - still
doing so after charging all night. I did not disconnect the battery before
charging.

Since the battery is only about 3 months old I suspect that the problem is
an electrical drain somewhere but I am not sure where to start looking. It
is a disco by the way.

Any Ideas?

Cheers
Stephen

On or around Fri, 15 Oct 2004 09:57:13 +0200, "fanie"
<[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:

>Hi
>
>In a rare move of cunning I left my light on the other day and killed the
>battery. Anyway, I got it jump started and then charged it overnight when I
>got home.
>
>I tried to start it the other morning and it was dead. More charging and I
>got it to fire up and then checked the voltage on the alt. With neg
>connected to chassis and engine idling (300tdi) I got about 13.9 volts on
>two of the alt teminals and about 6.5 on the other (strange?).

what do you get on the battery, when it's running? You should get something
around 14.5V with the engine at 1500 rpm or more and no headlights.

if not, it's not charging properly.

try disconnecting the battery, see if it still goes flat. if it does, it's
buggered (get it swapped under guarantee, making no mention of having
flattened it just in case) and if not, then yes, you've a leak somewhere.

tracing leaks is a matter of faffing around - disconnect the battery, insert
ammeter, note current drain if any. have assistant watch ammeter, pull
fuses one by one and see if the drain stops at any point... that isolates
the problem circuit if you're lucky, then you have to find out what on that
circuit is leaking.

> I tried to start it the other morning and it was dead. More charging and I
> got it to fire up and then checked the voltage on the alt. With neg
> connected to chassis and engine idling (300tdi) I got about 13.9 volts on
> two of the alt teminals and about 6.5 on the other (strange?).
>

6.5V on the negative terminal with respect to chassis would indicate
a high resistance earth connection. Check all the earth straps and cables.

Also it may take more than 24hrs for the charge rate to drop below 1A
depending on what the max charge rate has been.

Regards
Jeff

On Friday, in article <[email protected]>
[email protected] "Jeff" wrote:

> > I tried to start it the other morning and it was dead. More charging and I
> > got it to fire up and then checked the voltage on the alt. With neg
> > connected to chassis and engine idling (300tdi) I got about 13.9 volts on
> > two of the alt teminals and about 6.5 on the other (strange?).
> >
>
> 6.5V on the negative terminal with respect to chassis would indicate
> a high resistance earth connection. Check all the earth straps and cables.
>
> Also it may take more than 24hrs for the charge rate to drop below 1A
> depending on what the max charge rate has been.

A slow charge, checked with a battery hydrometer, would be worthwhile.
But it takes time. It's worth checking with an hydrometer at this time
of year, before a dodgy cell and cold weather combine to give trouble.

--
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.

"History shows that the Singularity started when Sir Tim Berners-Lee
was bitten by a radioactive spider."

I guess that the rules for a series 3 are different once again.

I have done worse than leave the lights on, I have left the heater fan on,
and returned to a flat battery, but never so flat as the engine has not come
to life on a mere grunt from the starter and the battery recharged after
that.

As I said in another post I managed to start the engine from a measured
voltage of only 9.5 volts which impressed me.

There is always a problem with undercharging the battery on short runs in
the rain and the dark in that the alternator will not do anything at idling
speed and there is consequently a net drain on the battery.

Anyway despite that abuse my battery is not ready for the knackers yard just
yet.


--
Larry
Series 3 rust and holes




"Mr.Nice." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Twas Fri, 15 Oct 2004 09:57:13 +0200 when "fanie"
> <[email protected]> put finger to keyboard producing:
>
> A battery that has been discharged to completely flat may have
> problems holding a charge afterwards (and for the rest of it's life).
>
> As for tracing a drain, that can be a pain in the wossit.
>
> You could try connecting a multimeter to measure the furrent drain and
> remove and repleace the fuses one by one, that may help. If nothing
> there do the same with relays, one may be stuck on.
>
>
>
> Regards.
> Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)
> --
> _________________________________________
> www.markvarleyphoto.co.uk
> 1984 110 CSW 2.5(na)D
> (3,000 rivets flying in close formation)
> _________________________________________
>
>
>
> ................................................................
> Posted via TITANnews - Uncensored Newsgroups Access
> >>>> at http://www.TitanNews.com <<<<
> -=Every Newsgroup - Anonymous, UNCENSORED, BROADBAND Downloads=-
>

On or around Sat, 16 Oct 2004 01:05:13 +0100, "Larry" <[email protected]>
enlightened us thusly:

>I guess that the rules for a series 3 are different once again.
>
>I have done worse than leave the lights on, I have left the heater fan on,
>and returned to a flat battery, but never so flat as the engine has not come
>to life on a mere grunt from the starter and the battery recharged after
>that.

if the battery was seriously flat the starter would do nothing. There is
the point that an alternator won't necessarily charge a totally flat
battery, whereas a dynamo will, but yours is probably an alternator. 9.5V
however, if the battery is otherwise OK, is not flat, just very low, and if
it'll still crank (2¼ petrols crank very easily) then it'll start and
recharge.

If you've got it to the point where nothing works at all, then it's a
different story.

"Austin Shackles" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On or around Sat, 16 Oct 2004 01:05:13 +0100, "Larry"
<[email protected]>
> enlightened us thusly:
>
> >I guess that the rules for a series 3 are different once again.
> >
> >I have done worse than leave the lights on, I have left the heater fan
on,
> >and returned to a flat battery, but never so flat as the engine has not
come
> >to life on a mere grunt from the starter and the battery recharged after
> >that.
>
> if the battery was seriously flat the starter would do nothing. There is
> the point that an alternator won't necessarily charge a totally flat
> battery, whereas a dynamo will, but yours is probably an alternator. 9.5V
> however, if the battery is otherwise OK, is not flat, just very low, and
if
> it'll still crank (2¼ petrols crank very easily) then it'll start and
> recharge.
>
> If you've got it to the point where nothing works at all, then it's a
> different story.


A friend of mine had a range rover which kept suffering a flat battery and
when we connected a current meter in series with the battery something was
drawing just over an amp.
After some investigation and allot of faffing about it turned out that the
vehicle had been fitted with a tracker.
The tracker had got its own small 12 volt 1.8 amp back up battery so that if
the vehicle had been stolen and the main vehicle battery had been
disconnected the tracker would of still activated and sent out its homing
signal.
Unfortunately the back up battery had deteriorated over the years and went I
connected a volt meter across the terminals it was only reading 6 volts
indicating that three of the cells had failed and it was constantly drawing
current from the main battery and causing it to go flat.
I replaced the back up battery with a new one and it totally cured the
problem.
Has your vehicle got some sort of tracking devise or security alarm
installed which has got its own internal battery which may be causing a
problem?
Just a thought but its worth bearing in mind.

"R2D2" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Austin Shackles" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > On or around Sat, 16 Oct 2004 01:05:13 +0100, "Larry"
> <[email protected]>
> > enlightened us thusly:
> >
> > >I guess that the rules for a series 3 are different once again.
> > >
> > >I have done worse than leave the lights on, I have left the heater fan
> on,
> > >and returned to a flat battery, but never so flat as the engine has not
> come
> > >to life on a mere grunt from the starter and the battery recharged
after
> > >that.
> >
> > if the battery was seriously flat the starter would do nothing. There
is
> > the point that an alternator won't necessarily charge a totally flat
> > battery, whereas a dynamo will, but yours is probably an alternator.
9.5V
> > however, if the battery is otherwise OK, is not flat, just very low, and
> if
> > it'll still crank (2¼ petrols crank very easily) then it'll start and
> > recharge.
> >
> > If you've got it to the point where nothing works at all, then it's a
> > different story.
>
>
> A friend of mine had a range rover which kept suffering a flat battery and
> when we connected a current meter in series with the battery something was
> drawing just over an amp.
> After some investigation and allot of faffing about it turned out that the
> vehicle had been fitted with a tracker.
> The tracker had got its own small 12 volt 1.8 amp back up battery so that
if
> the vehicle had been stolen and the main vehicle battery had been
> disconnected the tracker would of still activated and sent out its homing
> signal.
> Unfortunately the back up battery had deteriorated over the years and went
I
> connected a volt meter across the terminals it was only reading 6 volts
> indicating that three of the cells had failed and it was constantly
drawing
> current from the main battery and causing it to go flat.
> I replaced the back up battery with a new one and it totally cured the
> problem.
> Has your vehicle got some sort of tracking devise or security alarm
> installed which has got its own internal battery which may be causing a
> problem?
> Just a thought but its worth bearing in mind.
>
I meant to say in my last post, be careful if you try pulling fuses that
your radio is not security coded or you may end up with a non working radio.