Hi, hoping someone can give some advice on this (and yes I know it should probably be in the 'common faults' forum but I don't seem to have access?)....

My 2004 90 TD5 XS has 55k on the clock and recently it's got a habit of running the battery flat! It's fine if I use it every couple of days, but not enough juice to turn the engine over after 4/5 days :-(

The battery is a genuine LR one (12v, 110Ah, 800 amps) and the little window is green - so I'm guessing it's ok.

Got the multimeter out with the following results:

Reading at rest - 12.38v
When running - 14.38v
Disconnected the battery and left it for 6 days - only dropped to 12.18v - is that normal?

Put the multimeter in line with the -'ve lead/terminal and got the following:

Standard draw at rest - 198.2mA (all interior lights out, doors shut etc)

Went through removing fuses one by one - only one which had any noticeable impact (ie. more than 5/10mA) was fuse 30 which powers the interior lights, instruments, radio & diagnostic connector) - when this was out it dropped to 12mA....

I also checked the earth quality from the battery and got a reading of 0.02v - which I think is normal?

Anyone got any ideas? Is 198mA draw on the battery at rest normal or something I need to look into further?

Nb. Also have the occasional flashing ABS/TC lights which at one point hinted at a faulty earth.

Thanks

I had this problem with my 300tdi.
I had a rake around and couldn't figure out where the power was goin, so I just stuck in a battery kill switch and that's solved the problem... Just make sure if you've got anything powered straight off the battery that it's off.
That seemed to fix the problem for me!

Leave that fuse for interior lamp ect out for a few days and see if that is the problem.Batt sounds good and its charging,then disconnect each one in turn to find the one thats draining the batt.

IIRC a 12V lead acid battery should be about 12.6V when under no load.
see here
dropping from 75% to 50% charged in 6 days sounds more like a duff battery to me, The 14.38 is a good charging rate.

The little green window will only give you an indication on one cell, out of 6 that leaves another 5 that could be a bit duff, Id get the battery checked.