Just bought a new alternator because my landy wouldnt turn over!!!(loss of battery life) went and had the battery tested and it was holding charge and none of the cells were down! so put new alternator on today and put a tester on it and it was charging well! left it for about 3 hours and tried starting it and the battery had gone dead! cant understand why the battery is being drained! could i have a bad earth?

anyone had same problem or know why this could be happening please give me an insight as this is really p**sing me off!!! and i almost kicked the hell out of my landy lol

cheers all!!

disconnect the battery, pull the fuse for the clock and reconnect, if there is a spark then you have a short, do you have an alarm? Lee

Get a big on/off switch on your battery

Okay,

First idea is sensible but you will require more effort to fault find, second idea is great if you never want to find the fault and could cause you a problem when you drive the vehicle like a fire but will keep it from going flat when its turned off.

I would charge the battery fully over night, First disconnect the positive lead to the battery. Once the battery is fully charged then you can start to fault find. As said place the positive lead over the battery terminal. You should see a small spark (very very small) or click if this is more than this then you do indeed have a serious problem you should disconnect the positive wire immediatly. Right if its a big crack and a few sparks then you need to check all the live wires on the vehicle. I have had the Live alternator wire shorted behind the engine bay or melted through which caused a fire in the engine bay luckily I had an extinguisher and spanners in the battery compartment. If you only get a smal click and no sparks then disconnect the lead again. Get a suitable Ammeter DVM set it correctly and place it inbetween the positive terminal and battery lead and read what it says it may only be a small draw over many hours. A clock and radio memory should draw er at a guess an amp or mabe 2 but not too much more than that.

Firstly what accesories do you have on your mota? Clock, radio memory, ECU?

Don't go spending any more money on items until you have correctly diagnosed the problem this is what mechanics get paid for. Anyone can guess on here till the cows come home you need to do some fault finding. and gain some info. If you are not happy doing this then mabe ask somone that is happy to have a look but be wary many people will just say alternator, dead battery without actually testing anything.

If you were more local I would ave a look over it for you. I'm not a qualified mechanic but have grown up in a workshop building hybrids and all kinds of LR's.

jezbrown10 said:

Just bought a new alternator because my landy wouldnt turn over!!!(loss of battery life) went and had the battery tested and it was holding charge and none of the cells were down! so put new alternator on today and put a tester on it and it was charging well! left it for about 3 hours and tried starting it and the battery had gone dead! cant understand why the battery is being drained! could i have a bad earth?
cheers all!!

Click to expand...

What was the voltage showing on the battery?

You can often determine what at fault purely by the voltage showing?

What was the efficiency of the battery when it was previously tested?

If it's going down that quick then it's earthing on something substantial - ie leaking out power. Alternator wires sound like a good place to check as Jai says. Do any of the battery leads have a nick in their covering that is touching the metal seat box or some other metal surface?

I had the same problem and fitted a battery cut off switch into the passenger seat box. I got it from Halfords and it took 30 mins to fit it up. This allows you to keep your power when the vehicle is off and then look for the fault when you have time. Let me know if you want pics of the set-up.

It's a really, really annoying problem!

I had the same problem crop up last night - battery went flat when I was out. Got back home after a jump and took a look this morning.

(1) Disconnected the battery and charged it

(2) While doing above checked the connections on the alternator - one found to be loose (just jammed in by a mechanic who should know better) - sanded both connections to get shiny metal and reconnected

(3) Checked the cables from the alternator to the system for any breaks or nicks. All ok.

(4) Got underneath the landy to see where the engine earth was connected - both the engine end and the earth end were right beside the exhaust and unshielded. This is a **** set-up. Why? Because normal steel cable loses it's conductivity the higher the temperature it reaches. So I moved the cable to the other side near the front prop, making sure I sanded the connections down to shiny metal for a good contact. In my case bell housing mounting bolt to chassis leg bolt. Also check the earth cable thickness - it should be like the battery cable - I once had one that was only as thick as an alternator cable which was not enough conductive capacity. The cable should also be as short as possible - not three feet like one I recently found!

(5) Took the charger off and reconnected battery.

(5) Started landy and checked to see if revs lifted the needle a little (yes, just), also put on lights and wipers to see if they had negative effect - marginal - so ok so far.

(6) Went to the alternator with engine running and took a sidelight 12v bulb and stuck the end of it on one of the alternator nuts where the thick brown wires go in. Then took a piece of electrical wire and attached one end to the engine metal and the other end to the metal side of the bulb - bingo - light bright as you like so the alternator is generating current. Did this for both connecting nuts.

(7) Tonight I will see if the battery leaks out. If it does, then my alternator could be earthing through faulty brushes and leaking power overnight. In which case a new or good second alternator will be purchased.

Hope this is useful.

jai_landrover said:

A clock and radio memory should draw er at a guess an amp or mabe 2 but not too much more than that.

Click to expand...

Much less than an amp, try closer to 100mA.

Just to put it in perspective, say the battery is 80Ah then with a 1 amp draw it would be flat in 80 hours.

wot he sez^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Was a guy up here I saw doing it wrong. He was a BIG EXPERT too.

He took off the POSITIVE terminal and said it was as safe as the other way. He even argued. An expert.

He was leaning his left hand on the battery, covering the bare terminal with his hand as he stretched over to use a big spanner. The spanner slipped, and fell across the back of his hand and the battery clamp frame. He was wearing a ring. The ring was touching the battery terminal. The spanner was touching the ring. The other end of the spanner was touching the battery clamp frame, which was of course bolted to the frame of the car which WAS STILL EARTHED to the battery because the EARTH lead was still connected. It's called a DEAD SHORT.

The ring went BRIGHT ORANGE HOT IN HALF A SECOND.
You should have heard him squealing.
Hospital job. They saved the ring.

CharlesY

rings are dangerous fings - aint they?

i saw a guy once slip whilst walking on an aircraft wing. Ring caught on rivet head. ring stopped. he didnt.

to quote CharlesY - " they saved the ring"

Ok fair point, It was for testing purposes tho not that thats any excuse

jai_landrover said:

Ok fair point, It was for testing purposes tho not that thats any excuse

Click to expand...

Do 100 lines

I MUST always disconnect the EARTH first and connect the earth LAST.

By tomorrow on my desk, or its a dozen strokes of the cane for you my lad.

CharlesY

Lol am I allowed to copy and paste?
or do I get more strikes for being Cheeky

I saw a guy counting rivets on the front of a Land Rover at a military vehicle show. I din't notice any rings... but a man walked past and called him a 'ringpiece.' It get's scary at those shows...

People like that are far too anal for my liking!

How you doin Jamesyboy?

I am hoping to complete my beast by the end of the week. I'm feeling lucky - nothing has gone wrong with her this week! Spoke to Flandy tonight so you might get a wee call from him...