Battery being drained

[dest]

Its only just started draining though. The headunit has been in since I got the car

[dubmeister]

Fault may only have just happened on the stereo, they are connected to a permanent live to save settings and radio channels. Do you run a seperate amp?
Had problems with them before killing the battery. Very small drain but enough to take enough out over a period to drain it.
Try pulling the fuse (or removing the stereo) Permanent feed only and leave it for a couple of days to dicount it.
Current drains and leaks are a nightmare to sort. Good luck

[Le S2 Audi]

Dest, for what it's worth I would take the battery out, check the water level and top up if required with 'distilled' or 'de-ionised' water, put it on a trickle charge over night... when done take a reading form the battery...

Then leave it disconnected for a couple of days and then take another reading... if it's dropped by a few volts... it would mean the battery is knacked...

If its fine then you can start the hunt for the item that is causing the voltage drop... But I guess my reading this thread it could be a number of things and its gonna be a process of elimination!!

HTH

[dest]

id try that, but its a sealed battery!

[Le S2 Audi]

id try that, but its a sealed battery!

Just skip that part then....

[Beetie]

If the battery is only 8 months old it'll still be under warranty so id get it swapped and try that dest......

[dest]

I was going to, but dont have the reciept

[driftin jo]

Did you charge the battery with a charger for 24 hours or did you just jump start it and drive it to charge it ?
The reason I ask is that the latter is not good ! Not only does it not charge the battery fully ,it is trying to charge it from completely flat with a high charge rate and starting batteries don't like that at all .
You probably only get about 10-20 % charge , unless you drove it for 12 hours.
Loads of people think that the battery has recharged when they have driven it for a bit as it will start the car , this is no the case.
You can only get away with completely discharging a starting battery about 10-15 times then it is ****ed . They are not designed to ever lose more than 5-10 % of charge and when they are completely discharged they loose a lot of capacity even when charged slowly , the effect is worse if charge wile driving .

[Error404]

Pretty close to 0. You'll loose a mA or two through the alternator and a few more if the radio isn't on the clock fuse. Around 5mA is what I'd expect with all fuses in and I'd start looking for a leak above 10mA (reading of 0.01 on the amp scale)

John

cheers John, really useful info

I'm getting 0.07 with the clock fuse pulled, looks like I have a little drain somewhere... probably the archaic headunit or immobiliser I have

If I pull my headunit out and all the fuses and relays and still can't find the leak then I guess the immobiliser is the only culprit left?

Sorry to hijack Dest

[johne]

So mine showing 0.12 with all fuses in should be fine?

No, sorry but you do have a problem. 0.12 is 120mA which is at least 10x more than you can live with and 20x more drain than is ideal. You want 0.01 or less on the meter.

To put that in context, a good battery with 120mA drain might hold out for up to 10 days before being unable to start the car if you're lucky. Cold weather will make things worse.

John

[Error404]

Can you just write us "Johne's S2forum Guide to Electrics for Retards"?

I'll buy a copy

[DJones]

Once a battery goes below 8 volts it's difficult to recover it.

[dest]

No, sorry but you do have a problem. 0.12 is 120mA which is at least 10x more than you can live with and 20x more drain than is ideal. You want 0.01 or less on the meter.

To put that in context, a good battery with 120mA drain might hold out for up to 10 days before being unable to start the car if you're lucky. Cold weather will make things worse.

John

Ok, thanks.
I now have a replacement battery, and a spare alternator.
Before swapping the battery I am going to remove the headunit and see if that makes any difference.
Ive also got a Nokia handsfree kit which I will remove too and then recheck what the drain is

[dest]

Right, I think Ive sorted it!
To all of you that suggested the stero, you were right
As soon as I removed the cables from the headunit the meter dropped to 0.02-0.03
Plugged it back in, and it went straight back up to 0.10-0.12

At present, it was wired to work without the key atall. If I rewire it to work only with the ignition on will that sort it?
Id hate to think the headunit was faulty as its a high up the range Alpine which would be costly to replace!

Thanks everyone for the help

[Sonic]

Hi Dest,

I think i might have exactly the same problem with an Alpine CDA-9887R.

Is it sucking power even with the HU removed?