Avant flat battery syndrome........??

[als2]

Had this since i got her actually, used to be if left for a week shed "just" turn over. Any longer and not a sausage. I noticed a few other folk had same issues with Avants and i always had it as one of my to do jobs. Put it down to eith a dodgy bit of audio wiring previous to me or the aging Sigma alarm draining a bit too much juice.

Anyhows, in meantime i fitted an isolator to prolong the battery and let me go for a spin wen i wanted to. But.....just recently, shel go flat over night and even after a long run, then disconnect the battery, ive just reconnected her after 2 days and she BARELY started. Turned over soooo slowly for an enternity before poping into life. Weird thing was, charging at a healthy 14v i let her run for only 5min max, turned her off and didnt expect hert to fire up again, but fired first turn of the key?? is this something more than a dodgey battery????

So, has this drain problem killed my battery?
Was there every a idea on what drained Avants?
Any way of checking a battery health yourself??

Many thanks in advance

AL

ps.the battery is JUST under warranty, ie July so im thinking its going back!!

[Acidburn]

where did you get the battery from as ifs its halfrauds then i'd take it back and get them to test a new one whilst your there, your be surprised to find a decent battery in all they have.

[driftin jo]

Do a power drain test , you need to hook up a multi meter and see how much it is draining when locked and the alarm is armed etc. on some cars you have to wait 30 seconds to a minute until the car has (gone to sleep ) settled all it's timed relays etc.
I had a big drain that was killing my battery and it turned out to be a fused diode on the alternator ,
I didn't suspect the alternator as like yours it was charging the battery,apparently this is quite common.

If you get more than about 50 milliamps drain it is likely something is amiss .

[als2]

Thanks guys. The battery is from ECP , Exide job, and is just touching 3yrs (cant be that long? hmmmmm) and ill break out the multimeter to see if its got a drain worth investigating!
Ill keep u posted

AL

[Phil Payne]

Thanks guys. The battery is from ECP , Exide job, and is just touching 3yrs (cant be that long? hmmmmm) and ill break out the multimeter to see if its got a drain worth investigating!

You can get special leads from Maplins for under a tenner:

[fish]

check the wires that come out of the roof and go in to the bootlid. A friend of mine has an avant that was like yours, then we saw that the reg plate lights were on all of a sudden. peeled back the rubber boots at the top and almost all the wires were split and connecting to each other causing some sort of shortcircuit, and that draining the battery.

[driftin jo]

You can get special leads from Maplins for under a tenner:

The trouble with these is that they only measure through one fuse at a time and if its the alternator or some other random none fused drain you don't find it. It's better to take one of the leads off the battery and run the multi meter in series through the lot to get a total drain value, cheaper as well if you already have a multimeter. Like I said in an earlier post my power drain was being caused by a dud diode in the alternator and pulling fuses would not have found it.

[martinws]

you could disconnect the pos battery lead and connect an ammeter across it and the battery terminal whilst the car is locked and it will tell you how much power is being used. But do not try and start the car as you might fry the meter.
I had the same chopped wires problem on my coupe that i think was draining my battery. I only noticed when i took the car apart.

[Phil Payne]

And always be prepared for REALLY whacky stuff.

We had a drain on Roger Galvin's silver 200 many years ago. We both looked for a couple of months.

I found it one night by accident. We'd got the car in the workshop and I was closing up for the night. The 200 had a staged alarm - it turned bits like the internal motion sensors on after 30 seconds, etc.

I was walking past the car in the dark and all of the window switch backlights suddenly came on.