Battery Draining
Submitted: Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 20:56
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Member - Pesty (SA)
High guys,
Looking for any possible ideas as to what could be draining my battery's. Small problem has been there for a while, but has got worse in last couple of weeks.
Late model 60 series diesel, with twin 90AH batteries, and to give you an example we arrived home late last night from a 140k drive, over 300k for the day, and at 9 this morning my voltage was 10.4V.
I have isolated it to the wires that feed the original equipment from the battery, when touched onto the positive terminal i get a spark, leave it on for a while and the volts go down slowly, take it off and it slowly comes back up.
Suspect it to be a relay on the glow plugs or something, that is leaking to earth, might take some finding.
Dont think i will have a chance to find it before Innaminka, leaving wed night, but will have to isolate this wire each night to stop draining.
Thanks guys
Cheers Pesty
Reply By: Eric Experience - Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 21:24
Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 21:24
Pesty.
One way is to wire a globe between the battery and the suspect cct, the light will be on, then pull fuses and unplug things until the light goes out. should only take a few minutes to track it down. Then you can just unplug the item when you switch of.
Eric.
AnswerID:
314296
Follow Up By: oldtrack123 - Tuesday, Jul 08, 2008 at 11:07
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2008 at 11:07
Hi Eric
AAAGH , you've done some fault finding.
Should just point out use a low watt bulb [ TAIL LIGHT OR SIMILAR] to get best results.
FollowupID:
580372
Reply By: Member - Ed. C. (QLD) - Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 21:41
Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 21:41
No.2 son had that exact same problem (among many others!) with a Chrysler Voyager..... (they don't own that vehicle anymore;-))
Turned out to be a worn ignition switch/lock/barrel which was allowing the key to be removed with the accessory circuit switched on.. apparently, even with all accessor-ies switched off, the relay itself was drawing enough current to drain the battery overnight:(
May be worth checking to see if you have a similar problem.....
Regards, Ed C
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AnswerID:
314306
Reply By: Skippy In The GU - Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 21:53
Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 21:53
it could be a short in the battery
AnswerID:
314309
Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 22:25
Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 22:25
Are the brake lights staying on (buggered switch at the brake pedal).
AnswerID:
314318
Reply By: autosparky - Tuesday, Jul 08, 2008 at 22:42
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2008 at 22:42
disconnect the plug from the back of the alt . always use an ammeter to check for draw offs . if there is a draw off with alt disconnected , it will be the rectifier . try also any add ons
AnswerID:
314484
Reply By: RobAck - Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008 at 17:42
Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008 at 17:42
You do not mention the age or type of the batteries. Anything over three years old and lead acid has a good chance of being on the way out. Equally one of the cells could have collapsed and the only way you can find out is to visit a decent auto electrician.
Not sure where you are but Belair Road Auto Electrical is very good with 4WD stuff
Then you have the charging side of things to check out as
well. Alternators can be working but not necessarily charging at the correct output so it may be only surface charging the battery as
well.
I suggest you find an expert and pay for the fault finding as it will possibly be the only way.
We had a similiar problem a while back and eventually found two issues.
Firstly the radio was a heavy duty commercial one and it was taking millivolts to keep all its memory running and over a few weeks it would knock the battery around
Secondly our dual battery system has a solenoid in it and that was also demanding small volts to keep it and the LED monitor awake
It took hours to diagnose but the problems are now fixed
All the best with it
RobA
AnswerID:
314563
Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008 at 19:33
Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008 at 19:33
C'mon Pesty,
You've had 2 days to sort this out! Don't leave us in suspense! What was the problem and who got the right answer? :-)
Cheers
Phil
AnswerID:
314598