Barrety Problems

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J

jonnyboy

New Member
Posts
22
Location
Nr Welshpool
Having problems keeping the battery charged. It starts OK same/next day after you have taken it for a run, but if you leave it a few days then it won't start. Seems to be that something is drawing the juice whilst its sat on the drive switched off.

Thought it was a duff battery so I bought a new one, but still the same problem!!

Any ideas?? major nightmare - electrics are not my thing.
 
disconnect the battery + lead, then connect a multimeter on the Amps range in series with the battery. you should then see how much current is being drawn. if it takes a few days to drain the battery, then it won't be a lot.
then pull out the fuses one at a time till the current stops - that will tell you which circuit your fault is in.
come back when you've done that.,
 
Treworgey 90 said:
disconnect the battery + lead, then connect a multimeter on the Amps range in series with the battery. you should then see how much current is being drawn. if it takes a few days to drain the battery, then it won't be a lot.
then pull out the fuses one at a time till the current stops - that will tell you which circuit your fault is in.
come back when you've done that.,
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. This is what I have done
1. disconnected live and placed the multimeter in between the battery and + lead
2. with everything switched off and keys out the reading on the meter was 208 when set at 200v, or -369 set at 200mv
3. pulled all the fuses out one by one and this made no difference to the reading on the meter

not sure this has helped as I expected to see the reading go back to zero when one of the fuses was taken out; what next?
 
i woz - Johnny sed it woz reading volts - i sed it shd be set to amps and copied Trewys post as well.

ffs Trewy - just coz yu is paranoic dont mean we aint all out to get ya ;).
 
I aint paranoic (cept maybe 'bout Yella).
Ah wuz merely sayin "ffs..." to express frusstrashun that ee adent followed my instruckshuns in me fust post.
 
Treworgey 90 said:
disconnect the battery + lead, then connect a multimeter on the Amps range in series with the battery. you should then see how much current is being drawn. if it takes a few days to drain the battery, then it won't be a lot.
then pull out the fuses one at a time till the current stops - that will tell you which circuit your fault is in.
come back when you've done that.,
Click to expand...

Sorry the digital multi meter is confusing, theres a lot of settings on it.

OK, done it again.

Set the meter to Amps and got a reading of 360. Pulled allthe fuses one by one and when the indicator/horn fuse was pulled I got a reading of 160.

Should it read zero when everything is off?
 
I assume that those readings are mA - 360mA is just over 1/3 of an Amp and is enough to flatten a battery over a week or so, depending on battery capacity and condition.
The reading won't be zero - it depends what electrical equipment you've got on your vehicle. Things like radio memory, immobilisers, clocks, alarms etc take a little current. 160mA may be expected, depending what you've got.

It looks like you've got a problem on your indicator / horn circuit. The next thing I'd do is to disconnect each component in turn, with the meter and fuse in place - horn sounder, indicator relay, indicator bulbs. This may help you narrow down whereabouts the problem lies. Then it's a case of tracing the relevant wiring, looking for damage / short circuits etc.
Of course, with an 18 year old Landy, the wiring could have been "modified" over the years and different accessories added and so on.

If I had to guess, I'd look at the horn sounder and indicator relay first.
 
Treworgey 90 said:
I assume that those readings are mA - 360mA is just over 1/3 of an Amp and is enough to flatten a battery over a week or so, depending on battery capacity and condition.
The reading won't be zero - it depends what electrical equipment you've got on your vehicle. Things like radio memory, immobilisers, clocks, alarms etc take a little current. 160mA may be expected, depending what you've got.

It looks like you've got a problem on your indicator / horn circuit. The next thing I'd do is to disconnect each component in turn, with the meter and fuse in place - horn sounder, indicator relay, indicator bulbs. This may help you narrow down whereabouts the problem lies. Then it's a case of tracing the relevant wiring, looking for damage / short circuits etc.
Of course, with an 18 year old Landy, the wiring could have been "modified" over the years and different accessories added and so on.

If I had to guess, I'd look at the horn sounder and indicator relay first.
Click to expand...

Thanks

I'm sure the wiring has been modified. I can see a hose pipe with wires coming out of it in the battery compartment. Plus I can hear sparking when driving in the wet in the rear of the car!!

Might be easier to fit a 'cut of switch' to the battery supply so I can stop it draining the battery when it's sat on the drive unused.
 
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