L322 Battery Drain

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Just put the battery back in and did a test with connecting probes on a multimeter. I'm pulling close to 3 to 4.5. When I went to start the car. Nothing at all. The battery has been charging out of the car for the past 3-4 days. I go to jump it using my battery pack. Starts right up with no problems and it gave me 2 cranks again before it went back to dead. Does it make any sense that charging the battery gives me nothing, but jumping it will crank it over instantly? This seems pretty serious with that type of draw. Would that much drain kill the battery within a minute or less of connecting it? If not does that mean the battery is just junk in general even though the load test said it was fine or at least should be working? It's 27 degrees out and late so this weekend I'm gonna have to pull each fuse individually out and see the drop.
 
I don't know what sort of load test was done but the battery sounds like junk to me
If you were to discharge a healthy battery in a minute then it would get exceedingly hot, so would all the cables on the engine bay. I would suggest there would be a MASSIVE spark when you connected it too. I also think a jump pack wouldn't help you
 
From searching at shops around me online it seems pretty hard to find a battery with that size. I'm gonna keep looking though through other forms etc. If not I might end up buying one of those and have it shipped from the UK. Do you have a good site you would buy it from? Also if I do end up getting one of those Hankook or Yuasa ones do you think it will survive in the cold we get here? In Winter, it will get down and stay below freezing or close to 0 for months. I'm not familiar fully with the weather around there. I only really get to see it when I watch Premier League "Football;)" on TV. Also, I have 2 chargers. One is a 4 amp and another is a 2 amp and a 10 amp and I've been using the 10 amp charger. I've noticed when watching the meter when in the car charging the needle will continuously bounce. I don't remember exactly where it stops but it goes from the middle then bounces down to the left side and it continues to do that. Since it's been out charging it has not done that once. I don't know if that means anything.
battery-megastore supply the Hankook in the UK, 0C should be no problem for the battery, it;s been as low as minus 17C where I am in winter.
The meter needle suggests either a varying load or a defective charger.
 
I don't know if I am reading this correctly so forgive me if I am missing something here but I'm wondering about your test conditions on the battery drain. The later L322s are brutal on the battery due to the number of things that liven up when you unlock and open the car so I expect you'll see a similar result on a 2004 but perhaps not to the same extreme. Again, speaking for the later stuff, it stays live for quite some time and you need to let the car "go to sleep" before you can test for a parasitic drain. I'm told this can take more than 10 minutes depending on the car.

My suggestion would be to open the car and then lock the striker over in the door so that it thinks it's closed, get everything set up ready to test/monitor and then leave the car for 20 minutes. This will give you a far more accurate reflection of what it is doing when at rest. I'd expect to only see milliamp draws on the battery at that point. After that, pull the door handle to simulate opening and you'll likely see a big increase in current draw as it wakes up.

The old analogue chargers are great as they just pump out amps and if you have a dead battery it will stand a better chance of bringing it back to life but technology being what it is, I'd suggest something a bit more modern. I have a Noco Genius 10 which is very good but was about 8x the cost of my cheap goto charger and for most applications the cheapie does just fine and can support AGM batteries etc.

As so many have said on this forum, batteries are something of a consumable for an RR and they can be finicky but I don't think I'd go to the extreme of importing one from here (although I did consider it for my Mustang as that has an odd size battery in it for us over here so I know where you're coming from). LR would have done all the temperature testing to ensure that the car and its components can handle the environment it's sold to so I wouldn't worry too much about that either.

One more thing, check your charging rate on the clamps and the terminals of the battery, you should be seeing around 14.4v if everything is in really good shape. I only say this because again, I was caught out once by testing the charging rate which showed very healthy one minute and not the next when I realised that it was different if I put the probe on the battery post clamp and the battery post itself I inspected it to find corrosion in the clamp and that was why it wouldn't charge properly in spite of the alternator working overtime. Sometimes it's the simplest things.
 
In addition to closing the latch with door open, do the bonnet switch as well. . . . . If I remember correct, the switch is open circuit when bonnet is closed, so simply unplug it. That way you can get to internal and engine bay electrics which the car thinks it's closed & locked.

Defeinitely at least 10min for it to sleep, so grab a cuppa while you wait. I went through this on a mates 2004 L322, and wake-up culprit was worn bonnet hinges allowing the switch to toggle due to windy conditions moving the bonnet !! Bizzare eh ?

Regarding chargers, I've got a Ring RCS612 for the garage which is excellent, and does quite a good job of battery recovery as well. My lesser used 2nd P38 has a Noco Genius 10 to keep that ready to go, even what sitting for a month or more !!
 
In addition to closing the latch with door open, do the bonnet switch as well. . . . . If I remember correct, the switch is open circuit when bonnet is closed, so simply unplug it. That way you can get to internal and engine bay electrics which the car thinks it's closed & locked.

Defeinitely at least 10min for it to sleep, so grab a cuppa while you wait. I went through this on a mates 2004 L322, and wake-up culprit was worn bonnet hinges allowing the switch to toggle due to windy conditions moving the bonnet !! Bizzare eh ?

Regarding chargers, I've got a Ring RCS612 for the garage which is excellent, and does quite a good job of battery recovery as well. My lesser used 2nd P38 has a Noco Genius 10 to keep that ready to go, even what sitting for a month or more !!
the Aldi/Lidl smart 4 amp chargers do a good job at a very reasonable price.
 
The earth strap on an L322 is by the right hand ( when stood at the front looking in the engine bay) engine mount , you can test it by using a jump lead from the battery negative to the engine
the earth straps corrode inside the cover so look ok but are not.
When mine went AA mechanic said just this. It was impossible to see if it was gone. So he put a new one on 'just to see'. Jumped in and started on first turn. 🥳 New one is placed very obvious when I open the bonnet. Which is a bonus should/when it goes again 😁
 
Does the HSE have headlamp wipers? If so, check they are bedding properly. Failure to bed properly will cause a drain.
Yes, it does. What would the correct position for bedding them look like? I believe right now they are right at the bottom of the headlights or flat with the bumper. I would have to go back outside and look. Also, I believe when I bought the vehicle they removed the headlight wiper motor completely. I don't know if that helps or narrows it down to anything.
 
In addition to closing the latch with door open, do the bonnet switch as well. . . . . If I remember correct, the switch is open circuit when bonnet is closed, so simply unplug it. That way you can get to internal and engine bay electrics which the car thinks it's closed & locked.

Defeinitely at least 10min for it to sleep, so grab a cuppa while you wait. I went through this on a mates 2004 L322, and wake-up culprit was worn bonnet hinges allowing the switch to toggle due to windy conditions moving the bonnet !! Bizzare eh ?

Regarding chargers, I've got a Ring RCS612 for the garage which is excellent, and does quite a good job of battery recovery as well. My lesser used 2nd P38 has a Noco Genius 10 to keep that ready to go, even what sitting for a month or more !!
Where would the bonnet switch be located? and that is bizarre
 
Yes it's normal for a battery to drop to 10 or 11 volts under a load test, but it depends on the battery size and it's health. I would expect it to be closer to 11v in this case.
I don't know about your car, but as soon as i unlock and open a door, it starts pulling ~35amps, that's a lot and will soon flatten a battery. If you open and close doors while you get kids in the car etc.
3-5 years isn't unusual, depending on how you use the car
This seems pretty interesting. I took it out to drive for about 40ish minutes. a good 20-30 minutes on the highway and decided to go to an AutoZone after doing some shopping to see if they could do a test on everything. Was in there for about 2 minutes and when I got back out for him to try to start it. Just the click of me turning the key and it trying to start. He told me to charge it for 24-48 hours with 2 amps. 4 amps would be too high and 10 amps would cook the battery. I jumped it and got it back home which was around a 15-minute drive. I this time decided to not get out of the car or open any doors. I took the key out and put it back in and it almost cranked over. Like you said could this be part of the problem? What's the best way to test this and would I just unlock and open the door at the end of my testing of each fuse in the car when it's asleep?
 
No don't keep opening & closing the door.

1. Engine off & key out.
2. Open the door, and then close the latch as if the door was shut using a screwdriver. Also open the bonnet & disconnect the bonnet switch (it's in the scuttle on offside or left as you look at the car from the front).
3. Now the car thinks the door is closed, but you still have access to internal & engine bay fuses !!
4. Put a DC current clamp meter around the battery cable.
5. Lock the car either with the key or fob, and go for a cuppa while it sleeps.
6. Now you can see what the drain is.

If you don't have a current clamp meter, then it's gonna take longer. You need to measure the current for each fuse, ideally using a fuse current tester, but this often wakes things up so you have t owait for sleep again !!

Fuse Current Tester.

DC Clamp Meter.
 
No don't keep opening & closing the door.

1. Engine off & key out.
2. Open the door, and then close the latch as if the door was shut using a screwdriver. Also open the bonnet & disconnect the bonnet switch (it's in the scuttle on offside or left as you look at the car from the front).
3. Now the car thinks the door is closed, but you still have access to internal & engine bay fuses !!
4. Put a DC current clamp meter around the battery cable.
5. Lock the car either with the key or fob, and go for a cuppa while it sleeps.
6. Now you can see what the drain is.

If you don't have a current clamp meter, then it's gonna take longer. You need to measure the current for each fuse, ideally using a fuse current tester, but this often wakes things up so you have t owait for sleep again !!

Fuse Current Tester.

DC Clamp Meter.
For the DC Clamp Meter would you suggest 4000 counts or 6000 counts?
 
Doesn’t really matter. You’re looking for steady drain. Just makes sure it does do DC current. Ideally Amazon returnable in case it doesn’t!!
 
Yes, it does. What would the correct position for bedding them look like? I believe right now they are right at the bottom of the headlights or flat with the bumper. I would have to go back outside and look. Also, I believe when I bought the vehicle they removed the headlight wiper motor completely. I don't know if that helps or narrows it down to
The correct position is straight line, at bottom of lens. If you're not sure just give a little tap see if they go down. Why would they remove the motor? Do you mean remove and replace, or remove and ........?
 
The correct position is straight line, at bottom of lens. If you're not sure just give a little tap see if they go down. Why would they remove the motor? Do you mean remove and replace, or remove and ........?
From what I was told I never actually physically looked. Im pretty sure there is just no motor. I could be wrong but I don't think there is a motor in there. Ive had the air suspension removed and replaced with normal. I have wires from the air suspension still left in the vehicle and that was my first theory it was still pulling power from the vehicle thinking it wasn't level. But I had it tested. Nothing was pulling from there.
 
The wiper motor has a contact for home position, no motor = no contact. If the contact is open in the home position then no problem, if the contact is supposed to be closed in the home position, then there my be a problem/
 
From what I was told I never actually physically looked. Im pretty sure there is just no motor. I could be wrong but I don't think there is a motor in there. Ive had the air suspension removed and replaced with normal. I have wires from the air suspension still left in the vehicle and that was my first theory it was still pulling power from the vehicle thinking it wasn't level. But I had it tested. Nothing was pulling from there.
I'm going to move quickly past the reducing of a luxury vehicle to a normal vehicle 🙈🤣 And on to , could the wipers be draining due to trying to talk to them with no response? As far as I remember reading elsewhere the relay may be built into the wiper assembly, or under the dash, depending on year. Although one of the more technical types may be able to answer that one. 👍
 
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