battery draining every night

jchill43 · Apr 15, 2005

have a 95 land rover discovery that is draining the battery every
night?
any ideas as to what could be doing it? No lights no radio are left on
but something is draining it and its driving me nuts
Any help would be most welcomed

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.boB · Apr 15, 2005

jchill43 wrote:

> have a 95 land rover discovery that is draining the battery every
> night?
> any ideas as to what could be doing it? No lights no radio are left on
> but something is draining it and its driving me nuts
> Any help would be most welcomed
>
Assuming the battery is in good shape, finding a
short can be a real pain in the neck. Disconnect the
main battery cable and place a volt meter in series.
If there's any kind of power draw you'll get a reading
on the meter. Now start pulling fuses until the power
draw disappears.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? Unfortunately, with
modern computer controlled cars it's often more
difficult than that. If you can't find the offensive
circuit, you'll need get schematic and find all the
circuits that don't go through the fuse box. It can be
a very tedious process.

--
..boB
1997 HD FXDWG - Turbocharged!
2001 Dodge Dakota QC 5.9/4x4/3.92
1966 Mustang Coupe - Daily Driver
1966 FFR Cobra - Ongoing project

Peter D. Hipson · Apr 15, 2005

Did you measure current draw when off? Don't do one measurement, but
monitor it for a while.

Did you test the battery?

Either could be your problem, but without tests you'll never know. If
the battery is over three years old, maybe a good idea is to replace
it anyway.

On 14 Apr 2005 23:04:54 -0400, jchill43
<[email protected]> wrote:

>have a 95 land rover discovery that is draining the battery every
>night?
>any ideas as to what could be doing it? No lights no radio are left on
>but something is draining it and its driving me nuts
>Any help would be most welcomed

bowgus · Apr 15, 2005

I think you meant ammeter (or multimeter in A(mmeter) mode, not voltmeter)
in series.

> Disconnect the main battery cable and place a volt meter in series.

.boB · Apr 16, 2005

bowgus wrote:

> I think you meant ammeter (or multimeter in A(mmeter) mode, not voltmeter)
> in series.
>
>
>>Disconnect the main battery cable and place a volt meter in series.
>
>
>
No, I meant voltmeter. Try it.

--
..boB
1997 HD FXDWG - Turbocharged!
2001 Dodge Dakota QC 5.9/4x4/3.92
1966 Mustang Coupe - Daily Driver
1966 FFR Cobra - Ongoing project

fordmandan · Apr 16, 2005

pull your fuse on your anti-theft system

Paul Hovnanian P.E. · Apr 16, 2005

".boB" wrote:
>
> bowgus wrote:
>
> > I think you meant ammeter (or multimeter in A(mmeter) mode, not voltmeter)
> > in series.
> >
> >
> >>Disconnect the main battery cable and place a volt meter in series.
> >
> >
> >
> No, I meant voltmeter. Try it.

That'll work for a rough indication. If there is any leakage path with
an impedance significantly lower than that of the meter, you'll read
battery voltage. Once all circuits are open, the VM will read zero
(since the load side of the meter is effectively disconnected, just like
waving the probe around in the air).

The voltmeter trick is safer than an ammeter in the event too large a
load is connected unexpectedly. The ammeter will either blow a fuse or
smoke.

--
Paul Hovnanian mailto

[email protected]
------------------------------------------------------------------
f u cn rd ths u r usng unx

Mad Dog · Apr 16, 2005

Remove the negative battery cable from the battery and install a test light
between the neg. cable and neg. battery post....cable end of test light to
post and probe end of test light to neg. cable.
a bright light indicates a strong current draw... a dim light indicates a
weak current draw.
Components that run when the key is off will have a static current draw on
the battery but not enough to drain the battery overnight unless something
is shorted and drawing way too much current.
Check the battery and replace if faulty.

--
Mad-Dog
'79 Chevy K-10
Slightly modified
pictures can be found here:
http://mad-dog16.tripod.com/
--
"jchill43" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> have a 95 land rover discovery that is draining the battery every
> night?
> any ideas as to what could be doing it? No lights no radio are left on
> but something is draining it and its driving me nuts
> Any help would be most welcomed
>
> --
> Posted using the http://www.autoforumz.com interface, at author's request
> Articles individually checked for conformance to usenet standards
> Topic URL:
> http://www.autoforumz.com/4X4-battery-draining-night-ftopict112223.html
> Visit Topic URL to contact author (reg. req'd). Report abuse:
> http://www.autoforumz.com/eform.php?p=527291

Peter D. Hipson · Apr 16, 2005

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:49:50 -0600, ".boB"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>bowgus wrote:
>
> No, I meant voltmeter. Try it.

Won't give you an accurate reading of current if it is a voltmeter.
All vehicles today have some draw key off. It is the amount of draw
that is important, and a voltmeter won't indicate that.

Jeff Olsen · Apr 17, 2005

in article [email protected],
jchill43 at [email protected] wrote on 4/14/05 8:04 PM:

> have a 95 land rover discovery that is draining the battery every
> night?
> any ideas as to what could be doing it? No lights no radio are left on
> but something is draining it and its driving me nuts
> Any help would be most welcomed

First off, disconnect the battery and see if it drains down on its own
accord; you might just have a bad battery. Or, put a multimeter in series
with the + terminal and see how much current your vehicle is drawing when
"off". There will be SOME (clock, etc) but it should be minimal.

To further isolate the problem, assuming it's not the battery, pull fuses
and put the meter across the terminals of where the fuse just was. When you
find significant current draw, you've at least generally located your short.

If the above does not make sense, take it to a pro and let them find it.
Life's too short to dink around with things like this, sometimes, and taking
the dash apart SUCKS on almost any modern car!

I bet it's your battery.

-jeff

battery draining every night

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