disco 3 2006 battery drain

Disco1979 · Oct 18, 2019

Hi all
I haven't been on here for a while as i sold my RR but I have a friend with a disco 3 2006 2.7 diesel who I am trying to help.
He is getting battery drain, if he leaves if for 2 days the battery is dead so he put a second battery on it with a switch so when his main battery died he could switch over to the other one. but last time it died both batteries where dead.
Any one have any pointers please.
Thanks guys
Mark

matgriff · Oct 18, 2019

Take off one of the battery leads & connect a multi meter set to DC amps between the battery terminal and the lead that you removed, this will measure the current drain from the battery. With the ignition off, you should measure a few miliamps no more. If there's a few hundred miliamps, then go round pulling fuses out one at a time until the current drops, this would be a reasonable starting point. NOTE : don't try and start the engine or use any high drain ancillaries with the multimeter connected otherwise you'll blow it's internal fuse.

Mat

Disco1979 · Oct 18, 2019

Thank you Mat I will let my friend know it's a good starting point.
Thank you

lynall · Oct 18, 2019

Disco1979 said:
Thank you Mat I will let my friend know it's a good starting point.
Thank you

You will need to jam the bonnet switch down and wait the for the car to go to sleep, sometimes as long as 20 minutes.
Alternator failure is not unusual with the D3 and its recommended to only use a Denso unit, recons dont last and any other make also seems to cause issues, if left it also wrecks the battery as well, batteries lucky to last 3 maybe 4 years.
Yuasa 019 are pretty good.

Ps dont forget there are loads of interior lights incl the glove box and door bottoms, something like 13 in total so maybe worth a look at them? the two lights over seats 6 and 7 are manually switched and even if left on cannot really be seen from the drivers seat.

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

Hi @Disco1979

had the pleasure of tracing a residual battery drain on mine

what year and model is the D3 plse,

test for the alternator diode , set ur multimeter onto AC volts , engine running , test leads onto each battery post , get someone to raise the engine around 1500 revs , see if ur get any reading

Next , engine off, as mentioned u can use a paper clip and link out ur bonnet switch , is on the left hand side , alarm the vehicle , double press the remote lock button which will turn off the internal alarm , and wait 30 x minutes for the system to go into sleep mode

what ever u do don’t pull fuses out, as ur wake the system back up

use a multimeter set to M amps and put ur test leads onto the back of each fuse in the engines fuse box

enclosed a chart as well of what readings u should have

hope that helps

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

Also using a clamp meter helps , for the J fuses I made up some test leads but see how u get on first

lynall · Oct 19, 2019

gstuart said:
Hi @Disco1979

had the pleasure of tracing a residual battery drain on mine

what year and model is the D3 plse,

test for the alternator diode , set ur multimeter onto AC volts , engine running , test leads onto each battery post , get someone to raise the engine around 1500 revs , see if ur get any reading

Next , engine off, as mentioned u can use a paper clip and link out ur bonnet switch , is on the left hand side , alarm the vehicle , double press the remote lock button which will turn off the internal alarm , and wait 30 x minutes for the system to go into sleep mode

what ever u do don’t pull fuses out, as ur wake the system back up

use a multimeter set to M amps and put ur test leads onto the back of each fuse in the engines fuse box

enclosed a chart as well of what readings u should have

hope that helps

View attachment 192142 View attachment 192143 View attachment 192141

Gary how does it work as you appear to be testing across the fuses and if the fuses are intact then Im not sure how the meter can give you anything sensible?

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

lynall said:
Gary how does it work as you appear to be testing across the fuses and if the fuses are intact then Im not sure how the meter can give you anything sensible?

here u go buddy , robbie done a great guide

https://www.disco4.com/forum/post1366423.html#1366423

when I set my meter onto Ma i was looking for any residual readings going across the fuse and determining if that particular circuit was any pulling power with the vehicle was in its sleep state

also can’t pull the fuses out one by one as it wakes the system up

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

Done the same for the inside fuse box, drop the catches on the door and disabled the interior lights

Secured the test leads together and then used the test points on the back of the fuses to see if anything was still using power

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

Also a video is it helps anyone

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

Or can use a fuse buddy

sierrafery · Oct 19, 2019

IMO the way shown in the video is the best except for ruling out the alternator

lynall · Oct 19, 2019

gstuart said:
Also a video is it helps anyone

Thats pretty clever, never heard of testing that way before.

lynall · Oct 19, 2019

gstuart said:
Or can use a fuse buddy

View attachment 192164

Seeing thta pic reminds me I have all them adaptors in the power prove test kit that I cant remember the last time I used!

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

lynall said:
Thats pretty clever, never heard of testing that way before.

hi

Don’t tell me , I may, just may have shown u something new , lol

also got one of the Hantek clamp meter which also helped

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

lynall said:
Seeing thta pic reminds me I have all them adaptors in the power prove test kit that I cant remember the last time I used!

Thought about buying one a while back, suppose to be very good

when I was trying to trace my airbag faults I got a wire tracer

lynall · Oct 19, 2019

gstuart said:
Thought about buying one a while back, suppose to be very good

when I was trying to trace my airbag faults I got a wire tracer

Its got the wire tracer in it as well, never found that to be much cop.

lynall · Oct 19, 2019

gstuart said:
hi

Don’t tell me , I may, just may have shown u something new , lol

also got one of the Hantek clamp meter which also helped

View attachment 192210

Yep new to me, but to be fair slow battery drain is not one of the problems we see at work, it is normally batteries on their way out or some dimwit driver has left something switched on then gone home.

gstuart · Oct 19, 2019

lynall said:
Its got the wire tracer in it as well, never found that to be much cop.

I got this one

David g4yvm · Sep 28, 2024

I’ve got this problem now. Suddenly appeared but it is intermittent. I wonder whether my battery is just shot. I hope so anyway. Sometimes the car lasts a few days, sometimes not even an hour. I guess the only way to know is to buy a new battery.

disco 3 2006 battery drain

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