L322 - How to check for battery drain

StuckAgainSteve · Feb 10, 2012

mrblonde said:
Might sound a bit cheap but it was from Lidl the charger, on special offer yesterday:

LIDL Great Britain - lidl.co.uk

Got great reviews on several sites, so bought 2, given the probs Ive had recently.

Battery is still connected to the RR, should I disconnect it? If so, whats the correct procedure to disconnect please?

They are perfectly good chargers, but like many "smart" chargers they will not charge a flat battery, the only way to get the charger going is to connect a good battery in parallel with the dead one and charge them both simultaneously, when the originally dead battery goes above ~8V then you can charge it on its own, I use a jump pack or a small motorcycle battery with jump leads for this purpose.

Datatek · Feb 10, 2012

rustyrangie said:
Read the whole thread with interest as i've been suffering with battery drain in my classic lse for the last 4 years... ever since i've had the car with brand new battery fitted the battery would only last less than 2 weeks without use, now the battery is old and knackered i'm only getting a few days between use before it's too flat to start the old girl. I'm glad i don't have a modern rangie with all those warning lights and clever ecu's yes i appreciate that i need a newun but wanted to sort the problem first before i knacker another battery
so i finally went through battey drain checks.. i'm getting a 110 ma draw with everything connected and alarm armed, lpg system is using 40ma alarm seems to be using 0-10 ma fluctuating while armed and int lights/clock etc using 30ma could someone with more knowledge advise whether this amount of current draw is accetable please

I would have thought that more than 30 to 40ma is unacceptable. Why would the lpg system be drawing 40ma when the system is shut down? Interior lights should be off and the clock should draw next to bugger all, 10ma for the alarm is when the LED flashes I would guess and is about right. So 40ma for the lpg and 10ma for the alarm = 50ma that should be about it with the interior lights off, so where is the other 60ma going?

rustyrangie · Feb 11, 2012

Datatek said:
I would have thought that more than 30 to 40ma is unacceptable. Why would the lpg system be drawing 40ma when the system is shut down? Interior lights should be off and the clock should draw next to bugger all, 10ma for the alarm is when the LED flashes I would guess and is about right. So 40ma for the lpg and 10ma for the alarm = 50ma that should be about it with the interior lights off, so where is the other 60ma going?

Thanks for the replies so far chaps, i wish i knew where all me milliamps were going an all

did checks by pulling all fuses from main fusebox on dash one at a time with doors shut and bonnet switch wedged in, still had 60-70 milliamp drain i couldn't find... guess i need to check all the other fuses dotted about such as fuel relay and under seat stuff... indeed why is lpg drawing so much when everything is off? there are 2 fuses to it's loom, a 7.5a with no drain and a 20a which is drawing 40 mili

there is a problem since new alarm was fitted and fitter couldn't suss the wiring sooo the interior lights only work via the dash switch and not door pins so maybe interior lights have some kind of relay?

dogsbody · Feb 11, 2012

mrblonde said:
right guys
been out this morning connected up my new charger, switched on the mains and nothing. Powerr light come on on the charger, in 'stand by' mode, but it wouldnt do anything when i pressed the 'mode' button to cycl thorugh to the correct chargig setting..... any ideasas im stumped????

If your charger's smart enough to have a mode switch then it's possibly also got a circuit that will refuse to charge a totally flat battery seeing it as a faulty battery.

stchris356 · Feb 11, 2012

rustyrangie said:
Thanks for the replies so far chaps, i wish i knew where all me milliamps were going an all did checks by pulling all fuses from main fusebox on dash one at a time with doors shut and bonnet switch wedged in, still had 60-70 milliamp drain i couldn't find... guess i need to check all the other fuses dotted about such as fuel relay and under seat stuff... indeed why is lpg drawing so much when everything is off? there are 2 fuses to it's loom, a 7.5a with no drain and a 20a which is drawing 40 mili there is a problem since new alarm was fitted and fitter couldn't suss the wiring sooo the interior lights only work via the dash switch and not door pins so maybe interior lights have some kind of relay?

If it's 60-70 mA in total I wouldn't worry too much about that it's fractionally higher but not excessive, to put into perspective 1 interior light draws approx 500-700 mA depending on the bulb!

Oh yeah and if your charger is not charging, as said before theres a good chance your battery is knackered!

rustyrangie · Feb 12, 2012

Total current draw with car all locked up and nothing on is 110 milliamps, of that the interior light/cig lighter fuse seems to be drawing 30 milliamps with nothing other that the clock running as far as i can tell, the lpg system seems to be drawing 40 milliamps while car asleep. I haven't managed to find out where the missing 60 milliamps is going to so far and may put an easy to reach isolator switch in car for lpg to at least stop it drawing so much while car is sitting?
with interior lights on current draw is 2.2 amps

John L · May 19, 2012

I've been having a nightmare with power issue on my L322!

Finally worked out it must be the DVD sat nav drive...

Disconnected said device and hey presto, no power drain since!

Managed to source a new drive, thinking it must be the unit... Plugged it in yesterday... Battery dead today...!

HELP!!!

Saswitch · May 19, 2012

What about "final stage resistor"
Try a search . It's a big source of battery drain . Easily picked up off eBay. Good luck....

Datatek · May 20, 2012

John L said:
I've been having a nightmare with power issue on my L322!

Finally worked out it must be the DVD sat nav drive...

Disconnected said device and hey presto, no power drain since!

Managed to source a new drive, thinking it must be the unit... Plugged it in yesterday... Battery dead today...!

HELP!!!

Was it a NEW drive or a second hand unit off fleebay that has the same fault?
Worth getting the fault codes read

John L · May 20, 2012

The old one wouldn't eject the disk and if I sat in the car after locking it up I could here the drive ticking over... I assumed that was the issue. The new drive ejects fine, but still power drain...

My investigation continues... :/

John L · May 20, 2012

Ps. I've already done the final stage resistor...

mrblonde · Dec 9, 2012

John L said:
I've been having a nightmare with power issue on my L322!

Finally worked out it must be the DVD sat nav drive...

Disconnected said device and hey presto, no power drain since!

Managed to source a new drive, thinking it must be the unit... Plugged it in yesterday... Battery dead today...!

HELP!!!

Dragging this thread up again guys, my bitch has eaten another battery grrrrr

John L - Where did you disconnect the satnavdrive, in the boot left hand side panel? If so, what plug did you pull? I never use the satnav in my TD6 so am tempted to disconnect it to see if it helps??

Hope you got yours sorted mate, after all this time

Saint.V8 · Dec 9, 2012

mrblonde said:
Dragging this thread up again guys, my bitch has eaten another battery grrrrr

John L - Where did you disconnect the satnavdrive, in the boot left hand side panel? If so, what plug did you pull? I never use the satnav in my TD6 so am tempted to disconnect it to see if it helps??

Hope you got yours sorted mate, after all this time

Open boot, open side cover, wait for the little red light to go out...

If yours is loose in the cradle you can slide the unit out and disconnect the multiplugs....or else you may be able to reach behind it to disconnect...

BUT you MUST wait for the little red light to go out on the front first , else you feck the unit!

L322 - How to check for battery drain

StuckAgainSteve

Well-Known Member

Datatek

Well-Known Member

rustyrangie

Active Member

dogsbody

Very senior member

stchris356

New Member

rustyrangie

Active Member

John L

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Saswitch

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Datatek

Well-Known Member

John L

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John L

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mrblonde

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Saint.V8

Dyed-in-the-wool 100% RR Junkie

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