Cheeksgt

Cheeksgt

Member
Obviously not but,

With the ignition turned off and key out it is still drawing 4.6 amps?
I have taken out every fuse in turn but no joy.
Anyone have any ideas?
I very open to trying anything.
Thanks guys

Oh and it's a 3 door 300tdi no aircon or electric windows or anything fancy.
 
Stereo?
Alarm?
Interior lights?

I think I have a similar issue, but I have a good battery and regularly use the car, so it never manifests itself. So I've never actually measured the current draw while its standing. Some time ago I did have issues with it flattening the battery in a week or so, if left (it was off the road and being worked on then). If regularly used, the battery was good enough to start it. I assumed it was a dodgy battery and changed/upgraded it recently, what with the upcoming winter.

One thing it might be is the alarm. I believe there's some kind of radio code which means when the key is in/near the barrel, its mobilised. So it might draw a little more current when like that.

Worth rigging up an ammeter via some remote wires (so you can close the bonnet and activate the alarm) and leaving it locked for a couple of hours to get a true reading.
 
What's your alternator like?As if the diodes are going home they leak-disconnect power lead from alternator and remeasure your current loss-How are you measuring this 4.6 amps?
 
Radio has been removed from the equation

I am measuring it with a dc ammeter (digital)
Leaving the negative batter terminal connected I am then putting one probe to the positive battery post and the other probe to the positive battery lead (series)
I have one at a time removed all thefuses under the dash and all the fuses under the bonnet (apart from the 100,60,40 amp ones as they are not as easyly removed. This will be tomorrows job.

I like the alternator bit. A pricey one though. :-(
 
Cheeksgt said:
Oh and I have an optima yellow top battery that is flattened in 9 hours.
Click to expand...

Optima's will do that after a while they is ****e in motors. Even Optima have admitted that their batteries are **** in 4x4's ;)
 
Measurement sounds fine-you must get quite a spark when you connect/disconnect the battery-thats the best part of 50 watts -I would disconnect the alt and re measure
 
First of all make certain that's not your battery fooked...., disconnect it, take a bulb(i.e 60W) and measure the drain of it directly from the battery.......it must be very close to 5A ..or othe value according to the bulbs power(I=P/U)....if it is so after u disconnect the alternator, disconnect the starter motor too(it's hard wired direct to the + as u know)
 
Last edited:
Cheeksgt said:
Oh and I have an optima yellow top battery that is flattened in 9 hours.
Click to expand...

^^^^^ ....that's why u have to be sure about your battery. Could seem strange but a battery has an own internal resistance which is growing as the battery goes flat or fooked. If your battery is flattened in 9 hours on a 4,6A drain it means that it's nomilal capacity is just about 40Ah:(.......at least this is the logical deduction........i.e a good/well charged 60Ah battery must resist 10 hours on a 6A drain till it goes totally flat. The intensity of the juice for a complete circuit includes the battery's internal resiatance too: I = U/(R +r), r is the internal resistance of the battery which is close to zero if the battery is good/well charged.......what i want to explain is that if the battery is not the best from some reason u will measure a bigger intensity in a closed circuit even without consumers.

what u can do before u dissasemble the whole electrics of your car is to check the drain with an other battery(a reliable one)......that has to be the first step when this kind of strange drain occures.
 
Something I should have mentioned,

The problem started using a standard battery and I used the optima (new battery) from an other car.
I keep one battery fully charged in the boot at the moment so if it goes flat I can swap them over.
Happens on both batterys. I'm happy that it's not the batterys.

This evening I will take the altinator out of the loop and try again.
Would it be a case of replacement or repair?

Cheers
Ben
 
Had a similar problem with my 52 plate D2. Just disconnected the big wire from the alternator & reconnected. The problem was gone! Don't know what the reason was, but that sorted it for me. Been OK for 6 months now.
 
airhook said:
Had a similar problem with my 52 plate D2. Just disconnected the big wire from the alternator & reconnected. The problem was gone! Don't know what the reason was, but that sorted it for me. Been OK for 6 months now.
Click to expand...


Funny! completely by accident, this is exactly what happened!

lets see how long it lasts. Hopefully a long time. Quite frustrating though as i still cant find what it was?

Had the engine out a few weeks ago for the clutch.
Was green laneing last weekend (not muddy though)
Fitted a new head unit on sunday

A side note, I have about 10 unused connectors under the dash, and i have found a tachograph disc with my registration on it.

Thanks for all your help guys.
 
The diode pins are quite close together,relatively-if carbon junk from the brushes builds up enough,a temporary short path will form.When you remove and re-apply the big lead,there is a thump of voltage,which can be enough to burn this temporary short off-once isolated everything is normal again-you get a similar effect after driving thru deep water-the charge light comes on-the diodes are temporarily shorted-then light goes out and fan belt squeals coming under load to relace the lost power.
Anyone suffering this sort of fault,I would take the diode pack of and clean it,before changing the whole alternator
 
This may have been the cause of my massive mysterious current drain,on another thread.The alternator I had put on as a replacement had been cleaned with alcohol and compressed air.....so maybe some crap in the diode pack,shifted by reconnection.If only the other problem was so easy!
 
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