shawdreamer Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 As those that have followed my SUYM thread will know, I had a feckin god awful annoying problem with a repeated battery drain that eventually killed two batteries before I could narrow down any suspects. After fixing half the butchered dash wiring and loom wiring I managed to seemingly fix the drain, "seemingly" being the appropriate word, Wednesday I parked the car up and didnt use it again till Friday and found the battery drained enough so as making starting the car impossible and had to throw it on charge. after it was fully charged I used the car for a couple of hours then parked her up again, came to use her Sunday night and again, drained just enough so as not to start. Just to recap my efforts, 1, new tested and good recon'd Alternator2, tested good Starter3, New battery with sufficient capacity to start a 1.6 (my engine currently being a 1.4)4, All butcher bodge wiring work behind the Dash from previous owner repaired and made good5, all electrical additions on my part are relayed for power off on Ignition off6, battery voltage tests good, 12.6 standing, 14.7 running7, Just about anything you can think off tested8, drain reduced after wiring repair work and new battery added So heres what Ive got.... that is unless someone has another angle I can explore? I have had it up to the back teeth trying to diagnose this pain in the richter drain problem and have came up with a "work around" If I was to say use a isolation approach to the problem, and isolate all electrical feeds while the car is not in use, what permenant lives would I have to consider running new feeds for if I isolate pre-fusebox as Ill need to so as to eliminate the drain issue?. I expect needing a 25amp fused 12v perm feed to the ECU to maintain memory and A 12v perm feed to my car alarm and CL system but barring those two are there any others anyone can indicate will need perm feeds after isolation (and yes I have considered the stereo but I dont give a monkeys about losing my radio stations). advice will be muchly appreciated lads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfixit Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 As those that have followed my SUYM thread will know, I had a feckin god awful annoying problem with a repeated battery drain that eventually killed two batteries before I could narrow down any suspects. After fixing half the butchered dash wiring and loom wiring I managed to seemingly fix the drain, "seemingly" being the appropriate word, Wednesday I parked the car up and didnt use it again till Friday and found the battery drained enough so as making starting the car impossible and had to throw it on charge. after it was fully charged I used the car for a couple of hours then parked her up again, came to use her Sunday night and again, drained just enough so as not to start. Just to recap my efforts, 1, new tested and good recon'd Alternator2, tested good Starter3, New battery with sufficient capacity to start a 1.6 (my engine currently being a 1.4)4, All butcher bodge wiring work behind the Dash from previous owner repaired and made good5, all electrical additions on my part are relayed for power off on Ignition off6, battery voltage tests good, 12.6 standing, 14.7 running7, Just about anything you can think off tested8, drain reduced after wiring repair work and new battery added So heres what Ive got.... that is unless someone has another angle I can explore? I have had it up to the back teeth trying to diagnose this pain in the richter drain problem and have came up with a "work around" If I was to say use a isolation approach to the problem, and isolate all electrical feeds while the car is not in use, what permenant lives would I have to consider running new feeds for if I isolate pre-fusebox as Ill need to so as to eliminate the drain issue?. I expect needing a 25amp fused 12v perm feed to the ECU to maintain memory and A 12v perm feed to my car alarm and CL system but barring those two are there any others anyone can indicate will need perm feeds after isolation (and yes I have considered the stereo but I dont give a monkeys about losing my radio stations). advice will be muchly appreciated lads.have you got a auto mutimeter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawdreamer Posted September 13, 2010 Author Share Posted September 13, 2010 As those that have followed my SUYM thread will know, I had a feckin god awful annoying problem with a repeated battery drain that eventually killed two batteries before I could narrow down any suspects. After fixing half the butchered dash wiring and loom wiring I managed to seemingly fix the drain, "seemingly" being the appropriate word, Wednesday I parked the car up and didnt use it again till Friday and found the battery drained enough so as making starting the car impossible and had to throw it on charge. after it was fully charged I used the car for a couple of hours then parked her up again, came to use her Sunday night and again, drained just enough so as not to start. Just to recap my efforts, 1, new tested and good recon'd Alternator2, tested good Starter3, New battery with sufficient capacity to start a 1.6 (my engine currently being a 1.4)4, All butcher bodge wiring work behind the Dash from previous owner repaired and made good5, all electrical additions on my part are relayed for power off on Ignition off6, battery voltage tests good, 12.6 standing, 14.7 running7, Just about anything you can think off tested8, drain reduced after wiring repair work and new battery added So heres what Ive got.... that is unless someone has another angle I can explore? I have had it up to the back teeth trying to diagnose this pain in the richter drain problem and have came up with a "work around" If I was to say use a isolation approach to the problem, and isolate all electrical feeds while the car is not in use, what permenant lives would I have to consider running new feeds for if I isolate pre-fusebox as Ill need to so as to eliminate the drain issue?. I expect needing a 25amp fused 12v perm feed to the ECU to maintain memory and A 12v perm feed to my car alarm and CL system but barring those two are there any others anyone can indicate will need perm feeds after isolation (and yes I have considered the stereo but I dont give a monkeys about losing my radio stations). advice will be muchly appreciated lads.have you got a auto mutimeter Ive got 2 multimeters, one being a current tester but theyve only helped as far as locating the dash wiring issues I mentioned. Im starting to think the issue might be enviromental as the drains were at their worst during the cold of winter and the most recent heavy rain showers....the obvious worry that comes with water and lecky mixing aswell as the chance of fire makes me lean even further toward isolation till I can strip out the engine and really rip into the wiring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 Have you measured current inline with the battery yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawdreamer Posted September 13, 2010 Author Share Posted September 13, 2010 Have you measured current inline with the battery yet? between battery and fusebox ya mean Stu? wouldnt that be pointless seen as theres allways a permenant 12v feed current running through it to the box then to the Ecu memory and alarm system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfixit Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 can your mutimeter measure amps if so do a discharge drain test and then start pulling fuse one by one untill the drain drops then you can look into that circuit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawdreamer Posted September 13, 2010 Author Share Posted September 13, 2010 can your mutimeter measure amps if so do a discharge drain test and then start pulling fuse one by one untill the drain drops then you can look into that circuit the multimeter has a low limit of 200amps which is why it was only useful to locate the mass problems but is highly unreliable when the measued levels drop below the 200 range, that kinda rules out individual small amp fused circuit testing (which is why I was ultimately forced to systematically scour the dash wiring for butchered bits, which btw Im pretty sure I found all off) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan99940 Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 well this is well beyond me but a possible "temporary solution" could you not like make a switch of some sort to disconnect the battery so there for no drain would happen i don't know if this is possible or even a sensible suggestion so sorry if i wasted your time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 Have you measured current inline with the battery yet? between battery and fusebox ya mean Stu? wouldnt that be pointless seen as theres allways a permenant 12v feed current running through it to the box then to the Ecu memory and alarm system? No it wouldn't be pointless. I can only assume from your reply the answer is "No". If this is the case then please confirm and we can continue methodical diagnosis. Alternatively let me know what you want to hear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawdreamer Posted September 13, 2010 Author Share Posted September 13, 2010 Alternatively let me know what you want to hear That your missus needs servicing and she chose me? Id appologise for that one Stu but you might aswell have painted a bullseye on ya fod. OK OK, bin any diagnostic discussion for the time being and focus on the other, does my "Work around" hold merit, even as a temporary measure? are the Permenant Live exceptions I mentioned all that Id need to address to make it workable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 OK OK, bin any diagnostic discussion for the time being and focus on the other Don't bother me with the facts, my mind's made up ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfixit Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 200 amp or 200 mamps you need a 10 amp fused setting on the mutimeter http://www.evo-host.co.uk/getimg/25406.jpg number 2 connected to battery negitivenumber 3 can be connected to the earth lead lead that runs to bodywork Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawdreamer Posted September 13, 2010 Author Share Posted September 13, 2010 OK OK, bin any diagnostic discussion for the time being and focus on the other Don't bother me with the facts, my mind's made up ? now now Stuey dont get miffy on me, As I mentioned my current testing levels are restricted to anything above 200amps which means any inline test I do on the battery wont be really usable as the readings wouldnt be reliable enough with the equipment I have to hand which means it'd just waste of mine and your time to use them for diagnostic purposes. Its not a case of "Don't bother me with the facts" Stu, its more a case of those particular facts are not really of use at this moment in time and for whatever reason as such cant help the situation, Im in no way disputing your establishment of those facts or the great likelyhood that they are indeed precise......their just not usable right now. However, the work around maybe usable and would surfice to bypass the problem till such time when I can more accurately diagnose it and at which time I would be more than grateful for your input on what I need to look for as I would be grateful for your input on the "work around" theory. 200 amp or 200 mamps you need a 10 amp fused setting on the mutimeter Amps, not MAmps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 Go to the local shop and buy a cheap multimeter with more suitable resolution for a tenner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawdreamer Posted September 13, 2010 Author Share Posted September 13, 2010 Go to the local shop and buy a cheap multimeter with more suitable resolution for a tenner. Aye I suppose ya gotta point their, have to order it offline somewhere tho as it was a nightmare even trying to find a simple ac/dc meter round ere the last time a tried. needs to have a DC current test between 0-10Amps Id have thought yer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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