Bruce,

If you are going to remove the seats, you really really need to check out THIS post.

Thanks. Ive got a haynes and I will dis-arm the seat belt pretensioners.

Thanks guy.

WD40 on them tonight then!

no its not loud,thought it was from abs block,but the relay is on the wing just in front of it.happens as soon as the engine is switched off,it does not matter if the key is in or out,or whether the car is locked or not,the drain happens straight away.after less than half hour, not enough power to turn engine,put a meter onto relay,and its definately something that is shorting the otherside.

Thanks. Ill have a listen down by the ABS unit then.

Thanks

I charged my battery till the charger indicated it was fully charged.

I then took it off charge and reocorded the voltage at different times through-out the day with the battery sat in my house. Here is what I collected.

Sunday
13.11 V 09:30
13.04 V 10:00
13.03 V 10:30
13.01 V 12:00
13:00 V 13:00
12.97 V 18:30
12:95 V 22:00

As you can see, its probably got surface charge. It didnt drop much at all.

Monday
12.92 V 07:30
12.91 V 12:00

Still has surface charge so I decided to hook the battery upto my car and carry out a parsectic load test.

The load test result where good.

My multimetre was set at 10A fused setting and the dial was on "10" the reading was 0.20 or 0.020 at "2" amp setting. ( I think il will have to double check tonight)

I then took the battery off the car and its now at 12.87/12.88 V which is still good.

So I think we can say that the battery is not discharging itself.

With the red lead plugged into the 10A socket

The dial set to 10 I got 0.22 and when the dial was set at 2 I got 0.022

Thats fine isnt it?

No, thats not ok. You should have the same indication with both settings.
There must be a problem with your meter.

How so?

If im changing from 10A to 2A on the dial (Not the sockets where the probe connects) it will change decimal place.

In this case the 0.022 is an ambiquous indication and you should not consider it as correct.

The dial of 10A is working only with the special 10A socket. Usually, all other dials work with the general socket.

So, considering the 0.22A as the correct indication you have a serious leak if it stays for a long time (more than 5-10 mins).

I dont mean to come across as obnoxious.

Im below a rookie level at this stuff and only recently bought one of these.

If I take a picture of the device in question maybe you could give me some pointers so I can check again to a greater depth?

Ok, I can see the current socket (2 A Max) and the 10 A. The latter is dedicated to the 10A dial. I you want to use the dials 200 uA - 2 A you must connect your probe to the 2A socket.

Any way, this is not your problem. The 0.22 A leak is about 10-100 times bigger than the expected from a stand-by system.

In my opinion, a troubleshooting process should start by unplugging fuses form the fuse box measuring at the same time the drawn current, first starting with the less critical (lights, blowers) and last the ECU fuse.

Thanks.

Ill do this tomorrow in the day light and post my findings.

Dont forget to reinstall a fuse after checking it. And also, dont stick at any change in the last digit of the reading during your test.

Out of interest do you get different result from the multimeter been in series at the +ve side instead of -ve side?

I have this afternoon off so I'm just going to start at the top left of the fuse box and work my way along.

Ok, nano - Here are my findings.

I have a 92 onwards 440 so the fuse layout is different to the 88-91 440.

Top row of fuses didnt touch the current drain.

But one did a HUGE drop on the bottom.

Remember I was around 210-215 drain?

I removed fuse #21 and it dropped to 35-37!

So, whats on fuse 21?

The panel in my car says the following;

centr
doorlo
clock
glove
box la
radio
b+


I disconnected the clock, not that.
I removed the bulb from the glove box, not that.

So where left with the radio and centr doorlo which I think is central locking?

Ive removed fuse 21 and tried to lock the car with the fob, it locks but the LED on the dash stays lit. But all doors are locked.
I cannot set the alarm off though. Not a big deal at the moment. The central locking works fine though. I disconnected the siren it dropped from 37 to 33.5 ish also.

According to haynes, fuse 21 is the following;

Central locking system, keyhole light, glove box light, radio memory (RHD radio power supply) and clock.

So on that assumption I know its NOT the glove box light and not the clock.

So its something wrong with my radio (Its an aftermarket alpine one) and/or the central locking system.

Ill remove the radio later and see if its that. If not, then the central locking system (I think the module ?) will need replacing.
Whats the keyhole light? The green ring of light around the ignition?
Ill have a look and see if I can disconnect that to rule it out also.

Ok, weird.

Fuse 21 in everything connected as normal

210-215

Fuse in and radio disconnected.

56-58

Fuse out 35-37.

So, some wiring is a miss it would seem.

My head unit is fine. I suspect a previous owner has bodged some wiring from what I can tell.

Now im stumped as I cant fix wiring!!

Some times there is a difference in the last digit.

It seems your radio drains a lot of current at stand-by. As far as I know, when the radios are off drain only a very small current (of less than 1 mA, 0.001A) to retain memories and other settings.

The 56-58 mA look reasonable! With this current the battery would get half-flat (to half of its capacity) after 25 days, and at this charge is capable to start the engine for a few times.

Thanks Nano.

I do not think its the actual head unit, but the wiring its connected to as its been in 2 other cars with no problems.

Something to try and attempt to suss out another day I think by someone who understands the wiring of the radio a little better I think!

Ok. You can measure the current of the radio itself, by connecting the meltimeter leads at the fuse socket of radio.

This will give the current drawn from the radio only.
Also measure this current with the auto-antenna cable disconnected.

Oh, interesting. I can test the head unit using the same setting on the multimeter as I was on the battery? Ill report back with that info tomorrow.

The antenna on my car is disconnected. I removed the power cable from it as it doesnt fully go up as some of the sections are bent...
Couldnt be that could it?

No. The current leaving on the + side is always the same as the - side.

Question: does your aftermarket radio turn off with the ignition, or do you have to manually turn it off at the end of a journey?
If it's permanently powered, then you have both the memory wire and the switched feed to the radio linked. On the radio's wiring loom, you may find 2 wires (usually red and yellow, or orange and yellow, or red and orange) linked to one of the cars wires. These will be permanent 12v. One of them needs to come off and be connected to the switched feed from the ignition switch. This is usually the thicker of the 2 wires.

Another idea: disconnect the electric aerial and check the current.
You could just stick the multimeter probes in the contacts normally occupied by fuse 21 to monitor the current (instead of diving under the bonnet every time). Saves disconnecting the battery too...

Yes

Normally antenna's mechanism has a timer to cut-off the power. If there is problem with that mechanism then it could be.

Not a timer. The antenna is pulled up/down via a clutch. When the mast reaches the end of travel, the clutch slips, the motor keeps going until a contact still being driven by the motor reaches the end of it's travel. Take the motor apart and have a look...

But if the Antenna power cable is not connected then that would rule out an antenna problem anyway

Well, good evenin EVERYONE who participated in my long thread and put up with my lack of electrical knowledge!


Problem solved of why my battery was going dead!

The radio was basically on "stand-by" 24/7 as it has a 12v perm from the battery.


On the standard wiring loom harness ISO the 1of 2 (Speakers + Power) the power one had 4 cables

12v constant, 12v igniton, earth & remote antenna.

It was wired in so the contact was with 12v constant and not 12v ignition.

I cut the wire and swapped them over and all seems ok.

I put my probe across the Fuse 21 and got.... 35 milliamps!

Im a very happy bunny!

Thank you so much everyone, especially nano recently!

Good to hear it's sorted :thumbs_up:


Give your battery one last charge to make sure it is 100% SoC, then happy days.

What are you tinkering with this weekend? I will crawling around under the front of the 440.

Delighted you have your battery drain solved. Great news at last.
Well done and you are now an expert with a multimeter too.
Jim

Hmmm. Well I could not remove the seats so I carefully cut around the interior carpet and foam stuff under neath. Washed the carpet but still waiting for the foam stuff to dry out.

This weekend I might just wash her and make her look spangly!

Ill be taking my other halfs to the garage to get a second opinion on what I think is 99% sure a wheel bearing.

Thanks again guys.

P.S ill take the battery off one last time and fully charge it and them happy motoring...apart from the Lower Arms and Suspension...

Very good news

Hapy with you!

Its not a 100% as the radio seems to lose its setting when the ignition is off.

Im not too fussed about that, weird though.

As I said in a previous post:
The radio needs both a permanent feed and a switched feed.
The permanent feed keeps the memory settings
The switched feed enables the radio to go into a standby mode when the ignition is on.

What is the make/model of the radio you currently have?

Its an alpine 9881R I think.

I dont think there is way with the current harness blocks to have both switched live and perm live though.


It does a yellow one conencted which is "battery lead" according to HU and red cable which is obviosuly power so I dunno.

Im not too fussed tbh but if there is an easy fix etc... :thumbs_up: