Engine: D5: what could be draining my power?

[totalguy]

Volvo s60 2006 D5 manual current status charge the battery night before fully charged. In the morning turn on the ignition all the dim lights are flickering but the battery is reading over 12 volts. Turn key to start it just clicks then the power drops dramatically. read codes with vida and vdash and torque pro and nothing!

i have an ongoing issue but in recent weeks its got a lot worse leaving the car overnight goto start the car and it wont start but if you jump start it it runs and drives perfectly. i will list below what we have tried so far if i can remember it all we have spent weeks testing this that and the other and coming up with nothing i will also list the parts that have been changed or swapped out to do some testing

• parasitic draw test done putting the multimeter between the battery and the negative terminal and pulling ever single fuse individually. results none

• replaced main positive cable between the jumper point and the starter and the alternator

• cleaned all the earthing points in the engine bay and checked them all for resistance. Checked the main cables for resistance also. Also checked the ground cable that goes under the starter and bolts behind the headlight

• Checked the battery voltage when cranking doesnt go below 10.9v

• checked the boot light isnt staying on also removed the wiring loom connector from the rem that goes to the bootlid to rule that causing the problem and it proved it wasnt also worth noting I removed the bulbs from the boot lights because when you disconnect the wiring loom it turns them on.

• Removed the centre console led connector

• checked the glovebox light isnt causing the problem and the footwell lights bulbs all removed

• disconnected my head unit overnight to check it isnt that causing the issue

• left a multimeter on the battery for 30 mins to check for a drain and nothing really substantial was happening.

• Replaced the regulator on the alternator. And after that replaced the whole alternator

• brand new starter motor has been put on

• new battery

• brand new glow plug relay (they were not working before)

• refurbished cem from volvo diagnostics

• disconnected the alarm siren and took out its fuse and disconnected the module in the ceiling of the cabin

• disconnected the 12v sockets

• removed the led wiring for my boost gauge to rule out it was not that

• checked the wiring under the wipers all looks good in there no sign of water ingress even on the old cem and the old cem supposedly was fine I guess because the refurbished one didnt fix the issue

jumped the starter by putting a wire on the jumper point and the other end on the small wire on the starter it does work but if we have extra power and the key is in position 2 while jumping it with the wire it will turn over but not start. I can only assume this is something to do with it needing to goto position 3 perhaps? But ive bump started the car before in position 2 so I dont know if this is true or not



when we have been testing things we seem to find some problems but then when we try to repeat them they are not repeatable. At one point we thought we found the problem unplugging the windscreen washer pump it seemed to work but then it didnt and that happens!!

at one point we thought one of the fuses was back feeding the 12v port voltage through fuse 34 but then that stopped. (it was showing 8 or 9 volts) as said above unplugged it and that didnt solve the problem


I think that covers all the tests we have done if you have any suggestions please let me know but I may have already tried it but I can let you know if I have.

I dont want to send the dim for repair or replacement though because I want to prove it is that but I cant use vida or vdash to do anything other than test the dials and lights all work. But the dim not working correctly how can that kill all the power?

[JoeNinety]

Need to do:

parasitic draw test done putting the multimeter between the battery and the negative terminal with car locked and gone to sleep. Either disable the bonnet switch or run cables outside the bonnet.

A clamp meter may do a better job....(although you will need the bonnet open to see the results!

Anything above 0.05 amps when asleep can be a cause for concern.

Sometimes it is better to disconnect modules/ancillaries rather than pull fuses due to interconnectivity (especially Infotainment stuff)

[totalguy]

parasitic draw test done putting the multimeter between the battery and the negative terminal with car locked and gone to sleep. Either disable the bonnet switch or run cables outside the bonnet. already done it like that

A clamp meter may do a better job....(although you will need the bonnet open to see the results! i have a clamp meter i used that

Anything above 0.05 amps when asleep can be a cause for concern. yes i am aware of this

Sometimes it is better to disconnect modules/ancillaries rather than pull fuses due to interconnectivity (especially Infotainment stuff) give me some examples of what to do please because im all out of idea's

[cheshired5]

Dunno..... Alternator diode test? Voltage drop tests?

With no charging voltages or standby current drain figures, your essay hasn't given all of the pertinent figures.

[JoeNinety]

Originally Posted by totalguy

A clamp meter may do a better job....(although you will need the bonnet open to see the results! i have a clamp meter i used that

Anything above 0.05 amps when asleep can be a cause for concern. yes i am aware of this

Sometimes it is better to disconnect modules/ancillaries rather than pull fuses due to interconnectivity (especially Infotainment stuff) give me some examples of what to do please because im all out of idea's

If you have a drain, then this should be showing in your clamp test. what are the readings from "Ignition Off" > "Sleep" = probably a few stages...

As suggested by cheshired5, disconnect the alternator and test again. If not that, my guess is "something" has been getting wet and either the wet or the corrosion caused by the wet on a pcb could be causing a problem. Unplug things and test.

(My somewhat considerable experience with this was on an early L322 Range Rover - eventually tracked down to a corroded pcb on the DVD player (satnav). Cleaned up with contact cleaner and toothbrush - sorted)

[Brendan W]

What does the battery read in the morning before switching anything on?
If it was charged the night before it should be well over 12 Volts.
How closely did you inspect the main earth strap below the starter. At that age it is due to part at the lower lug with no sign of corrosion. Checking it's resistance with a meter will show nothing. A better check is the voltage drop between the ends when the car is cranking. It should be less than a Volt. You could run a jump lead to bypass the earth strap and see if that improves things.

[totalguy]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

Dunno..... Alternator diode test? Voltage drop tests?

With no charging voltages or standby current drain figures, your essay hasn't given all of the pertinent figures.

i did that before i changed the alternator it was half a volt drop but when a new alternator was fitted the results were the same


charging 14.4v voltage on the battery 12.26v after being left overnight

drain 0.02

i assumed people would figure out i knew what i was doing when i did the tests but i guess i was wrong

[totalguy]

Originally Posted by JoeNinety

If you have a drain, then this should be showing in your clamp test. what are the readings from "Ignition Off" > "Sleep" = probably a few stages...

As suggested by cheshired5, disconnect the alternator and test again. If not that, my guess is "something" has been getting wet and either the wet or the corrosion caused by the wet on a pcb could be causing a problem. Unplug things and test.

(My somewhat considerable experience with this was on an early L322 Range Rover - eventually tracked down to a corroded pcb on the DVD player (satnav). Cleaned up with contact cleaner and toothbrush - sorted)

i dont think its a drain surely if it was i would have found it ?? it only drains when you try to start it. 12.26 volts and a drain of 0.02a. its 12.26 volts in the morning before i try to start it soon as that key goes to position 3 it sucks all the life out the battery

i did disconnect the alternator before i should add that also i took the wiring off and left it overnight same thing. and its had a new alternator as well

[totalguy]

Originally Posted by Brendan W

What does the battery read in the morning before switching anything on?
If it was charged the night before it should be well over 12 Volts.
How closely did you inspect the main earth strap below the starter. At that age it is due to part at the lower lug with no sign of corrosion. Checking it's resistance with a meter will show nothing. A better check is the voltage drop between the ends when the car is cranking. It should be less than a Volt. You could run a jump lead to bypass the earth strap and see if that improves things.

it reads 12.26 volts give or a take a tiny amount

i took it off under the starter and cleaned it up we tested the resistasnce on the cable as mentioned in my first post we did this test on all the main power wires individually and all the earths we could reach with readings of almost zero every time

i cant check its voltage at the ends when cranking its not cranking unless i jump the car from another car. will the test still work?

we used heavy duty jump leads to well not bypass the power from the battery to the bay but to add to the circuit an extra route if you will. we did this for the main power wires because i wanted to see if it worked better (if at all) by doing this. the results were exactly the same. we even used a different set of jump leads to check for consistent results and they were consistent

additionally we did the same test on a perfectly working car to make sure our jump leads were performing as well on a good car as they were on mine and the results were exactly the same readings regardless of if it was on my car or this other car. so that to me proves the way we were doing it should have worked and found a problem if there was one.

unless im wrong???

[totalguy]

something i didnt mention before which i think is important jump starting the car if you connect the leads and try to start the car within like 20 seconds maybe it wont go but if its juiced up as i call it the high end of 13 volts it will fire right up then.

i think that is a clue but we have done many tests and im not getting anything that says yes thats it


thank you for all the replies so far i appreciate all of your time