Phantom current draw-OD solenoid/dead battery

[AlexO]

Battery's going back to Dorset Auto Spares today to see if they'll swap it out for a new one since I only bought it in March. Updates as they come!

Cheers

Alex

[cheshired5]

Are we really on the 2nd page of a parasitic drain thread and no parasitic drain test has been done?

[AlexO]

Thanks for the valuable input cheshired5.

Could you possibly expand on what you mean by a parasitic drain test please?

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by AlexO

Thanks for the valuable input cheshired5.

Could you possibly expand on what you mean by a parasitic drain test please?

If you have a charged battery discharging without explanation, you attach a multimeter in series and measure the standby current drain.
50mA (0.050A) is the general maximum drain you want to see so anything notably higher means that you definitely have a parasitic drain which needs finding.

There are then simple procedures for locating the drain but find out if there is a drain in the first place.

Ref the alternator, you can measure output voltage on the alternator itself, voltage drop on the live and ground side, ac ripple and a diode test.
All straightforward and quick checks with a reasonable spec multimeter and eliminates guesswork.

[AlexO]

cheshired5,

Thanks for that. If you look a bit further up the thread you'll see this

Originally Posted by AlexO

I went through my fuse box on wednesday night and pulled the fuses one by one whilst the old man had an ammetre in series with the battery with the ignition turned off. Fuse eight (door locks, clock etc) was pulling a few milliamps but fuse six (fuel pump etc.) was pulling a lot of current. Like, a LOT of current. Enough to give a small arc between the fuse and the holder when I was pulling the fuse.

and know that I've carried out that test. Fuse six was pulling about 60mA which I know is slightly more than ideal but not insane.

Either way Dorset Auto Spares replaced the battery with no quibbles yesterday since their testing kit showed it as a "64% FAIL", whatever that means. The car started with no complaints this morning but I'll be interested to see the effects of leaving it for a little while in case that wasn't the only trouble.

Cheers for the input guys. I might well be back if this persists but for now I'm going to try and enjoy my car for a bit (and find a new PAS rack!).

Thanks

Alex

[cheshired5]

Yes, I saw the fuse pulling bit but it was confusing as there was no context as to why you were fuse pulling.

Though not ideal, a 60mA drain wouldn't flatten an otherwise healthy battery overnight and I still see no total standby current drain figure for all systems so we don't know what you're up against.

Random fuse pulling isn't necessary either.
A quick voltage drop test across each fuse will tell you whether that particular circuit is active.
You can then do a targeted removal of active fuses only and view the current drain or you can use a conversion chart which calculates the current drain from the voltage drop figure and no fuse removal is needed.

[AlexO]

Thanks cheshired5, really appreciated.

Next time I'll avoid "random fuse pulling" and instead carry out a "targeted removal of active fuses", I'm sure that'll make a huge difference to the diagnostic process. Good thinking.

[CTCNetwork]

Hi,

Think I have this issue as well on the S80 and was curious as to how to do this test.

Thanks heavens for the tube..

+ YouTube Video

So now just to find the issue...

Could, of course have been a dodgy battery!

Des. . .