battery discharging

[shaker]

Hope someone can help with this problem as its on my sons car which is unfortunately a xsara but you guys have been a wealth of knowledge with mine in the past.

anyway the battery discharges ive checked the obvious ie loose leads alternator fuses its a factory fitted head unit and has no aftermarket electrics.
The strangest thing is this will happen maybe once in a few month then it could happen a couple of times in a week so im now really scatching my head.

Hope you all have a merry christmas

 

[andycupra]

first thing id check is if any lights switches may be dodgy in places that are not obvious. eg boot, under bonnet etc.

Ive seen cars where the boot switch plays up and the boot light comes on now and then.

 

[Lodgey180]

nothing plugged into cig lighter.
possibly a dodgy alternator ??

 

[shaker]

Thanks ill check the boot light and no there is nothing plugged in to the lighter

 

[adm013]

Hi there,

could just be that the battery is on the way out, a lot of places do a free check. I had the same kind of problem on my Leon, the battery was a few years old and packed in, wouldn't hold the charge etc....

Andy

 

[shaker]

Tried the boot light it seems ok and the battery is only two month old

 

[Yella Beeza]

I'm having the same problem with my Ibiza FR TDi. Charge the battery up to full charge, and it's lost it's charge in a week (12.6v down to 12.0v) when the car isn't used. Alarm is not on. I work away from Edinburgh during the week. As far as I'm aware only the clock is functioning (plus the KAM - Keep Alive Memory) - surely this shouldn't be enough to flatten it in a week?

I'm leaving the battery connected. Car less than two years old. The only electrical modification done is replacing the interior and boot bulbs with some LED ones. The interior light is left in the 'off' position. Funny thing is, the boot light comes on when the driver or passenger door is opened with the LEDs. Replace it with the 10W bulb and it doesn't

So this afternoon I've put the 10W bulb back in the boot. I've charged the battery back up to full charge and I'll see what happens. Could be a dud battery of course (or cell).

 

[shaker]

started taking fuses out and leaving it to see if i can identify what is drawing the current so touch wood

 

[UncleFester]

Does it lose charge even if you disconnect it? My guess would be a dodgy earth somewhere or a cable shorted out - something rubbed through. I would take out all but the essential fuses and see what happens then add the accessory fuses back in one at a time.

 

[Yella Beeza]

Fuse no. 28 takes care of the interior and boot lights (and glovebox, though there's no light in there).

I'll see what the result is of putting the proper 10W bulb back first.

Also own a Suzuki Ignis Sport and (touchwood) absolutely nothing's gone wrong with it in 5 years! Japanese technology but built in Hungary (I think).

 

[Markyboyt]

I'm having the same problem with my Ibiza FR TDi. Charge the battery up to full charge, and it's lost it's charge in a week (12.6v down to 12.0v) when the car isn't used. Alarm is not on. I work away from Edinburgh during the week. As far as I'm aware only the clock is functioning (plus the KAM - Keep Alive Memory) - surely this shouldn't be enough to flatten it in a week?

I'm leaving the battery connected. Car less than two years old. The only electrical modification done is replacing the interior and boot bulbs with some LED ones. The interior light is left in the 'off' position. Funny thing is, the boot light comes on when the driver or passenger door is opened with the LEDs. Replace it with the 10W bulb and it doesn't

So this afternoon I've put the 10W bulb back in the boot. I've charged the battery back up to full charge and I'll see what happens. Could be a dud battery of course (or cell).

So your car isn't starting when the battery is showing 12v? If thats the case then I would be looking at either it can't deliver its peak amps or starter motor. I would expect a battery to sit around 11-12.5 V generally unless its just been charging or the cars been driven.

 

[Markyboyt]

started taking fuses out and leaving it to see if i can identify what is drawing the current so touch wood

The trouble is shaker if the drain is an intermittent one its hard to know if its not drained due to the fuse out or because it didn't want to.

Ideally you could do with putting a multimeter or ammeter in series with the negative terminal of the battery and monitoring the current draw. I would recommend locking the vehicle first then quickly pulling the negative terminal and putting the meter in. If you lock the car with the meter on then quite often the locking system will draw upwards of 10A and blow the fuse in the meter.
The advantage of doing it this way is you can see the drain if its there and then can monitor the affect each fuse has on it. Of course sods law will be that it wont drain at the point of testing making life very difficult.
I'm not sure what would be an acceptable current draw on a xsara, it would depend what systems the car uses. I know on a BM you have to wait for the car to go to sleep and shut the buses down before the current drops down enough. On a BM an acceptable current draw is generally below 0.05A

 

[Yella Beeza]

So your car isn't starting when the battery is showing 12v? If thats the case then I would be looking at either it can't deliver its peak amps or starter motor. I would expect a battery to sit around 11-12.5 V generally unless its just been charging or the cars been driven.

The car would start with a battery voltage of 12v. Once it wouldn't even turn over, but then I think the battery voltage was nearer 11.5v (and as a result the radio code now needs entering which I don't have - I will get round to asking the dealer eventually).

I wouldn't expect a fully charged battery to lose 0.5v in a week, which is the point I'm trying to make. I've left other cars for weeks before without charging the battery, and it hasn't lost this sort of voltage. Maybe it's something attributed to VW/Audi/Seat cars. What happens if you go on holiday for two weeks and come back to a flat battery? Surely this can't be acceptable.

 

[Markyboyt]

The car would start with a battery voltage of 12v. Once it wouldn't even turn over, but then I think the battery voltage was nearer 11.5v (and as a result the radio code now needs entering which I don't have - I will get round to asking the dealer eventually).

I wouldn't expect a fully charged battery to lose 0.5v in a week, which is the point I'm trying to make. I've left other cars for weeks before without charging the battery, and it hasn't lost this sort of voltage. Maybe it's something attributed to VW/Audi/Seat cars. What happens if you go on holiday for two weeks and come back to a flat battery? Surely this can't be acceptable.

Were you driving the car in the week or did you literally take it off charge lock it and leave it?

I think it dropping to near the 12V mark would be perfectly normal as its more a case of it settling to that voltage. The car should start with a voltage of 11.5V, i've seen old V8's start at that sort of voltage, sub 11V then you'd have a problem.

 

[Yella Beeza]

Car is left off charge, unlocked, with the alarm off (garaged). I doesn't get used during the week.

Unless I charge it (which is normally about 6hrs on trickle charge to bring it back up to 12.6V), the voltage would continue to drop. I guess that after 2 weeks the engine may not be able to turn over (diesel engine with Seat's 61Ah battery). If I check the voltage 24hrs later it still reads 12.6V, so it's maintaining it's charge for a short time.

The only thing I would say is I'm charging it with the negative lead connected because I didn't want to upset any of the Keep Alive Memory systems if I disconnected the battery - and also to avoid losing the radio because I didn't have the code (unfortunately that's gone out of the window because it's asking for the code now).

I would also say I worked away from home during the week this time last year and didn't have to charge the battery at all. So not sure why it should be any different this time round.