Battery drain and help with numbers
Discussion
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CF-02S-Automotive-Curren...
Similar to this, with the appropriate fuse sized fitting.
Similar to this, with the appropriate fuse sized fitting.
Mr2Mike said:
180 milliamps is a pretty high static drain, quite a bit more than Id have expected.
Typical car batteries have a stated capacity of around 65AH, or being able to supply 65amps for a 1 hr period (in reality for lots of reasons this capacity is subject to vary significantly)However, if we take it as gospel for the moment, you can work out how much current draw it would take for your battery to go flat in any given time (assuming it was 100% charged at key off).
For example, a 5amp continuous draw would lead to a flat battery in (65/5) just 13hrs.
Or you 180mA draw would result in a flat battery in (65/0.18) 361hrs (or 15 days)
As such, i'd suggest that a draw of 180mA is roughly 3x too high, and i'd usually expect under 50mA, leading to a flat battery in around 1.5months.
It's worth ensuring you check the battery drain after an overnight wait, without unlocking or waking up car (some cars wake when the key fob gets close enough btw!) as full sleep mode can often require several hrs to achieve.
Often, modern cars will enter special "deep sleep" modes after around 5 days of in-activity, reducing average load to less than 10mA
(self discharge on a LA battery is roughtly half of that)
guzzler4 said:
I am shocked that the moderators have done nothing about this situation
Well, as this is a democracy, lets have a vote!Please vote either Myself or Guzzler to stay on PH forum. Looser has to go and never come back.
Start voting, the lines are open now, cost nothing, and will get rid of a troll ;-)
i'll start us off:
MT: 1
G4: 0
guzzler4 said:
I remember you once posting that a car with a contact breaker ignition system would run for several hours without a condenser wired across the points,
I remember you once posting this exact same thing in another thread. On the same day you posted this in fact.Looks like Max now has his very own weird stalker.
A bit off topic, but I had a similar problem, turned out to be the battery, but in my google of the internet I found this, haven't tried it but found it interesting.
http://cdxauto.com/newsdetailed/2014/04/18/feature...
http://cdxauto.com/newsdetailed/2014/04/18/feature...
Firstly I would like to say thanks for the help. I would love to say I have found the route of my problem but I have not. I am still draining 180ma when the car is locked down. However I have been using it every day for the past week or so and have yet to suffer a fully drained battery.
I began by looking at the basics. All interior lights work as they should. I replaced the cheapo LED puddle lights found in the bottom of the doors with regular items. A broken earth strap from the bonnet to bulkhead was replaced with a new one. All other electrical items work apart from my headlamp washers. These have never worked since I have owned the car (could it be a problem?)
I measured the current across all fuses within the engine bay and interior fuse boxes. The only two fuses that measured a reading was the fuse for interior lights (but only when they were on) and fuse number F4 that if I understand the diagrams correctly is labelled ‘Constant Power’ This fluctuated between 1-2mv
Mini, in their wisdom seem to have 2 different fuse boxes for pre and post face lift cars. But the only difference being fuse F4! If anyone cares to google image the differences my icon is a circle with a few lines though it, the other looks like an open book.
Anyway, I then decided to go ‘old school’ by pulling fuses one by one but nothing I did seemed to reduce my reading of 180ma.
One thing I havn’t checked yet are the large fuses that sit underneath the engine bay fuse box. To get to them you have to disconnect the main battery lead and remove the top half of the fuse box but by doing so they don’t get any power so I have no idea how to test them?
Seems like the mini forums are full of battery drain issues. Main culprits are HK upgraded stereos and iPod connectors, which I have not got. Or power steering pumps/fans, but having tested and pulled these fuses I’m not so sure.
Still more digging to do.
I began by looking at the basics. All interior lights work as they should. I replaced the cheapo LED puddle lights found in the bottom of the doors with regular items. A broken earth strap from the bonnet to bulkhead was replaced with a new one. All other electrical items work apart from my headlamp washers. These have never worked since I have owned the car (could it be a problem?)
I measured the current across all fuses within the engine bay and interior fuse boxes. The only two fuses that measured a reading was the fuse for interior lights (but only when they were on) and fuse number F4 that if I understand the diagrams correctly is labelled ‘Constant Power’ This fluctuated between 1-2mv
Mini, in their wisdom seem to have 2 different fuse boxes for pre and post face lift cars. But the only difference being fuse F4! If anyone cares to google image the differences my icon is a circle with a few lines though it, the other looks like an open book.
Anyway, I then decided to go ‘old school’ by pulling fuses one by one but nothing I did seemed to reduce my reading of 180ma.
One thing I havn’t checked yet are the large fuses that sit underneath the engine bay fuse box. To get to them you have to disconnect the main battery lead and remove the top half of the fuse box but by doing so they don’t get any power so I have no idea how to test them?
Seems like the mini forums are full of battery drain issues. Main culprits are HK upgraded stereos and iPod connectors, which I have not got. Or power steering pumps/fans, but having tested and pulled these fuses I’m not so sure.
Still more digging to do.
Don't know if your car has air conditioning, but another thing I found was the relay for the compressor can stick, this on some cars is not controlled, but is permanently live, another was the alarm sounder, they have an internal battery and if it goes faulty keeps taking a charge and the system does not go to sleep, google is wonderful for giving you a list of problems and worries that you do not have.
Yep, Google does wonders for paranoia!
Just want to add that my car does have manual Air Con and I have no idea what Diodes are. Could somebody more clever than me talk me though how I could check individual components?
I am going to have another investigate over the weekend. I feel like I may have been doing something wrong and chasing my tail last time.
Just want to add that my car does have manual Air Con and I have no idea what Diodes are. Could somebody more clever than me talk me though how I could check individual components?
I am going to have another investigate over the weekend. I feel like I may have been doing something wrong and chasing my tail last time.
The diodes are in the alternator and convert the AC current generated by the alternator to DC current. Best way to see if there is an issue is to disconnect the alternator's positive supply cable (could be a plug or could be a cable with a ring connector secured by a nut) and see what happens to the current drain. Best to disconnect the battery earth lead first and make sure the loose cable end you've disconnected from the alternator can't short to earth somewhere. Then reconnect the earth lead to the battery and see what's what.
I find the clamp below useful in measuring the drain... Use one on the battery terminal and connect the ammeter across the clamp, Let it all settle down, and then just turn the knob a couple of turns which isolates the battery and sends the current through the meter. saves struggling trying to lift a terminal off which can be awkward.
Note you only have to turn the knob, not remove it, its an "on- Off" arrangement. cheap on Ebay.
Note you only have to turn the knob, not remove it, its an "on- Off" arrangement. cheap on Ebay.
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