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Author Topic: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :( **UPDATE**  (Read 47519 times)

Offline Teutonic_Tamer

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #60 on: April 09, 2014, 08:41:13 pm »
Craig - you've now had TWO people telling you of problems caused by incorrectly specified lower capacity batteries - and those problems were CURED after fitting the correctly specified battery.  I really don't understand why you don't listen to and accept that factual advice?!?!?!?!   :indifferent:

If your engine blew up, and you had to get a replacement engine - would you fit, say, a 1.6 litre engine (presuming your car is a 2 litre GTI)????  No, so why are you appearing to accept that a lower spec battery is OK?

WHO sold you those incorrect batteries?  You need to take them back, and get a FULL refund - the Sale of Goods Act (SOGA) states that a product must be "fit for purpose" - the batteries you were supplied are NOT fit for purpose.  :fighting:

Just stop fannying around, get the correct spec battery (I would personally recommend a Varta E44 - which is a 77Ah with a five year warranty) and your problems will be solved.!
For a start.... There is no need to have an attitude!
Sorry, don't mean to have an attitude - I'm having a sh*t day, and was a tad frustrated you appear to be ingoring the issue of an incorrectly speccd battery.  :ashamed:  :drinking:


Secondly... Exide batteries have a good reputation and I know many people who use them so that is just your opinion.
It isn't my opinion - I have a very good friend who is a professional Air Force electrician.  Part of his duties was to run the battery bay at a major front-line RAF station.  The RAF used to have a contract with Exide to supply batteries, which was terminated early due to repeated failures, and even explosions of Exide batteries.  Not the kinda thing you want in your fighter jet when flying over hostile territory, nor ideal in your Land Rover or Mastiff.  He showed me some pics of failed Exide batteries, and also showed me the damage caused when one exploded and set fire to the battery bay.

Still think they have a "good reputation"?  :popcornsoda:


I also did a battery drain test last night with a multi meter... left the car for 2 hours and tested... the car isn;t going to sleep. There were very big drains on a few of the fuses so this is actually the cause.
How are you doing the battery drain testing?  Are you locking the car, leaving it for two-or-so hours, then unlocking it again?  If so, the moment you unlock the car, you 'wake up' a whole plethora of modules, and this could give you false positives.

Are you aware of the bonnet catch trick?  You need to leave the bonnet open, but trick the locking mechanism, and therefore the alarm microswitch - in thinking the bonnet is actually closed.  Use a screwdriver in the lock to close the bonnet lock on the slam panel - if you have highline, use that to check you have done it correctly.  Then lock the car, leave it for more than two hours, and then do your drain tests WITHOUT unlocking the car.

It would also be a good idea to turn off the TIM settings on your head unit, disable the interior monitoring sensor (button on the inside of the drivers B pillar), turn your headlight switch to zero, and move the wiper stalk to off.  These should all minimise the basic 'wake up' devices, and hopefully help you narrow down other culprits.  :smiley:


The battery may be incorrect and will need to be changed but when you say change your battery and all the problems will be solved, that is actually incorrect.
OK - that was slightly tongue-in-cheek!  But the lower spec battery is certainly not helping your cause!  :smiley:

:grouphug:
Sean - Independant Automotive Engineering Technician (ret'd)
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Offline Craigh1983

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #61 on: April 09, 2014, 08:57:49 pm »
Yep I'm pushing the bonnet lock down to make it think its shut and then locking the car. After the 2 hours I don't unlock it but just test the readings on the fuses. I did this around 4 times during that 2 hours. When Ed checked it about a month back they were all shutting off after about 20 minutes and you could actually hear the click when the computer switched off. So this time the car isn't waking up... its just not shutting down :/

The battery voltage went down from 11.9 to 11.7V in just and hour and a half.


Offline doylebros

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #62 on: April 09, 2014, 09:31:38 pm »
The scan shows module 62 fault switch - you need to check that switch and that doors wiring harness - then then module!

Has that door been opened and closed after Ed completed his testes for the drain?

The parasitic draw is approx 75ma after 20  to 25 minutes so clearly you have a serious but very detectable fault.

You've got a difficult fault because it's been intermittent but it's clearly there now but remember only do any testes with a fully charged battery because failure in that area causes a minefield of problems!

Offline Craigh1983

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #63 on: April 09, 2014, 09:43:31 pm »
The scan shows module 62 fault switch - you need to check that switch and that doors wiring harness - then then module!

Has that door been opened and closed after Ed completed his testes for the drain?

The parasitic draw is approx 75ma after 20  to 25 minutes so clearly you have a serious but very detectable fault.

You've got a difficult fault because it's been intermittent but it's clearly there now but remember only do any testes with a fully charged battery because failure in that area causes a minefield of problems!

Hi John,

Which door are we talking about? All my doors have been opened and closed at some point since Ed did the tests.

Offline doylebros

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #64 on: April 09, 2014, 09:47:35 pm »
Look at your scan at module 62 it tells you which door.

Offline Craigh1983

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #65 on: April 09, 2014, 09:57:53 pm »
Look at your scan at module 62 it tells you which door.

Ah yea sorry :)

Rear left door. It does say the fault is the window switch and come to think of it that switch is a bit stiff.

Looks like I'm going to have to consult the help of a forum member again if im to check the module and wiring etc as im not too sure if it something I could do myself?

Offline Teutonic_Tamer

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #66 on: April 09, 2014, 11:20:44 pm »
Yep I'm pushing the bonnet lock down to make it think its shut and then locking the car. After the 2 hours I don't unlock it but just test the readings on the fuses. I did this around 4 times during that 2 hours. When Ed checked it about a month back they were all shutting off after about 20 minutes and you could actually hear the click when the computer switched off. So this time the car isn't waking up... its just not shutting down :/

The battery voltage went down from 11.9 to 11.7V in just and hour and a half.
0.2 volts in half an hour doesn't sound too bad.  But your real hinderance is not the volts, it is the CCA - cold cranking amps.  Batteries are also rated by something called 'Reserve Capacity' (RC), and that is basically a measure of its resistance to degradation due to long term drain (as in hours, not the 10 second short burst high current drain which the CCA is).

Does sound like you've got an utter ball ache!  :sad1:  Is it possible to leave it longer than 2 hours - say 4 hours, before checking for current drain, and maybe even 24 hours?
Sean - Independant Automotive Engineering Technician (ret'd)
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Offline fransnz

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #67 on: April 09, 2014, 11:35:14 pm »
Might sound stupid, but have you checked all the earthing points to make sure they are secure and not corroding ?


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Offline rich83

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #68 on: April 10, 2014, 12:17:23 am »
.2v in half an hour so you battery will be dead in about a day at that rate.

Offline Craigh1983

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #69 on: April 10, 2014, 07:10:51 am »
.2v in half an hour so you battery will be dead in about a day at that rate.

Yep. It was intermittent before and the car would be ok for a week. That's obviously not happening now and the fault has got worse so I am now disconnecting the negative terminal over night to save the battery.


Offline Craigh1983

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #70 on: April 10, 2014, 08:30:32 am »
Yep I'm pushing the bonnet lock down to make it think its shut and then locking the car. After the 2 hours I don't unlock it but just test the readings on the fuses. I did this around 4 times during that 2 hours. When Ed checked it about a month back they were all shutting off after about 20 minutes and you could actually hear the click when the computer switched off. So this time the car isn't waking up... its just not shutting down :/

The battery voltage went down from 11.9 to 11.7V in just and hour and a half.
0.2 volts in half an hour doesn't sound too bad.  But your real hinderance is not the volts, it is the CCA - cold cranking amps.  Batteries are also rated by something called 'Reserve Capacity' (RC), and that is basically a measure of its resistance to degradation due to long term drain (as in hours, not the 10 second short burst high current drain which the CCA is).

Does sound like you've got an utter ball ache!  :sad1:  Is it possible to leave it longer than 2 hours - say 4 hours, before checking for current drain, and maybe even 24 hours?

I doubt I could leave it 24 hours as the battery will probably be dead by then but I could certainly leave it for 4. I am probably going to do that this evening.

Offline Craigh1983

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #71 on: April 10, 2014, 09:28:19 pm »
Hey guys,

Thought I'd post tonights results...

Ok so I went out to the car thinking the fault may have gone away so I couldn't detect it but nope... its there alright!...And slightly worse than yesterday!

Fuse 3 - 91ma
Fuse 16 - 73ma
Fuse 17 - 33ma
Fuse 18 - 123ma
Fuse 19 - 792ma
Fuse 24 - 73ma

I did a battery voltage checks...
6.45pm = 12.2V
7.45pm = 12.0V
8.50pm = 11.8V

Absolute huge drain! So that's 3 nights in a row that the drain has been there. And btw I got these numbers using the conversion table that Ed sent to me.

Here is a photo of my fuses so that you can see which fuses im talking about.

Offline Craigh1983

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #72 on: April 10, 2014, 10:15:34 pm »
I have a vague idea of what some of the fuses I have listed are for, however I was wondering does anybody know what FUSE 18 is for????????

And if someone could help me out in telling me what Fuse 3, 16, 17, 19 and 24 are that would be absolutely brilliant! :)

Cheers

Craigh  :happy2:

Offline SI-R32

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Re:
« Reply #73 on: April 10, 2014, 10:26:03 pm »
19 is stereo, do you not have a user book with the car with a fuse list
Loads of extra's and retro fits.

Offline doylebros

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Re: Battery drain still happening... Completely stumped :(
« Reply #74 on: April 10, 2014, 10:30:00 pm »
Just confirm your year build - eng AXX or BWA  and gear box code or if it's manual or Auto. As there's a few different types!

F3:- I think is convenience system, but need above confirmed prove it!