Battery drained after stood for a week :/

[Mazz]

Basically after my Nova (early XE) has stood for about a week the battery is completely drained. I thought that it might be a duff alternator, but after changing that, it still seems the same. I've drop tested the battery, and over a week its lost .15v, so that seems ok

Any ideas guys? :confused:

[mowgli]

time to go thru the fuse box.... remove a battery terminal, connect a multimeter across the 'gap' and keep an eye on it as you pull each fuse one by one.. you need very little current draw to drain a battery over a week..

[Mazz]

Thanks Mike, i'll give that a go

[mowgli]

its about the only thing my dad taught me to do on a vehicle.....but when he needed his wagon to go up the road at 4am every day, maintaining batteries was a sort of religion to him...he still does it now he's retired, his wife really gets upset when she needs to pop out somewhere & finds the bonnet up & the charger on

[Jack]

I'd also check your earths. Is there an alarm that could be sipping power?

[Mazz]

There is an alarm fitted, but Tinas has the same fitted (by the same fitter) and is fine. Would a bad earth cause it to drain the battery?

[John]

Have you altered or moved anything before last week? (not forgotten about the g/box btw, have been running a customers car last week :))

[Mazz]

no worries John, and, tbh its been like this for years now :( but its really rattling me now!

[Stuart]

it 'only' takes 100mA to kill a fully happy car battery in 24 hours... so you are probably looking for something like 25mA drain.

[Mazz]

bugger all basically, but still enough :(

[AndrewJenkins]

if it bugs you that much would it not be a idea to make a battery kill switch like alot of people do on there old classics that are used once in a blue moon so when your done flick the switch and no power will be lost and flick it on when you want it (just a suggestion)

[Mazz]

Good call :) Worth thinking about, something like this

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$%28KGrHqYOKpEE4kWg1Oo%21BORQHdJzow%7E%7E0_12.JPG

[AndrewJenkins]

yeah there the jobbie :)

[C612DNM]

Standard battery in as new condition = (type 063) 44Ah, 100mA = 440hours approx from charged (12.8v) to flat (11.7v) = 18days

Therefore your drain - if it goes in a week, and is a new good condition battery - is likely to be in the region of 250mA.

Is this a Mk1 or Mk2 Nova? Does it have posh fade-in / fade-out interior lights - if so, unplug - they are well know to eat batteries on Vauxhalls

The standard way of identifying your problem item is to get a clamp ammeter (you could use a multi-meter in 10A mode in series with your battery post & lead), measure the drain current, then start pulling fuses and/or disconnecting stuff until it drops to near nothing. It's time consuming, but you can do it this way, or carry a set of jumpleads until you stumble on the problem...

[windfreek]

did you ever get to the bottom of this btw?

[Mazz]

tbh no, i didn't fancy hours and hours with a multimeter, so i wired a big kill switch as above..

One like this : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Master-battery-cut-out-off-switch-cables-NEW-/230675940049?_trksid=p4340.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DDLSL%252BSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUC I%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BDDSIC%26otn%3 D8%26pmod%3D250886693325%252B250886693325%26po%3D% 26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D3150190357899124832