Battery drain again

[spkennyuk]

Im seeing battery drain on a GS.
Newish battery 12 months old. I have it hooked up to a battery monitor which has highlighted when the drain is occuring.

Usual suspects have been ruled out. Its not the tracker and its not the alarm.

You can see in the graph below that something on the car is waking up and drawing power for anything between 1 and 6 hours.

Whatever it is wakes up twice per day and uses around 0.2 volts per day of the available 12.95 volts if the battery is fully charged.

Tracker is disconnected. Alarm i have remove the fuse for now to isolate from the potential causes.

Im thinking the stereo could be an issue so will pull the fuse on that next.

Any other ideas folks ?

 

[Zep]

Yes, stereo is a good shout. Mine did odd things before finally deciding to be a paperweight.

 

[Oneball]

Have you got Auditorium? After much fuse pulling I finally figured it was the thing draining the battery on mine. It’s supposed to be switched to turn off but it didn’t.

 

[spkennyuk]

Have you got Auditorium? After much fuse pulling I finally figured it was the thing draining the battery on mine. It’s supposed to be switched to turn off but it didn’t.

Yes i have but it is bypassed.

Its the random wake up of whatever it is that is throwing me.

 

[Oneball]

Yes i have but it is bypassed.

Its the random wake up of whatever it is that is throwing me.

I can’t remember if the power to the amp is separate from the hi-if wires??

 

[safrane]

I can’t remember if the power to the amp is separate from the hi-if wires??

Not that I could see as the amps wires are all the the same connection block.

 

[conaero]

Seen electric seats cause drain. Hook up your meter, let the car power down for a few mins then start pulling fuses.

 

[spkennyuk]

Seen electric seats cause drain. Hook up your meter, let the car power down for a few mins then start pulling fuses.

Interesting. Flip knows what would make the seats wake up and draw power at 2am but will pull that fuse and see. Thanks

 

[mowlas]

FWIW, though may not be relevant to the GS, in my QPV my reading and feature lights on the ceiling dome lights would randomly go on with the car locked. Never found the cause as this odd behaviour seemed to stop before I tried to swap out the dome lights.

 

[midlifecrisis]

As Matt says, pull fuses till you find the culprit. Or probably better still, pull ALL the fuses then insert one by one, this way you should be able to see if it's chassis/wiring loom related or not.

 

[spkennyuk]

As Matt says, pull fuses till you find the culprit. Or probably better still, pull ALL the fuses then insert one by one, this way you should be able to see if it's chassis/wiring loom related or not.

The issue is its not draining all the time. It is waking up at random times and then draining power from the battery.

The daily graphs show the car waking up around 2am , 8am, 12 noon and late evening at some point and usually 2 or more of those times in 1 day.

So unless i am sat in the car for 6 hours waiting for it to wake up and then pulling fuses until its stops then i really need to come up with a few options like the stereo and seats pull those fuses and monitor. If it stops the drain put the fuses back one by one until it starts draining again so i can figure out which circuit is at fault.

Its probably hard to tell on those screen shots but if you zoom in you can see the wave pattern start around 12 noon and stay active for a couple of hours. The car hasnt moved or even been opened during those 2 days.

Ive also fully charged the battery and then isolated it from the car and it holds charge fine to rule that out.

Will pull the stereo and seat fuses and go from there. Im hoping its not the f1 pump priming on its own when the car is locked

It would certainly be easier to trace if it was a constant drain.

 

[RoaryRati]

when the car is locked

Mine had a phase of battery loss - haven't tested it since Matt changed the seat motor. But I never lock mine when it's in the locked garage.

 

[Oneball]

Two thoughts:

1 Maybe your car is unlocking itself, and therefore powering up the systems. I had a Volvo that did this, locked me out of the car once with the engine running once and I had to smash the window.

2 There’s two 30a fuses that will cut a load of stuff. They’re listed as something like “devices cut off during start” & “devices not cut off during start”. Pull one one day and see if it makes a difference and pull one the next day. They cut off a load of stuff like heater, radio, some ecus etc. It might give you an easy pointer.

 

[Oneball]

PS I’m not convinced on the “waking up” thing looking at the graph there’s a constant drop over time interspersed with the little peaks. It may be the other way round and those peaks are a symptom not a cause.

Have you measured current draw after shutdown?

 

[Gp79]

Do the interior lights have a dimmer?

If so this is a usual suspect so worth pulling that fuse if not already done

 

[spkennyuk]

So it appears that the circuit in question is fuse 45. Aircon plus 15 other things not named in the handbook.

Anyone know what else is connected to that circuit on 4200/GS.

 

[BL330]

I'm interested in the results from this thread as I've had a period of limited use of the GS and the battery has been flat every time I've wanted to use it.
So I've taking to starting it or doing a short trip once or twice a week.

 

[outrun]

Ach, it's rubbish, I'll take it off your hands for £10k.



Drive it more and don't worry about it Stu.

 

[Steve4200]

Im seeing battery drain on a GS.
Newish battery 12 months old. I have it hooked up to a battery monitor which has highlighted when the drain is occuring.

Usual suspects have been ruled out. Its not the tracker and its not the alarm.

You can see in the graph below that something on the car is waking up and drawing power for anything between 1 and 6 hours.

Whatever it is wakes up twice per day and uses around 0.2 volts per day of the available 12.95 volts if the battery is fully charged.

Tracker is disconnected. Alarm i have remove the fuse for now to isolate from the potential causes.

Im thinking the stereo could be an issue so will pull the fuse on that next.

Any other ideas folks ?

Does this drain continue until you are unable to start vehicle or does it stabilise at a lower voltage ?

Regards

 

[spkennyuk]

Does this drain continue until you are unable to start vehicle or does it stabilise at a lower voltage ?

Regards

It continues until you cant start the vehicle. I have removed fuse 45 and that stops the battery drain which is listed as aircon, ventilation and 15 other items cut out during ignition.

I just need to find out what the 15 items are and isolate the rogue part or wiring issue.

Will charge the battery again and then put fuse 45 back and make sure the aircon and fan are in the off position and see if it still draining. If that cures it then its something on the aircon side. If it still drains then its one of the 15 other things on the circuit.