Car is broken :(

[plesuvius]

Hello,

So I bought a rover ! 400, P reg, 90k miles or so, had it for like 3 months. In the last month it has developed an electrical fault leading to the discharge of the battery if left for over a day (or thereabouts) and car wont start after that time (duh).

As far as I can tell, nothing else has changed, and the problem didnt exist for 1st 2 months of car usage. I have swapped out the stereo, but then that was installed and everything was fine for like 6 weeks, so i dont think thats the problem.

The AA came over and said there was a 0.4w drain on the battery from the car with everything off and the keys in my hand. This was too much and they recommended I take it to a specialist. Strikes me that .4w @ 12v = about 0.04amps, but the battery certainly discharges, noticably after a few hours for sure.

Soooo i'd love to take the AAs advice but as you can imagine the car was cheap and I dont want to spend any/more money on this. Work around ; disconnect the battery every time I park the car for more then an hour.

If i was to equip myself with a multimeter would I be able to find this problem myself? Or maybe there are some common things i should be looking at? The inside of the car *may* have got a little damp but im sure that's dried out by now and the problem aint going away :/

Thoughts welcome!

Edit; mods please feel free to move this to the Pitstop forum..

[Shad]

Check the boot light isn't running with the boot closed. Ditto for a glovebox light if you have one.

[5lab]

yeah i would normally say lights

the best thing to do is get a multimeter. check you have your stereo code and keys on you (as sometimes central locking can lock itself when power is lost/gained), put a multimeter on each of the fuses with it all off and see which one has all the power - its common for some to have very very little power to keep things alive, but i would think one has 90% of your first figure. once you found which fuse it is, look in your owners book and see what that fuse covers, should be 5 or 6 things i would guess. see if you can get the multimeter onto each one, if not, just have a look at them and see if you can figure out whats stealing your power

[Tumble]

or replace your altenator & battery - as the former's probably not charging the battery sufficiently when the motor's running which has an adverse affect on the longevity of the battery.

[Konan555]

30 to 40 mA. A battery really shouln't have issue with that.

Probably flattened it totally at some point. Once they go flat they tend to be pretty useless. Head down halfrauds and get a nice new one with the 3/4 year garuntee (if you see what I'm saying) and see if it cures it.

[plesuvius]

Thanks for all your replies. I tend to go with the bootlight, actually, as I broke the lock on the boot recently and the boot sensor thinks it's always open!

The battery has been replaced and the new one struggles after the car's been off a few hours. So maybe the alternator needs replacing too. Is that expensive? :!

Thanks again!

[plesuvius]

Turns out this was my mums fault as she taped the boot lock (too sharp?!) and it stopped the boot closing properly

I'm sure the funny side will dawn on me later....

[Flibb]

Typed out all that between your replys

Anyway well done for sorting it


It does sound like you have a draw on the battery even when the ignition is off, changing the alternator wont sort this. When you start the engine the battery is nearly drained by the starter motor (you do get several goes at the key but it limited), its then down to the alternator to recharge it during the journey. You said that the new battery struggles to start the car if its left for a few hours, will it start the car ok after a few minutes? If its ok after a few minutes, but struggles after a several hours you have a power leak. Could be a buggered alarm, boot light or somethin else.

If you cant identify a culprit look in your yellow pages for a car electrical specialist, they normally have a flat rate fee for a elctrical check. Normally they plug the car in to a tester and it will tell them where any problems are, alternator will cost a fair bit to replace, but you can have them reconed at an electrical specialists (cost me £60 for a landrover 1).

[plesuvius]

Thanks for the reply obviously if it does go flat now I'll be here in a flash great help all cheers!