fully charged battery goes flat on my escort within a few hours of being stood doing nothing. I think its the alarm immobiliser thingy. Anyone know if this can be disconnected by a fuse or anything? it's a l reg mk5(i think) not the red key type immob the older one. still looking all over the net haven't found anything so far

Edited April 13, 200916 yr by 8ace

Probably no help whatsoever here mate, but my mate has an Escort Cabriolet, 93 I think ?? Anyways same problem as you, and it turned out to be his alternator.

Charging fine so he thought all was good, but was blown inside, voltage regulator thingy, if I remember correctlty

 

He had this problem for weeks and eventually through disconnecting everything one at a time, only then did he solve it !

 

Alan............

mine is charging ok too it's only when the b###ard thing is stood doing feck all. I've got it on charge again now when I get to work tommorrow i'll disconnect it and get it checked at an auto sparks. did he pull all the fuses one at a time then leave it to see if it went flat? battery is nr new but this going flat thing used to only happen if left for a few days stood all of a sudden it now decides to go flat in a matter of hours

Edited April 13, 200916 yr by 8ace

hmmm gonna have to get it in for alt testing . That's 2 of ya's that said a dicky alternator now. The cars been going great for 2 years just flew through it's MOT last week just a few bulbs. I do 20k a year in it and it cost me the princely sum of £225 two years ago

an alarm or immob would not drain a fully charged battery in a few hours, they done draw nowhere near enough current to do that. my guess would be a short in the alt to cause it to go that quick. come across loads over the years, they charge when running but one of the diodes go & cause a short when stood.

I'll get it tested on the way home I had one go in my last escort but the charge rate had dropped slightly from 14.8v or summit to about 12. summit which gave it away. I'm off to put the battery back on i'll have to disconnect it when I arrive at work thanks for you advice all

booked in for tommorrow my mechanic of 20 years is 90% sure by the symptoms as said above here it points towards the alternator, those diode thingies. Thanks for your help peeps. :bow::bow: