Gaddammit now what!!?! The Z just drained a brand new battery in 12 hours :no:

 

I've always had a small current which results in the battery not being able to start the car if I leave it undriven for 5 or 6 days, but after a normal drive to work it's been fine. Been like this for years.

 

However after being left stood for a mere 4 days over the weekend, she started ok on Monday morning (a little sluggish to start but that's to be expected), fired up and got me to work no problems - handing a 350Z it's own arse in the process ;)

 

Anyway on the way back yesterday evening I noticed that the voltage (on my Apexi turbo timer unit) was lower than normal. Normally it will show 14.2v at the start of driving, and level out to 13.7ish after a few minutes. However it never got above 13.6 and dropped to as little as 13.3 - I wasn't using lights and I even took my stereo facia out I was that concerned.

 

Thinking the battery was starting to fail, or the alternator had packed in, I managed to get it home no problems. Passed a voltometer across the battery and got 12v. Luckily I keep one on standby (this one measured 13.6 volts) so I swapped them over, smeared a bit of Vaseline over the terminals, hooked them up and she was ok (didn't take her for a drive). Locked her up as normal.

 

Following morning, she wouldn't even start (barely 10v in the battery), so took the standby car to work. First thing I did when I got back this evening was to put a multimeter across the battery and she's losing 25A somewhere!!! :eek:

 

I started with the fuses in the engine bay behind the steering wheel, and when I remove the 30A IGN / SKID fuse the current immediately drops to 0.6A.

 

I've not had time to look at any other fuses, I've left the positive off and put her on maintenance charge until I can get to the bottom of it.

 

Can anyone suggest the next course of action - is it worth putting the IGN / SKID fuse back in and continuing with the footwell fuses, or is this as far as I can get? If so where would I start looking next?

After having a look around the engine bay I noticed this rather rubbish bit of wiring - anyone know what this connector does (it goes from two wires through the plug and then into the white line to the left), and would the broken connection in the second picture where my bottom finger is have anything to do with it? It's really fragile so I don't want to mess around with it needlessly.

 

 

 

hi sorry dont know much about zeds but i know a bit about electrics, 25amps is a lot! id find which fuses are rated higher than 25amps and pull them out one by one untill the drain drops off? that way you might also find out were that plug goes

sorry just read the post again ignore me lol

That's the drivers side vct solenoid wire. Can't really tell from the pic but it looks like the wires are damaged where the insulating tape ends. Might be shorting out there.

could try unplugging it see if the drain drops off then youd know if it was the solenoid or the wiring?

worth checking for your leccy seats. i dunno how much power they use but it must be alot, mine got jammed on the down setting a while back drained my battery overnight before i realised what it was, i stood on it getting in on a tight driveway. bloody thing

Dave, don't worry about the plug you have there (vvt) only works on very low juice.With the charge Voltage being low I would be tempted to disconnect the main feeds to the Alternator and see if the drain drops/dissapears,sounds like Alternator to me.Worth a punt mate!:wink:

strange one this, but check your boot when the lid is closed, see if the boot light is still on, thats drained my battery before on my black zed i had, had to remove the bulb eventually because the switch was broken, but ive found with out a spoiler on the back of my zed i have to give the boot a helping hand to close now as the air pressure inside the car is a bit too great when trying to close it lightly and it doesnt latch.

strange one this, but check your boot when the lid is closed, see if the boot light is still on, thats drained my battery before on my black zed i had, had to remove the bulb eventually because the switch was broken, but ive found with out a spoiler on the back of my zed i have to give the boot a helping hand to close now as the air pressure inside the car is a bit too great when trying to close it lightly and it doesnt latch.

 

yeah I thought about that one - I can never see the bloody light when the boot's down, but the lamp was cold when I first opened the boot this evening so hopefully that means the light behaves itself and goes out properly.

 

Dave, don't worry about the plug you have there (vvt) only works on very low juice.With the charge Voltage being low I would be tempted to disconnect the main feeds to the Alternator and see if the drain drops/dissapears,sounds like Alternator to me.Worth a punt mate!:wink:

 

can do Darren but not sure how to go about it? is it an underneath job? :blushing:

 

worth checking for your leccy seats. i dunno how much power they use but it must be alot, mine got jammed on the down setting a while back drained my battery overnight before i realised what it was, i stood on it getting in on a tight driveway. bloody thing

 

good shout - I've just been out to check them but the levers felt in place (battery's off at the moment so couldn't tell for sure)

 

could try unplugging it see if the drain drops off then youd know if it was the solenoid or the wiring?

 

yeah I'll give that a try just so I can eliminate it

 

 

 

does that fact that removal of the 30A IGN / SKID fuse drops the drain mean that I don't need to check any of the other fuses (e.g. footwell) obviously with this one plugged back in?

multimeter across battery? as in one probe on each terminal

 

that would short your battery through the meter and give you the current flowing through the meter not flowing through the car

i thought that connector was to the lambar sensor??

multimeter across battery? as in one probe on each terminal

 

that would short your battery through the meter and give you the current flowing through the meter not flowing through the car

 

no I took the positive connector off and ran it in series (the multimeter tells you what to do!)

 

BTW I'm wrapping up your pod as we speak! :turned:

footwell fuses might be worth a try could help pin the drain down, a wiring diagram would help massivly dont know if anyone on here would have one?

ah , thats ok then, thats a lot of current then

 

i would use one of these to check each fuse

http://cpc.farnell.com/_/cf-02/current-tester-automotive/dp/IN04874?Ntt=car+fuse+meter

 

cool :)

i thought that connector was to the lambar sensor??

 

The lambda's are the black ones mate :ph34r:

well Ive just been under the bonnet again - battery fully charged. I started her up and she ran fine, did the headlight test and couldn't see any brightening of the headlights under revs. I did notice that I had left my rear foglight switch on, but since I've not used the headlights for months that couldn't have been anything to do with it.

 

While idling she was making 14v which is similar to what I get when driving off (14.2v) but then again it was a fully-charged battery so perhaps not much charging up had to occur from cranking. Either way, surely this means the alternator is ok?

 

I put the ammeter back in series with the battery and now she's only losing 5.5A with the driver's door open, and a mere 1.6A with the door closed! :confused: :confused:

 

I removed every fuse from the larger fuse box at the front passenger-side and the only one that drops is the smaller 10v horn fuse (drops 0.2A when out).

 

Don't want to take her out for a drive yet, I've left her on maintenance charge again. I'll turn that off tomorrow and then see what the voltage is on Tuesday morning. If it's still up then I'll risk taking her to work!

 

The only thing I did that could have 'fixed' it was to re-tape some of the cut wires in the engine bay and also the rear lights (I have rear fog conversion and light-up centre panel so there's plenty going on back there).

 

I hate it when a problem goes away by itself without any explanation cos you never know what it was and when it's going to come back! Not that I'm sure it's gone away at all!!!! (fingers crossed).

nope scratch that, checked her this morning and 6v - dead as a dodo. :(

have you tried leaving it with the alarm off? could be the seperate alarm battery is toast and sapping the system?

your gonna have to start pulling fuses and seeing what happens.

I do not know if this will be of any help, but I had a 1 amp parasitic drain a wile back. (would kill my battery in days) After pulling numerous fuses,

I found that a white multi plug connector behind the drivers foot well fuse cover looked slightly green. (bloody targa's)

I stripped the connector and found corrosion had built up across the wiring causing a short.

Cleaned and refitted the connector and the drain was back to a healthy 80/09ma

May be worth a look?

have you tried leaving it with the alarm off? could be the seperate alarm battery is toast and sapping the system?

your gonna have to start pulling fuses and seeing what happens.

 

thanks for the suggestion - I'll do that as a last resort - she's parked in the driveway so I don't want to leave her without alarm! :no:

 

I do not know if this will be of any help, but I had a 1 amp parasitic drain a wile back. (would kill my battery in days) After pulling numerous fuses,

I found that a white multi plug connector behind the drivers foot well fuse cover looked slightly green. (bloody targa's)

I stripped the connector and found corrosion had built up across the wiring causing a short.

Cleaned and refitted the connector and the drain was back to a healthy 80/09ma

May be worth a look?

 

thanks for that - I've not inspected the footwell fuses yet so I'll give that a try later.

A brief update today - I had to swap batteries cos I'd accidentally tripped the charger socket and she'd drained herself again and she wouldn't let me put her back on charge without sounding the alarm. I fired her up and she runs ok, and when I pull the positive lead off the battery she still runs by herself, so this means the alternator is ok right? If so then yes that's good but unfortunately I have to keep investigating where the hell the problem is :(

 

Probably more for my benefit a few weeks ago I went through the driver's footwell fuses and made these voice notes to myself:

• Far bottom-left 10A fuse (THEFT LEFT ROOM DOOR LOCK) drops current from 5.6A to 1.7A but passenger door doesn't lock while fuse is out
  
• Top row, 3rd from back, 10A CLEARANCE ILLUM - mine had a 15A fuse in, when removed, drops to 0.6A. When headlights on, front sidelights don't come on, nor illum dash, not rear fog switch
  
• Rear wiper removed - 10A fuse - leave removed due to having no rear wiper - top row near middle
  
• 20A cigarette lighter fuse - no cigarette lighter - leaving removed as well
  

did you resolve this yet?

did you resolve this yet?

 

nah Ive not been bothered to take another look mate. maybe one for next year... how's your investigation going?

well the cars up off the floor atm, got half an hour in thonight before the light faded, just gotta get the main bolt off and drop the alterantor now. im 99% certain its the al at fault. brushes have gone due to it being soaked in power steering fluid. i was reading on the us forum that apprantly theres a regulator in the cuircuit from the alt and this can fail causing the battery to drain in hours so maybe tahts one for you to look at?

I have a headlamp issue due to leaking targa's... do the headlamps come on while ya in bed? get up in the middle of the night and check, from a previous post it sound like I need to look somewhere in the drivers footwell (its the drivers side leaking on mine.