My battery is being drained of power when my car is not running. If I park for about 6 hours I can't get started again. I've checked everything I can think of but can't work out what's draining the power.

 

Any idea's ?

When you say you can't get it started you mean it doesn't turn over?

 

Any juice at all? eg lights on dash?

 

Can you hear solenoid clicking?

Yep there is power, if I jump lead it it will start no problem. The alternators is fine and it will charge back up again given a run. The trouble is when you leave for a while it the battery's been drained again.

Have you got any ice? an alarm?

No ICE, just an Alarm...

either the battery has a dodgy cell & isnt holding a charge or you have something causing a drain.

what you need to do is get a multimeter, disconnect the positive terminal from the battery, and put the multimeter between the battery and the terminal and put it on current, i cant remember exactly what is acceptable curent flow, but i think its about half an amp. If there is more than this flowing, then you have something which is causing excess drain. To find out what it is, pull out each fuse in turn until the current returns to normal, and you have found the problem.

mines been doing the same but over night rather than 6 hours, just topped it up as all the cells where dry, i thought all batteries these days were maintenence free,

Thanks Clarkey. I'll try that. I'm determined to find out what it is rather than pay pesky Nissan £50 just to look.

0.5 A is too high - most cars should be under 0.1 A

 

if it was to draw 0.5 of an amp, and you had for example a 60ah battery, then in 120hrs the battery would be dead flat - thats 5 days for the mathematically challenged ;)

I can't figure it out. Damn thing is flat as a pancake now. My TVR was more reliable than these heap of shites.......

 

Guess it's £50 per hour for some grease monkey to sort it.

where about are you again daz? i'll check it for you if you need to bud :)

I'm down near Hythe. It's driving me mad I've just about had enough.

 

I think it's gonna be the alarm. Having just had the clutch, flywheel, master, slave cylinder, full service done I really am beggining to go mad. I guess us IT bods are not supposed to own these things....

 

And I'm now losing power steering fluid to top it all.

 

:(

Now this may be a very stupid question but have you tried recharging the battery then leaving the neg terminal off over night just to double check it's not the battery not holding charge, mine did just this when it was at PPS.

 

If it's a battery its a £45 replacement from Halfords rather than a £50 diag fee from KAP.

 

Tim

Sounds like a plan Tim. Battery is less than a year old but you never know these days. At this rate I may just buy a spare battery to charge up over night anyway whilst the other one is going flat :)

Stranger and stranger..

 

Tried everything. Can't see any draw using the multimetre, left neg of over night and no drop in power, topped up the fluid a bit just in case. Car started working fine again. Left for 24 hours and it started first time. Drove 30 miles, stopped car for a burger, sat and ate it listening to the stereo, 10 mins top and hey presto the battery is flat again.

 

Grrrrr...

So it could also be a problem with a bad earth.

Faulty battery - if its less than a year old get another under gt. Happened to my dad. Of course reciept long gone but I told him to find his credit card statement and use that - he did and got a replacement battery foc.

I have the receipt... It's 11 months old... That's my next plan of attack..

 

Earth appears OK.