Battery drain
 

I am slowly working through my to do list since getting my CDTi and next is to sort out the battery drain.

I have found that if I don't drive the car for four or five days my battery goes dead. My initial checks confirm that I am getting a charge to the battery when the engine is running and this is supported by the fact that if I use the car regularly then there doesn't seem to be a problem.

I have also checked to see what current is passing when everything is off. I was surprised to see that about 3 amps seems to be flowing even when everything like the satnav, TV unit, interior lights etc have shut down. This seems very high and I'm surprised that with this drain the battery actually keeps it's charge for more than a day or so.

The TV unit in the boot starts up and I can hear it whirling every time I switch on the ignition which I understand is normal. This switches off after about one minute and goes quiet. However I have found that if I unplug both leads (blue and white plugs) the current drops to about 1.5 amps so this may not be the whole problem but it is not helping. Whilst I obviously don't use the TV if I unplug the unit I don't get anything on my screen even though the radio still works otherwise I would just leave the TV unit unplugged. Has anyone got a work around for this?

There is another unit in the spare wheel compartment which I'm not sure what it is. I haven't disconnected this yet as I want to work logically through all the possible causes but I'd like to know what it is and whether this could also be disconnected??

My car has a CD player in the glove compartment, in fact it almost completely fills the glove compartment. As I will never use it and it is only another possible source of a drain I would like to know if I can disconnect and remove it without it affecting anything else??

I only ever use the radio and satnav so as long as these work I'll be happy.

I'm hoping that removing any redundant entertainment kit will solve my battery drain but if anyone else had a similar problem I'd be interested to know what they did.

You can take the CD player out of the glovebox without issues, I would rather have the space anyway:D Removed mine years ago, as to the battery drain, most common fault is the sat-nav not shutting down properly.

Add to your To-Do list----------------I must charge my battery for at least 30 hours-----------------------If you don't then what you are doing is slowly killing it.---:shocked:

Thanks for this. I have a trickle charger which should do the minimum of damage but I know that batteries don't like to be repeatedly discharged and recharged hence my need to get the drain sorted asap.

Do you have an FBH? This caused my battery to drain, due to a faulty PCB.
G
:smiley::smiley::smiley:

Current drain was 3A. You have reduced it by 1.5A so residual current drain is 1.5A. This is 18W. Assuming one item is dissipating the entire 18W it will be warm to the touch. Try carefully touching accessible modules to see if any of them are warm.

No, I have not got a FBH so it's not that. Thanks anyway.

Good idea, I'll have a look around and see if anything is warm.

battery drain
 

I have the same problem with my 1.8T. Is this a common problem with 75's?

I was recently working on a Ford Transit with a similar problem, it turned out to be the Alternator.

I had pulled every fuse one by one and still there was a 2.5amp drain, the only thing left was the alternator as nothing else was connected electrically apart from the starter motor and as soon as I undid the multiplug on the back it dropped to 0.02. I conneded it again and the the 2.5amp draw continued.

One new Alternator and the van is restored to full health.

It had no charging issues and no warning lights.

Good luck.