swisstonihasher

Houses now have monitors that can see what power is used from one socket, is there a similar device for 12v car systems as I'd love to know how much juice is being drained from my battery an hour. Just bought a new varta with trickle charger in use and the thing was flat at the weekend. Not first time I've chewed through batteries on this car. Definately worse since tracker installed few years back...

"Taylor"

iTrader: (2)

Mine does exactly the same. If used regularly within the week it's fine, if i only use at weekends, give it a week or two and it'll be flat. Just fitted a brand new Varta and its flat already. I also have a tracker on the car, but its not active, well the subscribtion at least, i asume the unit itself is still working and probably drawing power. I read on here somewhere that if the trackers battery is knackered it starts drawing power from the car. This is probably our problem.

swisstonihasher

Agree, I've heard you can get it changed but can cost £300 notes as new motherboard and battery kit...ouch. Might just get it serviced, tested make sure it works with RAC and take it from there...

"Taylor"

iTrader: (2)

Cool, post up here how you get on.

swisstonihasher

Right-o, managed to spend a little bit of time investigating this during mapping, ran a multimeter between positive terminal and positive cable so any drain has to come via this route, inline reading on amps was just 0.08 amps! Didn't seem bad to me....blip alarm, with lights flashing, went upto 8 amps but even with alarm enabled it was still between .08 and .09 amps

Anyone else able to do this test on their scooby?

I'm on my fourth battery and this one is a beefy varta, 75 amp hour...still flat this morning and that's with a trickle charger and solar panel running (not all the time though, solar during day, charger for about hour at night).

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

If your drain is 0.09 amps your battery ought to stay charged overnight. Ten hours and it's still only used 9/10th of an Amp.

Can I suggest you get the battery checked, it sounds like it's been allowed to go flat which might have damaged it to the extent that it now won't hold charge.

Take it to a proper car electrics place to get it checked.

swisstonihasher

Hmm, thought that might be the case, I'll report it as warranty claim, see what happens

sssssteeeee

i had a drain, after 2 years and 2 batteries, we discovered the boot light was permanently on!!! so check all lighting switches for bad switching mecnanisms,but boot lid is best place to start cause we all assume its out when we shut the lid.( cant see it )

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

That's like those cursed fridge lights.......the number of nights I've sat in our fridge making sure the light stays out...........

swisstonihasher

Did you run a amps test with the boot light on? I might try that to see what difference it would make but I don't think 0.08 amps is a big drain, more likely the battery is fubar'd.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

0.08 Amps only gives just over 1Watt.........far too small for even a boot light, I'd have said.

swisstonihasher

Okay guys, plot thickens...

Just decided to do a test with putting ignition on, then prime pump and then switch off. Tested amps and reading was at .034/.035 (with mutlimeter set to 2 amps), ie not same result. I know there's a period where after ignition off you can still switch it back on and start the car, ie imob is disabled.

Now, I may be reading the multimeter wrong since on DCA, setting at 20 amps, the results are 00.34 but with 2 amps setting, .034, to me the decimal point moves in wrong direction Any electrical sparks out there correct me on this one? So is my motor chewing .34 amps or .034 amps when ignition has just been switched off?

The good news is I've found the offending fuse, it's the clock 15 amp fuse inside engine bay fuse box, take that out and it drops to .005 or 00.05 depending on 2 or 20 setting - big difference
Since battery company wants me to charge battery back to 12.8 volts before doing anything else, I've left the fuse out and put trickle charger on for a day.

One more thing, did amps test of trickle charger and it bumps out 00.65 amps (when set 20) so there;s no reason why the battery should go flat, ever, as the car is always left with charger when not in use...

swisstonihasher

My battery is going back for testing, fingers crossed they find it runs at flat as I have with no drain. 12.8 fully charged, next day 12.2, something is wrong and not connected to car.

B0DSKI

iTrader: (17)

Mine does exactly the same thing. Been told it may well be the tracker not going into sleep mode. Mine is also not active although it used to also do it when it was.

Asked RAC to come out and look and they wanted £130 callout + parts!!

I've been meaning to look over the car and find the tracker and disconnect it totally and see if that makes a difference. Just got no idea here they hide the Trackers ???

swisstonihasher

Depends, trackers are located in few places on scoob, not going to put that on a public website though (for obvious reasons).

Do you have a multimeter with DCA (amps)? Could you put the meter between positive terminal and positive on battery to see what your battery drain is just after switching off the engine or ignition (as this is when the tracker comes out of sleep mode). I've heard this before (I to have a RAC tracker), problem with 7 hours into sleep mode but I've heard some have had the 2 or 3 hours motherboard fitted and still have same problem.

B0DSKI

iTrader: (17)

I had it looked at when it was having some work done and had a 50ma drain across one of the fuses in the fusebox. Can't for the life of me remember which one now though.

I've got a Scanguage which shows the battery will peak at 14.5 volts when the engine is first turned over, this will drop to 13.8-14.1 on a run. Battery voltage when the engine is switched off is usually around 12.8 Volts

swisstonihasher

Bugger battery company says battery tested okay. I'd explained I've tested it without the car being connected and it still dropped in charge. Looks like I'll be getting it back shortly.
Car without clock fuse draws less amps that;s for sure but the alarm system doesn't then work.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

OK, recahrge battery fully, (overnight on trickle charge).

Leave it IN the car but DISCONNECTED four days.
Reconnect and it SHOULD fire up.
If it doesn't, back to the battery place.

swisstonihasher

Already done that m8y, got a multimeter so can see voltage drop, last test it went from 12.8 to 12.2 in about 2 days. They've just tested it and said it went down from 13+ to 12.6 in a few days so says it's fine..

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Dispute it. Ask them to PROVE it to you.

swisstonihasher

Well, the company has tested the battery and said it's fine. They then want me to send payment so they can return it....little bit pished off with this because it's cost me 22 notes to have a battery tested, over a 3rd of the price of a new one, for nothing. Wont use them again.

swisstonihasher

Strange, got battery back and it looks alot better, put on trickle charger and now it's going green after a short period and stays green instead of staying on charge all the time. I've also wired up an LED display volt meter on the garage door so I can see what she's running at and it's constant 13.4 now...nice....that's with all fuses in including the clock fuse which runs the alarm system.