Draining Batterys

Joined: 10 Oct 2003

After leaving my GQ TD42 parked up for 7 days i have discovered that both of my batteries are flat. What are the best ways to see what is drainning them? Remove Fuses and check with a multimeda for a rise. Any i deas would be great

Thanks Chris

Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Location: Brisbane or 169.254.243.241

Take the negative battery terminals off

Tom

Joined: 30 Dec 2002 Location: Adelaide

What Tom said, plus use the multimeter on current to measure the amount being drained from the battery.

ie. disconnect the earth lead and use the multimeter on the current range to complete the circuit and measure the current being drained with everything off.

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 1:10 pm

Very common for batteries to die at the first sign of a cold snap. What is your location ie ambient temp. usually just the clock will drain current, but it is so small this would not cause problems on its own.

Use a multimeter with an ammeter function (10amp minimum), turn off all accessories and ignition, disconnect the neg terminal on the batt (leave the pos connected) connect the neg lead of the mutlimeter to the batt, put multimeter into ammeter mode, connect pos lead of multimeter to earth lead of vehicle. This will tell you how many (milli)amps of current is being drawn when off.

Joined: 16 Jan 2004 Location: WA

i spose once you have connected up as per area54, that you would pull fuses one by one on each of your circuits and watch for a change in the current drawn to isolate the appropriate circuit..

Joined: 18 May 2004

This will not answer your question but may stop the problem. I have a dual battery system in my SWB Diesel Landrover 1976. Both batteries are kept fully charged by the alternator but everything runs off one battery.
If this battery is flat or unable to start the vehicle I press a button and then both batteries are brought on line,one being fully charged and the other flat or nearly flat. This means that although I regularly have a low main battery I can always get started using the other battery. In extremely cold weather for example I may elect to use both batteries to turn over the starter motor even if the main battery is fully charged.
I hope this gives you an ooption to think about.
Regards from Richard Tye