Seriously.
Every car I touch turns to Turd these days..

The latest:





nice 1.7 TD Cavalier.

46mpg around town, 1million mpg on a run.

The problem:

Battery keeps draining while parked up.
The 1st battery went dead when parked in town. AA man jumped it and diagnosed a faulty battery.
Got a 2nd hand battery off John and off on my merry way again.

That battery died and stranded me while parked up. Hmmm.
Enter John with a bit of sense. Altenator belt feels slack. That could be the problem. Sweet! easy fix.
That was tightened up. Recharged battery on a trickle charger and off I go on my merry way.

Two days later, battery dead when I tried to start it in the morning.
Wasnt 100% sure of the batterys health, so shelled out for a brand new Kwik Fit Job.
Changed the Heated rear windscreet and Glow Plug relays as these are known to stick causing a drain.

And off on my merry way again.

Two days later, battery is flat when I go to start it up.
So I charge the battery, and take it to an auto electrician.

He can find no faults. Keeps the car all day, has it on a meter all day, runs it at idle and under various levels of load and nothing pulls a current and the altenator charges fine. No stuck realys.

FFS!

So, he diagnoses an "intermittent fault." and carries on to say "somewhere".

My remedy: take a battery terminal off every time I park up.

Which worked for a month, and now today, the battery is dead again. Took the terminal off last night, and this morning, there was enough power for a couple of spins but not enough to start.

So:
1)It cant be discharging with a terminal off? Surely. Must be discharging while running?
2)Possiblly an intermittent fault with the altenator? So the cars running off the battery intermitently, running it flat?
3)No dash warning lights (battery) ever come on.
4)When the battery goes, its normall DEAD flat overnight. No dash lights, no central locking, no power at all.

WTF is going on?
Why cant I find a reliable car?

Im not expecting answers.
Just felt like a winge.

Oh and public transport sucks.

That's really strange, which terminal are you taking off?

I can only think that the batteries you are using are too small or that something is over charging the batteries, causing them to deteriorate? But surely the electric guy would have seen it.

Speedy88 wrote:That's really strange, which terminal are you taking off?

I can only think that the batteries you are using are too small or that something is over charging the batteries, causing them to deteriorate? But surely the electric guy would have seen it.

Im taking the terminal with access off. Dunno which polarity.
Would it matter?

The battery thats on was checked by the sparky and he said it was fine.

Thats why I narrowed it down to the Altenator, but cant understand why a light doesnt come on.

You want to take off your positive

Light wouldn't come on if it is OVER charging though. If it's frying the battery would explain why you've gone through so many batteries.

But even saying that it seems impossible. What IS possible is that the idiot light isn't working. Next time the car is running, take the belt off and see if the idiot light comes on.

theo2468 wrote:You want to take off your positive

Just rang our lass, who went outside and checked.
Yup. Ive been taking the + side off.

Speedy88 wrote:Light wouldn't come on if it is OVER charging though. If it's frying the battery would explain why you've gone through so many batteries.

But even saying that it seems impossible. What IS possible is that the idiot light isn't working. Next time the car is running, take the belt off and see if the idiot light comes on.

Meter says its charging 14.2, which apparently is about correct.
Access to the belt is a ball ache, Id have to move the alt to get it off.

Tbh, I'd take off the negative, but only out of habit. It really doesn't matter which one comes off, electrons have to go round in a circle, they can't fall out the positive side more than the negative.

Right, one thing that strikes me is...

volvosneverdie wrote: 4)When the battery goes, its normall DEAD flat overnight. No dash lights, no central locking, no power at all.

I'd put a pint on you having a short somewhere. You could pretty much p*ss on a rag and put a bulb across it to make it light, there is no way in hell that a new battery could/should get that flat overnight even if it had been drained, there would still be a surcharge.

Got a multimeter / car voltmeter you could beg borrow or steal? I would say I'd come round and have a look, but Fakes a bit dead

14.2 is a snadgers low, but not enough to stress over.

Chris_C wrote: Got a multimeter / car voltmeter you could beg borrow or steal? I would say I'd come round and have a look, but Fakes a bit dead

14.2 is a snadgers low, but not enough to stress over.

I havnt, and wouldnt know what to do with one if I did.

Whats your plan?
I could buy one if you do a spastic guide for me.

I got a meter somewhere tucked away.

You can lend it if you want.

Whose meter showed 14.2?

Remember at 0C or below your battery loses half it's cranking amps due to the reaction of internal battery fluids.

Hence the first sharp frosts of the yr your local factors sells out of batteries and everyone says it's been fine all yr blahdy,blah...Don't understand why it won't crank etc,etc..

Ok, how did you measure the 14.2? We can sort out some sort of MSN/skype/phone related diagnostics if you want. I know the square root of cock all about cav's, but can do electrics. Or steal Sven's as he's just appeared whilst I been typing

Chris_C wrote:Ok, how did you measure the 14.2? We can sort out some sort of MSN/skype/phone related diagnostics if you want. I know the square root of cock all about cav's, but can do electrics. Or steal Sven's as he's just appeared whilst I been typing

14.2 was qyuoted by the AA man, the Sparky and I think Johns meter said that when he tightened the belt.
The AA man even wrote it on the reciept form thing he gave me.

Cheers Sven. I'll put me battery on a 3 day trickle charge (again), then I could pop up and borrow yours.
Then Chris can tell me things on the dog and telephone.

Cheers chris/Sven You am a good eggs.

I can kick you, maybe that will fix you? No?

If I do remember correctly it was possible that alternator has fault that can be seen only in oscilloscope, it draws power then, but I don't know if it would be that, I thought it would be rare issue.

Things as odd as shorted wire can be cause if things are going really difficult, rubbed against something so there is tiny contact which warms wire just a bit so that it draws battery dry, poor contacts somewhere can do such too as poor electrons are transformed to heat.

Do you have glovebox light? That is one bastard that can make such things too.

jtbo wrote: Do you have glovebox light? That is one bastard that can make such things too.

Ive removed the glovebox light and the boot light in case they were drawing a current.

volvosneverdie wrote: Ive removed the glovebox light and the boot light in case they were drawing a current.

Good, I use method too, I have many boxes of electronic parts inside that I have taken out of my french crap, useless weight really.

Clock, radio removing those one by one, surely at some point culprint is found or there is just no parts left and you find out fault being in battery, that is what would happen to me at least