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92 SL1 Battery draw in cold weather

I'm in Canada (Ottawa) and in the winter I'm having quite a bit of problems with the battery. The alternator is pretty new so this is not the problem. I had the battery checked few days ago and at the store they said that it was ok (but I still think it might be the cause). The battery goes completly flat in 5 days and after a cold weekend, it doesn't have enough power to start the car. I measured the draw and there is 10ma static draw. This is still less than other people reported. I looked more in details the source of the draw and 7ma comes from "Chimes". This doesn't sound normal to me and I think the chime/temporal module might be dead. Did anyone else experience something similar?

Thanks

Erik.

Reply to
Erik
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How old is the battery? They do go bad but for some reason people tned not to replace them when problem arise. In a cold climate, peak performance is needed and it can loose it quicker in a cold climate. Sound like battery has reached the end of its survice life and in leaking current internally.

Reply to
SnoMan

Is that in 5 days with no driving done at all? Or maybe 5 days with only really short trips (like under a few miles total?) I'm thinking that your alternator isn't really charging it much if any.

A car battery has a capacity measured at around a hundred Amp-hours. It should be able to provide that 10mA for most of a year before it goes dead. (Self-discharge will be a much bigger factor.)

It's also possible that there's some much larger intermittent drain that you never catch in action.

Tim.

Reply to
shoppa

Actauly a 10ma load would deplete the battery in about about 6 to 8 month assuming no internal leakage in battery but all batteies leake at least a few ma's even when new so the time will likeys be less. I suspect that battery is near the end of its life and time and energy would be better spent replacing it rather than looking for gremlins.

Reply to
SnoMan

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