mystery battery discharge on 110 Tdi

Aug 21, 2003 5 Replies

Hello group, help please-



Just gotback from Spain where my Defender's battery started acting strangely. After not being used for a day there wasn't enough jiuce to turn over the enginelet alone start it. Used jump leads and drove to land Rover dealership in Figueras, where they checked both battery and alternator and pronounced both to be healthy. Since then even after very long mileages( in one case 520 miles in a day) and then an overnight rest, the battery has misbehaved again, but not always.



Is something drawing the current when the car's at rest without me knowing? There are certainly no interior lights being left on or anything like that, so.... How can I find out what it might be, and has anyone in this fount of experience had a similar problem.?



Many many thanks in advance



simon


Rear window element left on (if you have one?)

Otherwise it's out with the ammeter :(

Regards

William MacLeod

I'll second this as a possibility. In order for the batytery to go flat that quickly, you need a high current drain, and there are relatively few suspects.

I once had a problem with a sticky rear window heater relay - even when the switch was "off", the heater was still "on".

Had similar problem of 'er indoors' Disco, turned out to be dodgy glow plug relay.... It was firing up the glow plugs at random, regardless of key position. As you can imagine, killed that batt fairly quick. Almost killed my meter as I wasnt expecting such a big drian....

In message , Simon writes

Have you checked all your earth connections are clean and tight? I had this problem and it turned out to be the crimp on the engine earth strap was just slightly loose. A soldered connection is better.

Try, after stopping the vehicle, checking the battery (do a restart with lights on & run for a few minutes to recharge). disconnect the battery overnight, if it's flat in the morning then get a new battery.

Jon

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