C5 high current drain when locked.

If a 0.75A drain flattens a car battery in less than 24 hrs then it must be a crap battery.

But if there is .75A continuous when locked, it would take a lot of driving to recharge it fully every time!

It's a "pool car" that may only get used one a fortnight !

Paul..

I've done a bit more investigating myself, the 750mA is there, but only for about 2 minutes, I guess the AA man didn't wait long enough !

The ECU must shut things down systematically as the current drain follows this pattern....

We are guessing someone left something switched on, which drained the battery. We'll keep an eye on it for a week or so.......

Cheers,

Paul.

Interior light?

Pete.

Paul W ( snipped-for-privacy@campbellsci.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Something in the suspension? C5s have an electric pump, controlled by yet another ECU. That's certainly fed from the locking, as it'll pump up as soon as the car's unlocked. It's entirely possible that there's something happening on locking up, too.

I wouldn't rule out a dead battery, either. Check the obvious first.

Say no more.

Don't know about the Citroen but Range Rovers can suffer the same symptoms when they get radio interference from Oregon Scientific weather stations.

The signal from the weather station keeps bringing the ECU out of sleep mode, which drains the battery.

Try googling alt.fan.landrover for the details, you never know, it could be a very similar cause.

Paul W made the world a better place for us by saying..

Damn! I thought this was gonna be about a Sinclair.

Paul> The ECU must shut things down systematically as the current Paul> drain follows this pattern....

Paul> 750mA 10 seconds later drops to 680mA 2 minutes later, peaks Paul> at 840mA then drops to 160mA 1 minute later drops to less Paul> than 10mA

Paul> We are guessing someone left something switched on, which Paul> drained the battery. We'll keep an eye on it for a week or Paul> so.......

This is starting to sounds like the battery drain on my Range Rover last year. Does the C5 have radio remote central locking? On what frequency?

--

I believe if you leave the lights or radio on, they turn themselves off when the battery gets low.

I guess the reason is short journeys and not recharging the battery properly.

Shouldn't it be in warranty still?

Ben

The C5 will switch into economy mode if something is left on for too long, specifically to avoid draining the battery. Things like interor lights, radio etc won,t work until the engine is started again. The central LCD panel flashes up the message 'Economy mode active' Maybe it is a dodgy battery after all.

HTH

Philip Thornton-Evison