battery draining on its own?

Apr 26, 2006 4 Replies
M

VW Golf 1987 1.8



I went to start up today anf the battery was flat I put a tester on it and the voltage was 2.3 or so?I called CAA (Canadian Triple A) but couldnt work out if it was my fault did I leave something on Saturday (the last time I drove the car) The battery was new in January so I thought it had to be me?somehow.



The driver confirmed the alternator was OK and jump started the car I drove around for an hour so Got back home and turned it off and then restarted it without any hesitaion, this was around 5 'oclock or so. Around 11.00 pm I decided to see if it would still start and went out and tried it. It was almost dead again, wouldnt turn over even, the oil light came on but that was it. nothing else worked.



I looked in the trunk to see if the light was on there. It wasnt.



Any ideas?What are the chances of it being the battery? Could it go duff after 2 months?



thanks in advance



Michael


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T

Measure the draw from the battery with known loads off. This can be done in various ways, but an ammeter would be one way. Connect one lead to chassis ground. Hold the other lead to the negative battery post, as you loosen and remove the negative battery cable from the battery temporarily. Observe the current. Restore the battery cable.

If you successfully maintained the connection thru the ammeter, you won't have the alarm sound, and you won't have to reset the radio.

How much current is being drawn. If it is more than 100 ma, you have an excessive load that is draining your battery.

No meter handy? Use an incandescent test light then.

No test light? Lift the battery terminal. If you see an arc as you lift the terminal, something is drawing current. When you restore the terminal, reset alarm and radio.

Possible. Seems unlikely.

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S

When the alternator has a short it still can charge the battery with a reduced voltage. Normal is about 14V. Check, with the engine running, if the voltage output of the alternator is abotu 13.8....14V. If it's close to 12v the I there's prob a problem with the alternator. Could also be just a bad battery. I've seen new cars that had failed batteries in a week.

SFC

"mkl1" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@nr-tor01.bellnexxia.net...

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J

I had an issue similar to this. The alternator exciter wire (a blue wire that runs from the dash wiring harness to the alternator) was loose and nasty. I just tightened it up and wrapped it in some decent insulation and haven't had a problem since.

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