Renault Clio battery discharging

[Scotty]

Help!! :

The battery on my 1998 (S) Clio keeps discharging after the car has been standing for a few days.

The battery is brand new (Varta) I replaced the old one as I originaly thought this was the problem. The charging system appears to be ok, the red warning light on the dashboard goes out as soon as the engine starts.

When the car is in constant use the battery remains charged, when it it left standing for a few days it goes flat.

The car has the central locking and the standard Renault imobilisor.

a friend of mine told me it could be one of the door central locking solenoids drawing a constant current. He suggested removing the fuse that controls the central locking to see if that helps. (go back to locking the doors by key)

Any other ideas would be appreciated

 

[AdamW]

A problem I could imagine with that is that with the 1998 R-reg Clio (of which I used to be regular driver), the immobiliser must be deactivated by plipping the key, and will automatically re-activate after 1 minute.

If this is the same with the S-reg you will need to manually unlock, get in, point the key at the sensor, plip (possibly twice), then start the engine!

 

[jsmith]

Connect an ammeter in series with the battery.

You should see that there is a current being drawn.

Remove fuses until the current drops right down. You will find that one of the fuses causes a big current drop, you then know that a piece of equipment which uses that fuse is at fault.

Basically you need to connect an ammeter and have a play around.

 

[Scotty]

Thanks for the suggestions guys but i think I might have just spotted the problem.

The boot light switch had fallen out of its socket causing the light to stay permenantly on.

I have now put the switch back in place and will leave the car for a couple of days to see if the battery discharges, hopefully it wont!