What is draining my Renault clio battery?!

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1 Sep 2014
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Belfast
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United Kingdom
My clio was running fine until one day all lights flashed on the dash board and the car slowly died, got a new battery and was told I need a new alternator, got one and now the car starts one day and doesn't start the next. Mechanic has been at my house and left the car on charge over night, car started fine and then the next day car won't start again! Anybody any help or tips? Have checked the boot light to make sure that isn't staying on
 
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could be anything,check your glove box to see it the bulb isnt on?
to a bad earth somewhere.
iirc the battery should be showing something like 14,4 volts when engine is running?
and hold a steady 12.4/ up wards at stand still.
 
Disconnect the + lead from the battery and connect an amp meter between the lead you have taken off and the battery, make sure everything is turned off and check the current flowing, you shouldn't have any more than about 100ma, that will only loose 1 ah every 10 hours so to go flat in a day means you must be drawing considerably more. A current of 1 amp would discharge the battery in about 1-3 days. Also watch it for a period of time as it may go up end down.

Peter
 
If you do find a current drain on the battery, try pulling the fuses out one by one until you see it drop. That will at least narrow down which circuit has the problem. NOTE, however, that depending on the age of the car, more modern ones can consume a fair bit of current after turning the engine off, but go into a "sleep" mode after a while. Trouble is, it's difficult to do this test with doors open because of the courtesy light drain.
 
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Have you carried out the current flow test as described above? Pulling each fuse to find the cause for the battery draining?

This would be a good start to finding your problem
 
Have you tried my battery disconnection trick, that I mentioned in your post in the other section?
John :)
 
Yeah I'm not sure how it's worded but took it to an auto spark and he tried each wire individually to see if that was draining it.. No luck!
 
Have you tried PeterN's test, Laura? If a circuit is remaining live, this will show it.
If there is no drain, the battery can internally discharge if it's below par.
John :)
 
Might I suggest you disconnect the battery every night for a while and it should start every morning, because the battery is new, isn't it? Drive it in daylight hours with little or no electrics used, to ensure the battery is charged as much as possible.

If it doesn't start after reconnection, come back and we'll help find the problem at that point.
 
Thanks for your suggestions will try these once the battery has been recharged as it's dead right now! I will come back with the result, and it's been too 2 auto sparks already
 
Lead acid car batteries hate being discharged more than about 50%. You can kill a brand new one fairly quickly by completely flattening it a few times. Do you have an external battery charger? It's worth fully charging it on one and then taking it to your local motor factor and asking them to do a "load test" on it. it only takes a minute (well, 30 seconds at most). That will tell you whether the battery itself is cream-crackered.
 
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