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Kia Picanto parasitic battery draw
- Thread starter SenileGit
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I've fixed the problem (albeit not properly) by buying a battery kill switch, with remote control. This cost £22 from Ebay, and will completely disconnect the battery every time I press the remote button (or reconnect it when I actually want to drive the car), and will also make the car slightly less vulnerable to theft.
When it arrives and is connected, I can then take my own time trying to find out the actual cause of the parasitic draw, while still being able to use the car.
When it arrives and is connected, I can then take my own time trying to find out the actual cause of the parasitic draw, while still being able to use the car.
Once you get the time, consider disconnecting the alternator to see if that makes a difference.
John
John
Good point - I do wonder, where the OP is actually measuring the discharge, he may not be sampling the entire discharge, unless he is sampling at the main battery lug.
I think he needs to put his meter in series with the battery positive and the disconnected positive lead to really see what’s what, then maybe remove each fuse in turn.
I’ve reasonable knowledge in this field but not so proud to not employ a vehicle sparky!
John
I’ve reasonable knowledge in this field but not so proud to not employ a vehicle sparky!
John
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My car is particularly easy to check the discharge, it has a removable link, which feeds the entire car, excepting the alternator, and starter motor. Bridge the link with the ammeter, then undo the link. All, without disturbing the electronics
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Would the alternator take 0.3A for the first minute after connecting the battery, and then stop taking that amount of current, and then take it again later?
For those reasons, I don't think it can be the alternator.
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I have been measuring the current from the negative battery post, as shown in the video in my first post. That's how I found that one of the current draws was caused by the boot light.
Today I am going to spray WD40 on the boot catch, and see if that prevents the 'boot open' dash light from coming on, when the boot is closed. I wonder if, despite there now being no bulb in the boot light, the 'boot open' fault might be causing some other circuit to take power.
Today I am going to spray WD40 on the boot catch, and see if that prevents the 'boot open' dash light from coming on, when the boot is closed. I wonder if, despite there now being no bulb in the boot light, the 'boot open' fault might be causing some other circuit to take power.
It could be an idea to remove the bulb from the boot lamp (is there one in the glove box too?) just to rule that out.
Maybe the interior lamps (timer driven probably) would benefit too from bulb removal.
With reference to my alternator comment, any part that involves diodes can cause issues like this, but of course I can't say if this is on the right track at all.
I think you'll need to remove each fuse in turn whilst having one eye on your meter to check if anything shows up there.
Here's wishing you luck! When the problem is found it's likely to be a simple one at the end of the day.
(I've edited post 20, changing 'parallel' to 'series'........don't know what I was thinking about there.)
Regards
John
Maybe the interior lamps (timer driven probably) would benefit too from bulb removal.
With reference to my alternator comment, any part that involves diodes can cause issues like this, but of course I can't say if this is on the right track at all.
I think you'll need to remove each fuse in turn whilst having one eye on your meter to check if anything shows up there.
Here's wishing you luck! When the problem is found it's likely to be a simple one at the end of the day.
(I've edited post 20, changing 'parallel' to 'series'........don't know what I was thinking about there.)
Regards
John
Our Landrover alarm would occasionally go off at irregular intervals. Once, it happened in the middle of the night and when I looked back on the cctv, because it was dark, I noticed that the interior light came on for no reason at all which set the alarm off. I just removed the bulb.
Not usually, but where are you measuring the 300mA?
My car, if you leave a door, or boot open, then after 20 minutes it will turn the lights off to avoid the battery being flattened. I wonder if yours might do the same?
You have checked discharge current, when parked, engine off, but you could also report the voltage across the battery, with the engine running. It should show in excess of 14.0v, normally.
Shorted diodes, tend to cause a much larger current to flow, discharging the battery quite quicky, and the alternatot would get warm, the failure would show up as a reduced charge when the engine is running. The above test, might show that.
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As I've said several times now... by putting the multimeter across the negative battery terminal, and the negative battery terminal clamp - as shown in the video I posted in the original post!