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Kia Picanto parasitic battery draw

Possibly not relevant in this case... my customer purchased a top spec, one year old, Porsche 911 from Porsche. The car was shipped over to the Amalfi coast so that they could do the old income tax dodge. The battery would be completely flat after 2 weeks. Porsche insisted that the battery was fine . Customer decided to sell it back to Porsche. A neighbour offered to buy it from them, my customer refused to do a direct sale given that they were aware of the battery problem. The neighbour purchased it directly from Porsche. Low and behold, the battery went flat.

Porsche eventually realised that the car was constantly polling for updates.
 
An alternator fault, which won't charge the battery properly can be unnoticed without the presence of a battery light on the dash. During idle, check the battery voltage to see whether the alternator is charging the system properly because if it isn't the battery will die often, making you think its a problem with the car or the battery itself.
 
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!

OK, I missed that line, sorry. Is there an alarm on the vehicle, perhaps it is repeatedly going into pre-trigger?
 
Thanks for your reply, Harry, I will test the voltage across the battery when the engine is running tomorrow, when my kill switch is going to arrive (obviously before fitting the kill switch, in case that causes the reading to be incorrect for some reason.)
 
Thanks for the advice, Burnerman! It turns out that the kill switch won't fit my battery anyway - the battery posts are too small for the kill switch clamp to go on, and the post that comes with the kill switch is too large for my car's battery cable connector thing. So I didn't use it.
But what I did discover was that there was a pair of fuses that I had missed when I checked the fuse boxes! They are shown in the photo below. I pulled out the yellow plastic 'thing' which holds both the fuses in place, and then tested the current between the negative battery post and the post cable connector (not sure what you call it), and it was zero! I put the two fuses back in, and it was 0.3A! I took out the 15A fuse, and it was still 0.3A, then I put the 15A one back in, and removed the 10A one, and it went down to zero amps, so I took it out completely.
I then watched a video which explains what all the fuses are, and 'R/LP' stands for 'Room Lamp', which I presume is the internal light on the ceiling of the car. That would explain why it took 0.3A for 60 seconds and then turned off, last time I checked with the multimeter. But it must be coming back on for some reason (possibly a dodgy door switch? Or a dodgy relay?) I haven't actually been back to look at the car to see if the ceiling lamp is, in fact, off - because I didn't know what 'R/LP' meant, and had to come back into the house to search on the internet.
So that's where I stand at the moment - I've removed the 10A fuse permanently, but I haven't connected the battery back yet - I will do that tomorrow when I actually drive the car, because I still don't trust the damn thing!

DSCN88341920.jpg
DSCN88351920.jpg
 
I forgot to say that the voltage across the battery when the engine was running was 17.8V.
 
I forgot to say that the voltage across the battery when the engine was running was 17.8V.
Most modern units have a built-in regulator that should cut off above 14.4V or so.

Ensure you have connected your meter probably you can also try with another multimeter.

17.8V, if correct, will be boiling your battery and causing untold electrical havoc - best not to use the car until you have it sorted.
 
A word of caution, keep the car keys outside the car. We had problems with the central locking on a VW Fox where it would automatically re-lock whatever we did. Traced the fault to a faulty doorswitc. The car looked for the door openiong/interior light operation to say you had entered the vehicle. Because the switch was faulty it didn't see the door open and relocked the vehicle.

Switch replaced and no more issues, but if you remove the fuse and disable the interior light you may well get locked out of the vehicle.
 
Would a modern car give fault codes with an alternator issue? Or would you expect some kind of code. By modern I mean, last 10 years.
 
Would a modern car give fault codes with an alternator issue? Or would you expect some kind of code. By modern I mean, last 10 years.
Yes, the battery light on the dash will be illuminated.

If it's a problem related to the communication (control of the alternator) then you'll most likely get a code.

This also depends if you're using the generic side of the scanner too.
 
Hi Jurassic park, I will try another multimeter to see if I still get 17.8V, I have four of them.
 
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