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Author Topic: 0.11 amp drain?  (Read 6822 times)

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powerslinky

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0.11 amp drain?
« on: 25 October 2017, 20:00:44 »

Don't use the CDX much at all really  . . . in fact Mon - Fri does not go anywhere ::)

And remember before you get too techy guys ,I don't do much  electrickery  :-[ :-[ :-[

So . . .In those 5 days the  battery goes almost completely flat  . . sometimes just enough left to operate the central locking & thenget a dim set of ignition lights on dash.

Have done all of Kevins checks in his guide . .. battery good, all charging ok but  on the subject of current drain though,  the multimeter reads 0.39 A  for about 9 mins  then drops to 0.11  with a then occasional fluctuation to 0.06 A   or 0.04 A  returning to 0.11A

Kevins guide suggests 0.07 A      so is my reading of 0.11  within tolarence ?

Or is there something going on .     Power sounder has been binned by the way  ;)

Don't have the standard head unit  . . got a Sony MD/radio fitted  ( sure thatTB will blame that as the cause  . . ;D ;D )

TIA   Al :y

 
« Last Edit: 25 October 2017, 20:05:02 by Essex Big Al »
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Bigron

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #1 on: 25 October 2017, 20:08:47 »

Just like mine, Al, so if you have a problem, I have too!
I need to use the car at least every 3 days to charge the battery via the alternator, otherwise it's out with the mains charger.....and as far as I can tell, there's no exceptional drain.  ???

Ron.
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Entwood

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #2 on: 25 October 2017, 20:10:04 »

Don't use the CDX much at all really  . . . in fact Mon - Fri does not go anywhere ::)

And remember before you get too techy guys ,I don't do much  electrickery  :-[ :-[ :-[

So . . .In those 5 days the  battery goes almost completely flat  . . sometimes just enough left to operate the central locking & thenget a dim set of ignition lights on dash.

Have done all of Kevins checks in his guide . .. battery good, all charging ok but  on the subject of current drain though,  the multimeter reads 0.39 A  for about 9 mins  then drops to 0.11  with a then occasional fluctuation to 0.06 A   or 0.04 A  returning to 0.11A

Kevins guide suggests 0.07 A      so is my reading of 0.11  within tolarence ?

Or is there something going on .     Power sounder has been binned by the way  ;)

Don't have the standard head unit  . . got a Sony MD/radio fitted  ( sure thatTB will blame that as the cause  . . ;D ;D )

TIA   Al :y

I take it you jump start it at that time ... then what do you do ?? drive it for a few miles or put the battery on charge using a mains powered charger ??

If you DON'T fully charge the battery it will never get a decent charge in it, and will fail early due to sitting in a discharged state for extended periods. A standard car battery will take around 12 hours on a normal battery charger to get a full charge ....

The answer to your question can only really be approached if you are fully charging the battery after the problem occurs.. 'cos if you ain't .... there is no sensible battery "start point" of reference ....
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powerslinky

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #3 on: 25 October 2017, 20:22:41 »

Nige  . . .have got used to it being almost flat by Friday  . . so put it on the charger for about 4 hours Friday night or Sat morning.  It is then fine all over the weekend . 

But thinking about it  . . .a few weeks ago I did do an overnight charge & it started ok on the following Friday . But then back to being almost flat at the end of that week .If that makes sense  :-\ :-\

Battery is just over a year old.

Question  . . .is it usual for the battery to drain over a 2 week period with the car not being used at all ?
« Last Edit: 25 October 2017, 20:26:34 by Essex Big Al »
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omega2018

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #4 on: 25 October 2017, 20:39:43 »

i had the same symptoms, i even went as far as installing a solar panel in the back window to try and stop it.  in the end it turned out to be the alternator regulator on its way out.  it was never fully charging the battery.  eventually it went completely , my car lasted about 15 mins then needed a tow truck. check what voltage your battery is being charged at.
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powerslinky

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #5 on: 25 October 2017, 20:45:33 »

i had the same symptoms, i even went as far as installing a solar panel in the back window to try and stop it.  in the end it turned out to be the alternator regulator on its way out.  it was never fully charging the battery.  eventually it went completely , my car lasted about 15 mins then needed a tow truck. check what voltage your battery is being charged at.

done all that when doing Kevin Wood's  test from the maintenance guide . All good
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amba

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #6 on: 25 October 2017, 21:01:38 »

Al.

You are probably taking almost as much out of the battery on a cold start and a few miles at the weekend than you are replacing so from Monday to Friday you haven't got a fully charged battery to start with.

As advised give battery a good 24 hour slow charge on a Sunday then measure the voltage each night when you get home just to see where it is .

Bet problem is standing all week unused with only a partial charge 
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powerslinky

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #7 on: 25 October 2017, 21:06:43 »

Al.

You are probably taking almost as much out of the battery on a cold start and a few miles at the weekend than you are replacing so from Monday to Friday you haven't got a fully charged battery to start with.

As advised give battery a good 24 hour slow charge on a Sunday then measure the voltage each night when you get home just to see where it is .

Bet problem is standing all week unused with only a partial charge

Ok Andrew will try that   . .Thanks   :y
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Bigron

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #8 on: 25 October 2017, 21:11:08 »

Amba, you do have a good point, but in my (similar) situation I have disconnected the battery, charged it via a Halfords 20 Amp "smart" charger until it reaches Maintaining condition and then re-connected the battery: it made very little difference.
The trouble with modern sealed batteries is that you can't remove the individual cell caps to see when the gassing stage has been reached, which signifies full charge, nor can you check individual cells to detect a dodgy one.

Ron.
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Entwood

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #9 on: 25 October 2017, 21:26:21 »

Nige  . . .have got used to it being almost flat by Friday  . . so put it on the charger for about 4 hours Friday night or Sat morning.  It is then fine all over the weekend . 

But thinking about it  . . .a few weeks ago I did do an overnight charge & it started ok on the following Friday . But then back to being almost flat at the end of that week .If that makes sense  :-\ :-\

Battery is just over a year old.

Question  . . .is it usual for the battery to drain over a 2 week period with the car not being used at all ?

That makes good sense to me ...

take a 70 odd Ah battery ... standard battery charger will run at around 6-8 amps (average over time .. starts at 10 and drops off as battery charges up), so if it is "flat" it needs 12 hours .. 12 * 6 = 72 to charge up .. so your overnight charge sorted it.

If it has a current drain of 0.5 amp the over a day that's 12 a/hr, after 5 days thats 60 a/hr and you battery is flat.

If it has a current drain of 0.1 amp then over a day that's 2.4 a/hr, over 5 days its 12 A/hr .. or a quarter of your battery

anything else you can do the maths !!

so, back to the overnight charge  and lets say your current drain is 0.1 amp .. at the end of the week your battery had lost 12 a/hour... you then started the engine from cold, you used power .. call it 30 amp .. so down to 28 ,.. drive it for an hour put about 8 back in .. you have 36 ... leave it for another 5 days .. its down to 24 ... quarter of a battery .. but you need 30 to start and you are a few short ....  get out the jump leads !!

All figures are guesses but, hopefully, you'll see what i'm trying to get at ...  leaving  a half charged battery standing doesn't do it any good !!
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powerslinky

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #10 on: 26 October 2017, 05:17:59 »

Thanks for that explanation Nige  . . . so guessing nothing really wrong  . .just lack of use of the car . :-[

What about hooking up a "trickle" charger  (I think thats what they are called) a device that puts a very slow

charge into the battery to keep it fully charged . Are these recommended or not ? or is it just the case of putting

up with what is happening  :'( :'(  :y

Thanks for all who have responded to this issue
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Migv6 le Frog Fan

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #11 on: 26 October 2017, 06:30:25 »

A trickle charger should solve the problem. People with summer use cars and bikes use them over the winter to maintain a healthy battery.  :y
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Doctor Gollum

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #12 on: 26 October 2017, 06:35:55 »

Or disconnect the battery negative :y
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Entwood

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #13 on: 26 October 2017, 11:34:52 »

Just random thoughts but .... 

If you have access to a mains power point 24/7, then a "smart" charger like the CTEK (others available) would charge the battery up then hold it on maintenance charge which would ensure the battery was always fully charged and ready to go, also does the battery some good as it never sits "discharged"

If you don't have access to mains 24/7 then there are two options really, a) plug in a mains charger when you have the ability, at least once a week for 12 hours or b) get a small solar type "top-up" charger you can leave on a sunny window .. now these things are generally useless for actually charging up a flat battery as they completely lack the power to do so ...however, if the battery is fully charged ie 12 hours on a mains charger, then left with one of these connected,  it only needs to average your 0.1 amp discharge over 24 hours....  2.4 amp/hours  .... so given we have around 8 hours of daylight at the moment provided you get a minimum average of 0.3 amps from it then it "covers" your drain. A decent 10 watt one would offer just under 1 amp in bright sunlight, so I would guess .25 - .5 amp in less than ideal (cloudy) conditions.

This is just one example of many on the bay of fleas ..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ECO-WORTHY-12V-10W-Portable-Power-Solar-Panel-Battery-Charger-Backup-Car-Boat-/152719344282

HTH  :)
« Last Edit: 26 October 2017, 11:46:45 by Entwood »
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Lincs Robert

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Re: 0.11 amp drain?
« Reply #14 on: 28 October 2017, 16:17:39 »

110mA is a massive drain on a battery. I’d be hunting things down to try and find where it’s going. Shouldn’t be too difficult really. If you have the radio code then just start pulling fuses. The big underbonnet fuses generally feed groups of smaller ones in the other fuse boxes so should narrow it down quite quickly.

My trusty Mondeo (departed yesterday  :-[ ) was left for periods of a month on several occasions and started on the button each time.
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