Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 14:02:26

Title: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 14:02:26
Not an Omega, but a Fiat Seicento. Re the Halfords battery thread, my daughter's car has had some starting problems. The battery checks out OK .... two different testers.

The car's using 185mA with nothing running at all ... key in my pocket, doors closed  (boot light goes off  ;)), no alarm fitted. Any opinions as to whether that's too high or not  :-\  :-\ before I start pulling fuses.

TIA
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Marks DTM Calib on 07 January 2014, 14:05:14
Yes, should be a tenth of that
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 14:13:22
Yes, should be a tenth of that

Thanks Mark. When I first connect the multimeter it reads around 50 & then goes straight to 180 or so.

I'll start pulling fuses then ............ I wonder where the fuse box is  ;D  ;D  ;D
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 14:48:31
Pulled fuses one by one & lo & behold it's the radio (Jamie's favourite make  ::))

When I disconnected the battery to put my meter in line I'd not realised that just powering it up had turned the radio on. Pressing 'off' reduced the drain to about 80mA but pressing & holding 'off' shut the radio down completely. Result was that the drain went to 7mA  :y

This has started since I modified the wiring to the radio such that the ignition feed was supplied via the ignition live of the neighbouring electric window switch. All wiring back to original.

I'll inform her of the 'fault'  ;)  ;)
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: chrisgixer on 07 January 2014, 15:29:54
Yes these cars are all fine until they encounter their owners ;D
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Bigron on 07 January 2014, 17:02:47
I had this cunning plan (been speaking to Baldrick, you see...), in which I would charge my battery via the rear seat cigarette lighter socket, with a secondary use as system keep-alive for if I needed to remove the main battery.
All worked well for a while and after a few minutes it stopped accepting charge. Does that socket disconnect after a while? I thought that it was permanently live.     ???

Ron.
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 17:37:51
..... Does that socket disconnect after a while? I thought that it was permanently live.     ???

Ron.

Apparently so on later Omegas  ;) Both on earlier cars is just ignition live.  :y
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Bigron on 07 January 2014, 17:44:00
Thanks Andy. It is odd, though, when the legend on the dust cover states it has 10 Amp capability - why, therefore, would it disconnect after a few minutes and leave you powerless?
Some features on Omegas are very clever and well thought out.......

Ron.
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 17:47:58
Thanks Andy. It is odd, though, when the legend on the dust cover states it has 10 Amp capability - why, therefore, would it disconnect after a few minutes and leave you powerless?
Some features on Omegas are very clever and well thought out.......

Ron.

If 185mA will drain a battery ................. how long would your battery last if you were draining it by 10Amps?  ;)  ;)  ;) (not very  ::))
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Bigron on 07 January 2014, 21:37:35
Good point, but I wanted to put current INTO the socket, for charging purposes, not take it out! If I wanted to use it for current supply, e.g. a tyre pump, that would not drain the battery in the time needed to do the job, but the socket would time out before I had finished - not helpful........

Ron.
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Entwood on 07 January 2014, 21:45:23
Good point, but I wanted to put current INTO the socket, for charging purposes, not take it out! If I wanted to use it for current supply, e.g. a tyre pump, that would not drain the battery in the time needed to do the job, but the socket would time out before I had finished - not helpful........

Ron.

close door, reopen .. timer restarts  .. :) do it all the time when changing the tyre pressures for towing/solo .. :)
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Bigron on 07 January 2014, 21:58:17
Thanks for that; not too useful a technique if I am charging overnight, though!
I don't suppose you know how long the time delay is?

Ron.
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Entwood on 07 January 2014, 21:59:54
Thanks for that; not too useful a technique if I am charging overnight, though!
I don't suppose you know how long the time delay is?

Ron.

IIRC its about 6 minutes...

Edit

15 minutes

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.reynolds983/Manuals/Omega2002Manual.pdf

Page 75 column 3
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 22:02:04
Good point, but I wanted to put current INTO the socket, for charging purposes, not take it out! If I wanted to use it for current supply, e.g. a tyre pump, that would not drain the battery in the time needed to do the job, but the socket would time out before I had finished - not helpful........

Ron.

Sorry .... mis-understood what you were doing.  ;)

You could always fit your own fused permanent supply to A N Other ciggy type socket tat you could hide somewhere ..... under the dash maybe or in the glove box
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Bigron on 07 January 2014, 22:04:23
No need for apologies anywhere, I have had brilliant help, as usual.
My grateful thanks to all.

Ron.
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Entwood on 07 January 2014, 22:06:27
You could always wire in another socket direct to the battery to plug your device in to ?? They are cheap enough to buy ...  (although I would always put a fuse inline for safety ....)
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 22:08:39
No need for apologies anywhere, I have had brilliant help, as usual.
My grateful thanks to all.

Ron.

CTek chargers come with dedicated leads that you can leave connected to your battery.  ;)
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 22:09:33
You could always wire in another socket direct to the battery to plug your device in to ?? They are cheap enough to buy ...  (although I would always put a fuse inline for safety ....)

Too slooooow  ::)
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Bigron on 07 January 2014, 22:09:56
Yep, already had it in mind, thanks - that was Plan B!

Ron.
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 07 January 2014, 22:26:22
Yep, already had it in mind, thanks - that was Plan B!

Ron.

 :y

http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-electrical-tools/electric-power-socket-and-mounting.html  :y (not the cheapest - but I already had the web page open)
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Marks DTM Calib on 08 January 2014, 11:29:56
Or connect to the wire in the boot which will be present and fused which was included to supply a permanent supply via the pikey hitch electrics.
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Bigron on 08 January 2014, 12:10:41
Great idea, Marks: I don't suppose you know which wire, etc? Vehicle wiring diagrams confuse me, even though I taught Electronics for 20 years!
If this is your field of expertise, may I ask another question, please?
Some time ago I replace the petrol cap door solenoid and subsequently a wire (yellow, IIRC) came off from somewhere. It must relate to the solenoid, as it no longer operates, but I simply cannot determine where it became disconnected from. I know it isn't vital for operation of my Omega, but with the price of petrol nowadays I don't want some scaly-backed dog-w*nker helping himself!

Ron.
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Andy B on 08 January 2014, 12:22:26
Great idea, Marks: I don't suppose you know which wire, etc? Vehicle wiring diagrams confuse me, even though I taught Electronics for 20 years!

It's the large red one (IIRC there's a smaller red wire too at the plug/socket  :-\)

If this is your field of expertise, may I ask another question, please? ....

Ron.


Mark's  a smart arse an expert in most fields  ;)  ;)  :y  :y
Title: Re: battery drain
Post by: Bigron on 08 January 2014, 12:46:06
Thanks, Andy - much appreciated.
I love this site: good information and humour to boot......;D

Ron.