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[tunnie]

Something keeps draining the battery on my 2.2 facelift.

I had a brand new Vx Go battery put in around 6 months ago, I went to Slough last weekend and the car only just started, it cranked very sllllooooow and manage to start.

Did the run to Slough, stopped, did some shopping came back car started fine.

Went to give it a run today and it was very flat, it managed to get about 2 cranks in before it stopped. Battery jumper went on, crossing my fingers that had enough juice to start it, it did... just!

Another 20 min run and its fine again, stop and start and its fine. So the alternator must be working. (Volt meter at home so can't test here)

Any ideas on whats draining it? - I have an Active sub in the boot, but this as a remote wire which I attached to the back of the ciggy lighter, it only gets power when the ignition is on.

I can prove it by having the radio on, engine running I get the bass from the sub. Switch off the engine but leave the ignition on, the sub switches off.

Other possibilities suggested before are steering wheel controls draining it? - Head unit behaves normally so can't see a problem there. Also it randomly blows fuse 15 too for some reason, every 4 months or so  :-/

Oh and that Vx Go battery I got, it should have a 2 year warrenty.... but I don't know were i put the recipt, can I just go to a dealer and say that battery is fcked give me a new one?

Cheers guys...

[Andy B]

Something keeps draining the battery on my 2.2 facelift......

Have you got a multi-meter? And can you set it up to read amps?
Connect the multi-meter up in line with the battery to check what current you're drawing when everything is 'off', & then start disconnecting things!
I have to confess I don't know what figure you should have   but you're looking for any significant current drain.

[tunnie]

Something keeps draining the battery on my 2.2 facelift......

Have you got a multi-meter? And can you set it up to read amps?
Connect the multi-meter up in line with the battery to check what current you're drawing when everything is 'off', & then start disconnecting things!
I have to confess I don't know what figure you should have   but you're looking for any significant current drain.

Good idea! - Stupidly i left all my tools at home, so can't do anything on it right now but thats a good place to start.

The only multimeter I have is a rubbish cheapo-crap-o one, think a trip to TheBoys might be needed when i go home!  

[x25xe]

The only multimeter I have is a rubbish cheapo-crap-o one, think a trip to TheBoys might be needed when i go home!  

Tunnie,

I have quite a few decent multimeters that I never use.  You are welcome to one if you want one.  You will need to get the test leads, but these are easily (and cheaply) obtainable from Maplin.

[TheBoy]

Tunnie, just because that sub has remote power, doesn't mean its not pulling power all the time.  Until you get back, if you're not using for a few days, drop the fuse in the engine bay for it to see if that helps. Same for head unit.

[Kevin Wood]

If the battery drain when parked is more than a few tens of milliamps you'll have problems. Once you've measured the total current, measure the current at each of the fusible links under the bonnet (and the feed to your amp) to narrow it down. If necessary, once you've found the fusible link where most of the current is going, measure the current at each of the fusebox fuses, if any, that are fed by it.

The problem with feeding the amp permanently is that it may, as TheBoy said, have a certain current drain when off. This might not be unreasonable but when you consider several amps, an alarm, etc. it can add up to enough to cause problems. In addition, if you get a fault in an amp (leaky capacitor, etc) it drains the battery which is a pain in a car which relies on battery power for so much.

I would feed the amps via a hefty relay switched by the ignition feed or head unit rather than having them permanently fed and relying on the internal switching, but do the checks above and see if it is the amps first.

If the car is often parked up for a week or more at a time I'd consider getting a trickle charger / battery conditioner to keep it topped up.

Kevin

[tunnie]

Cheers guys!

x25xe might take you up on that offer!

There is a fuse that goes from the engine to the sub... that main feed wire I took.

There is also a fuse on the active sub in the boot, shall i pop that one off? - Its very easy to get that one off.

Good suggestion that, i'll pop those fuses off and see if that affects it  

[markrl]

Although I have no personal experience of it I seems to remember the reading that a known villan for this problem is the heated rear window relay.

[tunnie]

well just been out to the car, i have removed the fuse for the power cable that runs from the battery to the Active sub. (nice and easy to do just unscrew  

I just started the car, and it started normally no lack of power.

Going to leave it for a week now and see what happens.

I hope its not the rear heated window, thats all tied into the climate control system!

[Kevin Wood]

I hope its not the rear heated window, thats all tied into the climate control system!

I had the heated rear relay issue with my previous car (not an Omega). Basically, the wiring to the switch had been damaged and it was causing the relay to rattle on and off. The relay soon got bored with this and the contacts welded shut meaning that the heated rear window was permanently on since the relay was fed from an unswitched 12v feed.

This killed the battery in a hour or two though due to the rear screen taking about 20 amps. Your leak sounds more gradual.

It's also worth checking the battery voltage when running at a fast idle. You should see 14-14.5 volts if it's charging OK and it shouldn't drop too much with a few electrical accessories on (headlights, heater fan, wipers, etc). It could just be that the battery is not getting fully charged during the use that the car is getting.

Alternators can sometimes have the rectifier pack go faulty which results in current draw from the battery when parked.

Kevin

[Andy B]

.......
I hope its not the rear heated window, thats all tied into the climate control system!

:-?  :-?

[tunnie]

I hope its not the rear heated window, thats all tied into the climate control system!

I had the heated rear relay issue with my previous car (not an Omega). Basically, the wiring to the switch had been damaged and it was causing the relay to rattle on and off. The relay soon got bored with this and the contacts welded shut meaning that the heated rear window was permanently on since the relay was fed from an unswitched 12v feed.

This killed the battery in a hour or two though due to the rear screen taking about 20 amps. Your leak sounds more gradual.

It's also worth checking the battery voltage when running at a fast idle. You should see 14-14.5 volts if it's charging OK and it shouldn't drop too much with a few electrical accessories on (headlights, heater fan, wipers, etc). It could just be that the battery is not getting fully charged during the use that the car is getting.

Alternators can sometimes have the rectifier pack go faulty which results in current draw from the battery when parked.

Kevin

James did mention that I had a loud alternator...

[Kevin Wood]

Another thing...

If you're measuring the battery current I'd put the meter in series with the battery and wait for a few minutes for everything to settle down before taking the reading. There's a time delay relay that switches off a load of electrical stuff after the car has been left for a while and this may give you an artificially high reading if it's activated initially.

Also, start on the highest current range (10 or 20 amps) and work downwards to avoid damaging the meter, and because some items will take a high startup current as the battery is first connected.

Kevin

[tunnie]

Cheers Kevin,

Popped the fuse of my Sub power, hoping that might be the problem and my bodge wire to the ciggy lighter (its just soldered to the back of it   . If so i'll swap it to the headunit.

[TheBoy]

Although I have no personal experience of it I seems to remember the reading that a known villan for this problem is the heated rear window relay.

That and cdl motors. However, they kill the battery in hours....