Hello all.
My first post.
I look forward to your help.
I have a 2011 Twin air 500.

On several occasions the battery has gone flat when left for a week.

I tested for a drain from the battery when everything appears switched off and find a drain of 0.42 amps.

I tried in turn removing each of the smaller fuses but the drain persisted.
If I removed the main fuse F01 60 amp the drain goes but I cannot start the car!!

Many thanks for your advice

Al

Afraid electrics outside my remit. But sure someone here will have a view on your query

1 and 3 power virtually every car system can't remember but think 3 goes through the key 1 to fuse box with a meter in line pull EVERY fuse big or small(under bonnet and under dash) it's going to be some can system or ecu or even horn, if need be get a auto electrician to look at it not a Fiat dealer.
How old is the car?
Is there ANY, ANY issues with the boot lid, lights out remote release, handle release , heated rear screen, central brake light, wiper etc? ANY ISSUE

The car needs to be locked before testing battery drain - otherwise certain circuits may remain active.

Left standing for a week seems to mean a dead battery for any new car I'm afraid.

I left my 2016 Renault standing for a week and it took ~10hrs at 7.2A to charge the (80Ah) battery. If the battery was six years old like yours that state of charge might not have been enough to start it. UFI is the same, parasitic drain killed my experimental Lithium starting battery before I realized how bad these full CANBUS cars are in that regard. By comparison my CAN engine only Jeep can stand for six months and still start...

It's definitely good practice to leave your can on some sort of charge whenever parked for longer than overnight.

Al Dust said:

Hello all.
My first post.
I look forward to your help.
I have a 2011 Twin air 500.

On several occasions the battery has gone flat when left for a week.

I tested for a drain from the battery when everything appears switched off and find a drain of 0.42 amps.

I tried in turn removing each of the smaller fuses but the drain persisted.
If I removed the main fuse F01 60 amp the drain goes but I cannot start the car!!

Many thanks for your advice

Al

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum.

Can't help with the electrical diagnosis, but it worries me greatly that your battery went flat.

I too have a 500TA 2011, and mine is a Stop/Start model ............... perhaps yours is too?

If so, there's a good possibility that your battery will be knackerd as a S/S battery because it went flat, but maybe it already is as your car is a 2011 car. Ours was knackered when we bough the car, but didn't know it. It took me to look into the S/S system and how long the car should be in the Stop mode to realise it. Ours would only last 10secs max ........... when it should last 3mins.

A new battery sorted it, and now I keep it fully charged all the time using a battery charger fed from the front porch. If ours has a drain and wouldn't last a week before going flat, I have no idea at all. I do know that ours always starts beautifully and that the S/S works 100%.

Good luck,
Mick.

Mick F said:

Welcome to the forum.

Can't help with the electrical diagnosis, but it worries me greatly that your battery went flat.

I too have a 500TA 2011, and mine is a Stop/Start model ............... perhaps yours is too?

If so, there's a good possibility that your battery will be knackerd as a S/S battery because it went flat, but maybe it already is as your car is a 2011 car. Ours was knackered when we bough the car, but didn't know it. It took me to look into the S/S system and how long the car should be in the Stop mode to realise it. Ours would only last 10secs max ........... when it should last 3mins.

A new battery sorted it, and now I keep it fully charged all the time using a battery charger fed from the front porch. If ours has a drain and wouldn't last a week before going flat, I have no idea at all. I do know that ours always starts beautifully and that the S/S works 100%.

Good luck,
Mick.

Click to expand...

Think he's saying with the car locked, there's a constant drain of nearly half an amp over 4 days that would flatten the battery.
As another poster pointed out its best to test when the car thinks it's being left locked and nothing on bar a very small drain say 20/30mA is on, we had a works van with this issue found part of the display was draining the battery a quick Jerry fix sorted that.

Al Dust said:

Hello all.
My first post.
I look forward to your help.
I have a 2011 Twin air 500.

On several occasions the battery has gone flat when left for a week.

I tested for a drain from the battery when everything appears switched off and find a drain of 0.42 amps.

I tried in turn removing each of the smaller fuses but the drain persisted.
If I removed the main fuse F01 60 amp the drain goes but I cannot start the car!!

Many thanks for your advice

Al

Click to expand...

Hello everyone. I have this EXACT model, problem and drain. Is there any solution to this? My suspicion is that this is just the normal draw just after turning the car off, before all computers turn off?
Maybe OP can chime in

First thing is to measure the drain use a digital meter connect between the pos lead and pos terminal on the battery see what it reads after say 1 min ?

My fiat 500 diesel is the same 5days and I’ve got a flat battery ..I just disconnect battery if I’m not using it for 5 days. ..obviously modern batteries carnt stand going totally flat. Also the car charge rate is not much above 14 volts so the battery never reaches full charge capacity which means the stop/start stops working. If I top up the charge (capacity)in the battery from the mains the stop start will start working again for about a week then the battery becomes too low for it to work although the starting is perfect ... now the advice given is buy a new battery but I’ve found that to be a waste of money if your car is starting fine as you will soon be back in square one regards stop start ..

notsmartcars said:

My fiat 500 diesel is the same 5days and I’ve got a flat battery ..I just disconnect battery if I’m not using it for 5 days. ..obviously modern batteries carnt stand going totally flat. Also the car charge rate is not much above 14 volts so the battery never reaches full charge capacity which means the stop/start stops working. If I top up the charge (capacity)in the battery from the mains the stop start will start working again for about a week then the battery becomes too low for it to work although the starting is perfect ... now the advice given is buy a new battery but I’ve found that to be a waste of money if your car is starting fine as you will soon be back in square one regards stop start ..

Click to expand...

Your problem sounds like the alternator. With the engine running at about 1600rpm you should see 14.6 volts. If yours is in the 13's then the battery is not getting enough juice.

If the car is idling with the lights on and someone revs the throttle a bit, do the lights get brighter? That would suggest it's the regulator at fault.. but once you have the alternator out to fix the regulator, you might want to fit a whole new alternator, rather than the old alternator with one new component. The price won't be much different.


Ralf S.

kalorius said:

Hello everyone. I have this EXACT model, problem and drain. Is there any solution to this? My suspicion is that this is just the normal draw just after turning the car off, before all computers turn off?
Maybe OP can chime in

Click to expand...

Batteries don't go flat if left for a week unused, even if the car has an alarm and immobilisor (which will certainly flatten the battery over 3-4 weeks).

There must be some kind of drain somewhere in there. Do you have an aftermarket stereo/head unit? Before you go looking for an electrical fault in one of the car's components, any after-market radio might be the more likely contender.


Ralf S.

kalorius said:

Hello everyone. I have this EXACT model, problem and drain. Is there any solution to this?
Maybe OP can chime in

Click to expand...

Hi.

Op. Only posted the question..didnt even reply..

Certainly not a common problem.

Any aftermarket kit?

ICE.. towbar.. etc

Charlie

Ralf S. said:

Batteries don't go flat if left for a week unused, even if the car has an alarm and immobilisor (which will certainly flatten the battery over 3-4 weeks).

There must be some kind of drain somewhere in there. Do you have an aftermarket stereo/head unit? Before you go looking for an electrical fault in one of the car's components, any after-market radio might be the more likely contender.


Ralf S.

Click to expand...

I also Think its a parasitic draw, but i have no aftermarket installations at all. And i cant be the alternator, since removing the F01 fuse stops the issue. Could it just be that this (0.42 amp draw) is the normal Reading on 500’s when checking?
I Will go by my mothers car today (also a 500) and see what the drain is on hers.

A normal draw is between 30 and 50 mA (or 0.03 ~ 0.05 Amps).

You can only eliminate each circuit by pulling the fuses, and then the relays, one at a time (put it back before pulling out the next one) and seeing which fuse makes the drain fall to nearly zero.

It could be something random like a courtesy or boot light that doesn't go out. Check that these lights are not set to "on".. (i.e. that they go out when the door/boot is closed) and that if they are set to go out, they actually do go out. The boot light is one to check in particular, since it's controlled by a microswitch in the latch and you can't see what it's doing. If you have a younger brother, stuff him in the boot to make sure the light goes out.

It could also be something like the wipers. If they didn't return to parked position (or the circuit hasn't been closed through dirt/wear) that would leave a drain.. or a random relay could be jammed open. It's a proper eliminate every possibility one at a time job.


Ralf S.

Remember also that on a modern car, some of the systems may remain on for a short while after the ignition has been turned off. It may be worth monitoring the parasitic drain for a few minutes once the ignition is off and the doors are shut.

kalorius said:

Hello everyone. I have this EXACT model, problem and drain. Is there any solution to this? My suspicion is that this is just the normal draw just after turning the car off, before all computers turn off?
Maybe OP can chime in

Click to expand...

UPDATE:

Firstly, i went out and got a new Exide EL600 battery, hoping that these problems were only due to a faulty battery. I also needed a new one anyways, since the old one was OEM and had been fried from so many discharges/jumpstarts etc.

But, even though the new battery could go longer, there was still an unacceptable powerloss in only a day or so.
So, in found that the battery drain of 0.25-0.42 amps was NOT normal, and needed to be fixed.

I performed a parasitic drain test, pulling fuses under the bonnet, but no luck.
Searched online, and found out about the Body Control Module (BCM) just under the steering wheel, to the left. Started pulling fuses here too, and BINGO, the 10 amp blue fuse was the culprit.
Searched more online, and found that this fuse controls, among other things, the Blue&Me module, which had been faulty for a while.

So, located the Blue&Me module (in my case, under the glove compartment. Quite hard to get to) and unplugged it. And alas, the culprit had been found. It must have shorted or something, causing the parasitic drain.

Now, all that is left to do, is steal the functional Blue&Me module from my mothers car (since she does not use it) and replace the faulty one.

The End

Blue and me module isn't under the dashboard it's in the rear of the car under the left hand side trim Pannel
Not sure what you unplugged bit it can't be the blue and me module

The 10 amp blue fuse? Could be Kalorius removed the sonic oscillator.. Ahhhh

Put it back, quick..!






Ralf S.

It’s in the nearside rear panel next to the rear speaker.

I believe there are only two types of these modules if you get one around the same year as your car it should be fine. Never had an incompatibility problem with them.

chris3234 said:

Blue and me module isn't under the dashboard it's in the rear of the car under the left hand side trim Pannel
Not sure what you unplugged bit it can't be the blue and me module

Click to expand...

It’s in The glovebox area on the Punto it’s actually above the glove box so I’m guessing this is what he’s referring to