Hi there.
I have an interesting problem with current draw. It is a huge draw of more than 10 Amps when the car is off. It's a 1.3 multijet Lancia Musa Dualogic. When i pull out the F01 Fuse (dashboard control unit 1) in the engine compartment, the draw drops to 0.01A. I then took out all the fuses and relays in the dashboard fuse box inside the car and to my suprise: the draw was around 2A ...without any fuse and relay in it :bang: :bang:
I then noticed that if I move around the red cable plug,( which is pluged in the picture), the draw drops to 0.06A then back to 2A ....
Alternator is charging only 13.2V ... ???
I disconected only the red cable coming from the fuse box in the engine compartment and left the other 2 red cabels that connect to the positive on the battery itself and there was no drain. So I'm guessing the alternator and starter aren't the culprit ...I think.
No aftermarket stuff...everything is genuine...nothing has been replaced.

Any idea would be much appreciated....thank you.

Hi,
That sounds like a faulty alternator to me. How are you measuring the current draw?


Robert.

check the glow plug relay,,,,,,,,, its usually in front of the battery
the relay might be stuck on as 10 amps wow.........

Both suggestions above are valid and worth checking out, there are also some internal relays in the body computer which is directly connected to the fusebox (despite you having removed all the other wires)

I'd look into the body computer, I suspect it has an internal fault maybe a stuck relay keeping something powered on elsewhere.

Ten Amps is over 100W of power, That must go to movement, light or heat. There are very few things that could be consuming 100W with ignition off without you noticing. Given th lack of charging I still suspect the alternator (shorted rectifier) but glow plugs are another option.


Robert G8RPI.

At least the alternator is relatively simple to isolate.

Bear in mind the issues people have had on the Grande with budget replacement alternators causing electrical mayhem..it may be wise tonrebuild your old unit.

Marelli? Parts should be readily available.

Have fun.. and do let us know what you find.

Charlie

Thank you all for yor replies.

Update:
Today I replaced the battery and everything looks fine for now. The draw is 0.06- 0.08A. I wonder could a bad battery have caused that masive drain ? ( I dont think so, but I'm interested what you guys think)
Thank you very much for your time.

stilo123 said:

Thank you all for yor replies.

Update:
Today I replaced the battery and everything looks fine for now. The draw is 0.06- 0.08A. I wonder could a bad battery have caused that masive drain ? ( I dont think so, but I'm interested what you guys think)
Thank you very much for your time.

Click to expand...

Consider the things you disturbed changing the battery.

BIG cables being flexed..

Ancilliary parts unplugged.

Anyway..better news for now

Charlie

What are you using to measure the current?

Brendan : A multimeter set to 10A

Charlie: Thanks ... I also think that there was maybe a shortcircuit somewhere around the cabels or something ???
I will measure again tomorrow and write an update.

Thanks everybody for yor help. I hope it's sorted out and I won't have any more issues.

Oh and another thing that I noticed when I had the old battery is that the ambient temperature on the dashboard was incorrect at first showing only 5 degrees when the outside temp was more than 25. After driving a while, it would correct itself. Then it would drop again sometimes while driving and go up again. Maybe because of the bad battery? ...I will keep an eye on the temp ans see if it will change now that I have the new battery installed.

Something smells iffy.
What is your charging voltage at now and what was the electrolyte level like in the old battery.
It's still possible that the regulator has blown a diode and is now taking aim at the new battery.

Brendan: the old battery was sealed ... I don't know the state of the electrolytes. The light was green on the battery but it was not holding charge.
Now with the new battery, at idle, it's charging 13.2V with everything off and 12.87V with everything on (lights,nav,ac, interior lights etc). It doesnt fluctuate if I rev the engine ...it stays at 13.2V. It doesn' go up or down if I rev.

It should be getting up to 14.2 +/- when you rev it up. 13.2 is not enough to charge it in reasonable time.
With load on at idle check the voltage drop between the battery positive and the main alternator post and check the drop between the battery negative and the alternator case. They should be of the order of 0.1 Volt. If much more it might be just a clean of the terminals along both routes.
It could also be that the alternator has lost a leg in the rectifier. Check for AC voltage across the battery terminals. There should be almost nothing.

Hi Brendan. Thank you very much for your help.
I measured the voltage drop from the battery positive and the b post on the alternator, it reads 0.18V. From the negative and the alternator casing, it is 0.01V. The AC current across the battery terminals is 26V AC.
I saw somewhere on the net that it is not possible to read AC voltage accros battery terminals with a cheap multimeter(which I'm using).

Way too much. 0.26 more like it. I think you have a bad rectifier/regulator pack at the very least.
If you have access to another meter make the same measurement. Some meters can be bad at picking up AC correctly.

As stated in post #2 you have a faulty alternator. Almost certainly a shorted diode. This will rapidly kill your new battery. You could replace just the rectifier pack and regulator if you a confident in soldering heavy wires. Alternatively change te whole alternator.


Robert G8RPI.

Yes. That seems to be the problem. Thank you very much for your help. This forum is a lifesaver