I have a Fiat Punto 2004 1.2

I put a new battery in my car in August 2019 and all well but Feb 2020 my car would not start thus charged battery up and car fine until late April 2020 and car would not start again and charged battery again and all ok. I am wondering why my battery which is pretty new has gone dead on me so soon. Is it the spark pugs, alternator or something else that is causing the battery to drain so quickly. Many thanks for reading this

It's usually aftermarket radio

Had this problem with my daughter in law's Honda Jazz last year. The trouble was that it wasn't consistent. Sometimes it would stay charged up for weeks and others only for a few days. In the end we found it was down to her daughter - 5 years old at the time. She had found out how to switch the interior light on and off! Sometimes it would be on all night!

Another old favourite is if the glove box has an inside light which is staying on even with the lid closed. Interior boot lights can do this too. Of course you don't know about them because once the glove box lid/tailgate is closed you can't see if the light is still on!

qwerty2018 said:

I have a Fiat Punto 2004 1.2

I put a new battery in my car in August 2019 and all well but Feb 2020 my car would not start thus charged battery up and car fine
I am wondering why my battery which is pretty new has gone dead on me so soon. Is it the spark pugs, alternator or something else that is causing the battery to drain so quickly. Many thanks for reading this

Click to expand...

Hi

Thats annoying isnt it

Ok the battery is just 'storage' of electric power

The alternator drives the big electric loads..like power steering

But it takes a fair bit of power to get the engine turning when you start up..

You need a reasonable amount of engine running time to put that back into the battery.. @20 mins as the minimum

But.. if you leave it idle for days..or weeks then the battery will get drained by all the little things..
Alarm.. flashing leds.. and then 'memory'for devices.. radio.. the cars onboard kit..etc


So.. how often do you use it.. and does it do any trips over 30 minutes?

Beyond that..there are some tests to do.. but let us know the basics

Like how many miles on the car.. have you had it long?

Charlie

Yes this ^^^^
Check the alternator, it sounds like it might not be charging the battery.
Good guide for testing here:
https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-mk2...alternator-parasitic-drain-testing-guide.html

If you are driving less..

The battery is getting a hard time

Had the same with a corsa d this morning..

It travels 4.5 miles each way to work.. thats normally 25 minutes out and 40 back

Now the roads are empty.. so 12 mins each way.. thats NOT enough motor running to keep the battery in good charge..

nitramtpr said:

Yes this ^^^^
Check the alternator, it sounds like it might not be charging the battery.

Click to expand...

Always a possibility. You can easily check this with a voltmeter applied to the battery terminals - always best applied directly to the battery posts to eliminate the possibility of poor terminal connections. You should expect to see around 12.5/12.7volts with the engine not running. Then with the engine running around 13.5/14.5 volts (approximate figures just to give you an idea).

However it's always useful to know that just because the alternator shows a charge with the engine running isn't the whole story. It's quite possible for an alternator with a diode fault in it's regulator pack to show a good rate of charge with the engine running but be draining the battery when the alternator is not rotating. Also worth knowing that most alternator set ups will charge quite vigorously at engine idle. Even if not achieving max output at idle only a small rise in RPM will give max output. There is absolutely no gain to be had sitting revving the nuts off it thinking you will be charging the battery faster!

Stay safe everyone
regards
jock

Pugglt Auld Jock said:

Always a possibility. You can easily check this with a voltmeter applied to the battery terminals - always best applied directly to the battery posts to eliminate the possibility of poor terminal connections. You should expect to see around 12.5/12.7volts with the engine not running. Then with the engine running around 13.5/14.5 volts (approximate figures just to give you an idea).

However it's always useful to know that just because the alternator shows a charge with the engine running isn't the whole story. It's quite possible for an alternator with a diode fault in it's regulator pack to show a good rate of charge with the engine running but be draining the battery when the alternator is not rotating. Also worth knowing that most alternator set ups will charge quite vigorously at engine idle. Even if not achieving max output at idle only a small rise in RPM will give max output. There is absolutely no gain to be had sitting revving the nuts off it thinking you will be charging the battery faster!

Stay safe everyone
regards
jock

Click to expand...

Ps to this. An alternator output which is just balancing or very slightly showing a charge at idle but then charging when the revs are lifted is often an indication of a poor diode. I find the most certain way to check is to graph the output waveform where a faulty diode becomes very obvious. Of course you need the appropriate equipment to enable this.

If anyone is interested in learning more, it's commonly called a "ripple test" and there are plenty of examples on you tube (I like the Schrodingers box examples)

Pugglt Auld Jock said:

Had this problem with my daughter in law's Honda Jazz last year. The trouble was that it wasn't consistent. Sometimes it would stay charged up for weeks and others only for a few days. In the end we found it was down to her daughter - 5 years old at the time. She had found out how to switch the interior light on and off! Sometimes it would be on all night!

Another old favourite is if the glove box has an inside light which is staying on even with the lid closed. Interior boot lights can do this too. Of course you don't know about them because once the glove box lid/tailgate is closed you can't see if the light is still on!

Click to expand...

I checked the Interior light at night and it is always switched off.
The glovebox was checked and has no light in it.
Checked the boot and that has no light in it either.
Many thanks here for your help

Pugglt Auld Jock said:

Had this problem with my daughter in law's Honda Jazz last year. The trouble was that it wasn't consistent. Sometimes it would stay charged up for weeks and others only for a few days. In the end we found it was down to her daughter - 5 years old at the time. She had found out how to switch the interior light on and off! Sometimes it would be on all night!

Another old favourite is if the glove box has an inside light which is staying on even with the lid closed. Interior boot lights can do this too. Of course you don't know about them because once the glove box lid/tailgate is closed you can't see if the light is still on!

Click to expand...

Hi there

Checked the interior light and it was switched off always.
Checked the glove box and it has no light.
Checked the boot and that has no light
Checked all in the day and night as well.

So.. what use is it getting..?

If more than 30 minute trips at least once a week.. you should start checking the 'background' powet consumption

Good guide in the mk2 punto GUIDES..

varesecrazy said:

Hi

Thats annoying isnt it

Ok the battery is just 'storage' of electric power

The alternator drives the big electric loads..like power steering

But it takes a fair bit of power to get the engine turning when you start up..

You need a reasonable amount of engine running time to put that back into the battery.. @20 mins as the minimum

But.. if you leave it idle for days..or weeks then the battery will get drained by all the little things..
Alarm.. flashing leds.. and then 'memory'for devices.. radio.. the cars onboard kit..etc


So.. how often do you use it.. and does it do any trips over 30 minutes?

Beyond that..there are some tests to do.. but let us know the basics

Like how many miles on the car.. have you had it long?

Charlie

Click to expand...

Firstly a big thanks for your kind help here and apologies as my internet connection is virtually on the blink so getting 3 to 5 minutes a day for last few day.

I use the car 3 times a week - mon, wed, fri or tues, thurs, sat.

Since the virus lockdown still doing using it 3 times a week but only driving 8 miles max each time. In Feb it did a 40 mile all ound trip in a day and March a 50 mile all round trip in a day.

The car has 67,000 miles on the clock, had the car 4 years and 2 months and it passed its MOT in late March.

I need to take it out each week for a long drive which I have not done since mid March and keep this long drive up each week.

Many thanks here and will get back to all

nitramtpr said:

Yes this ^^^^
Check the alternator, it sounds like it might not be charging the battery.
Good guide for testing here:
https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-mk2...alternator-parasitic-drain-testing-guide.html

Click to expand...

Thank you for your kind help

Aftermarket stereos can play havoc with a punto and can stay semi-on / on unnoticed

When I bought the car (5 years ago) I took the stereo/radio consule off and never used it and wonder if that could be the problem

qwerty2018 said:

When I bought the car (5 years ago) I took the stereo/radio consule off and never used it and wonder if that could be the problem

Click to expand...

Taking the radio out should not cause a problem.


Do you have a voltmeter?


I did some checks on my car. If i disconnect the positive wires from the battery and separate the two wires, with the battery voltage reading 12.86 I get a voltage of 10.89 between the battery post and the alternator cable. This shows there is a very very low current flow thru the alternator.

I can measure current with my voltmeter but maybe you cannot? I get 0.06Amps going to the fuse box.


If you connect a long wire between the battery post and the fuse box wire and then measure the voltage between the ends of the long wire you will get an indication of how the current flow is forcing the voltage to drop along the wire. And you can then turn on the interior light to see the relative difference it makes. The interior light takes 0.8 amp.


You then have to pull the fuses out till you get the voltage drop to zero and find what it is that causes current to flow.

By the way I only realised yesterday the white thing in the interior fuse box is to help you get those tiny fuses out! I have had the car since 2012 and always struggled to get them out.

Edit: When you say you took the radio consule off are you saying the guts of the thing is still there? I think I am correct saying the lowest right most fuse enables the radio to operate (supposedly) with the ignition off. Removing that fuse made a huge difference to my battery draining when I had the OEM radio fitted. The current was constantly cycling 0.25-0.30 amp.

Had this issue with every single after market radio draining the battery - we fitted a kill switch to the radio many years ago - but sometimes if I forget to activate it could kill the car battery in a few days

Also the Lion Brand of battery turned out to be another problem area, had several of these from Euro Car Parts - when I switch to a Bosch Battery which I believe ie made by Varta - many less starting problems.

Hello there

Apologies for late response here as not got the internet much.

Took my car to the garage and they did a test to see if anything was draining my car battery. They told me they could find nothing that was draining it but the battery I had was pretty much of the lowest quality even though it was bought brand new and is just under 2 years of age. Will drive along but worry about winter and maybe a new purchase of a better grade of car battery for me.

Huge thanks for your kind help folks