Technical Croma ignition light glowing & flat battery

[g8zgm]

Hi
I've had a flat battery a couple of time on my 1.9l Croma JTD, Fine after charging for a bit, but goes flat again. I've noticed that I have removed the ignition key with everything off, the engine lights (ignition, oil etc) glow dimly for a while, suggesting that the engine management system is still on. Is this normal? or is there a fault somewhere which is draining my battery? If so where do I start looking for the fault.

 

[s130]

Interesting one this.

Does not sound / look right to me and I've never personally experienced anything similar.

Thoughts that come to mind are:

Duff battery
Duff alternator
Duff something other.

Suggestions

a) try a new/borrowed good battery
b) disconnect the alternator from the battery
c) pray for other guidance

 

[buster]

key switch?ignition relay?

 

[g8zgm]

Thanks for the quick replies. Battery is 3 months old and is a good quality one with 5 year guarantee, so should be good, it seams to give plenty if cranking power when charged so it should be low on the suspects list. I will check the voltages and Alternator. In the mean time any more suggestions.

 

[varesecrazy]

hi,

as you say.. it sounds as if something isn't powering down..,

simplest may be to put a volt meter across battery terminals to see how many volts / amps it is having taken out of it, then pull a few of the more major fuses ( one at a time ) to see what stops the drain..
I suspect the actual fault may well be a corroded earth / dodgy wiring.. BUT pulling a few fuses is clean + cheap.. so may give you an idea where to start looking,

out of interest what age / mileage on your Croma..??,

to give an indication of "wear + tear", :idea:

good luck.. do let us know what you find..,
Charlie

 

[Doofer]

If you want to check the current then you'll need a DC clamp meter, not a standard multimeter. It's probably worth buying one for £40-ish if you don't have one.

A standard voltmeter measuring volts across the terminals wouldn't tell you much at all, other than the fact that it's 12V-ish.

You could use a standard multimeter as an ammeter by removing one terminal and wiring the meter in series with it in ammeter mode. But it's very likely the meter or you would get damaged, as the currents in a car are huge, due to the relatively low voltage (voltage x current = power). That's why the cables are so thick, unlike those supplied with a multimeter.

It should be simple to find the culprit by measuring current and pulling various fuses out in turn.

 

[Roberto Blanco]

Well, if someone else is having this problem and can't find an answer, I'll tell you my experience. Since I bought the car, which is almost 4 years, I replaced the standard CD player with a mp3 player from Pioneer and today I found that without removing its front plate, the idle power consumption is 0.25 amps and that's alot, my car wouldn't start after 6 days in winter, but with front plate removed, the consumption drops to 0.14 amps. So today, I finally found that I spend 100 euros on a new battery, without needing it. So, in other words, if you have starting problems after few days of parking, check the power consumption !

Cheers,
Roberto !