Technical URGENT! Battery Drain!

[etche]

Ok, first of all, I adore mi fiat gp (even though is a 4 door 1.4 8v active) I love it and even my girlfriend is jealous of it I've had some issues since i bought it (jan 2011) like check engine or start/stop not working properly but all of them went away with a night without battery. I havent had any incidents until some 2 weeks ago.

It all started with the start stop system not letting the car off for more than 10 seconds before bringing the engine back to life.... then 2 days ago the engine didn't stop at all in red lights. I researched this and i found out that the system wont work if the battery has low voltage so i figured that it was because i fitted fog lamps, 2 amps and a pioneer hu.... i thought that all this aftermarket stuff was using more energy than what the battery+alternator could deliver, so I unplugged everything (even the HU)... today in the morning my battery was DEAD!!!

The fuel pump worked, all the dash lights came on, but the starter didnt engage (i could hear the solenoid) and as i turned the key to start the engine all the dash tickled (as always when u have low batt).

Solution? I had to do a rolling start backwards (my street is inclined and m gp was facing upwards :bang: ).... i had to do 3 rolling starts during the day (im exhausted) and when i got home i started figuring out how to determine what was causing the battery drain (i thought that it was some of the stuff that i had fitted, but it wasn't).

What I did was to unplug the negative frome the battery and conected a "test light" (i used a 12v led strip i had). As i suspected the leds turned on.... so i left it there and start taking one by one the fuses and relays, hoping that the problem was a stuck relay or something easy..... So i spent like 20 minutes trying all the fuses inside the car and then tried the ones in the engine compartment.

I did find the fuse with which by removing it turned the leds off .... the problem is that it is a huuuge fuse.. its a 70 amp maxi fuse.

I looked at the owners manual to find out what circuit that fuse protected but it didn't say... i think it has to do with something important in the engine but i dont know where to start

PLEASE HELP ME!!!

i'm gonna upload some photos of the fuse

ps. sorry for my bad english, I'm from CHILE! :slayer:

When I pulled this Fuse the test light turned off, so i know that there is something in this fuse's circuit that is making short.

 

[etche]

For lazy readers out there :

I need to know from what circuit is this fuse (the one highlighted)

 

[etche]

So, i tracked the problem to the internal fuse box of the car. I disassembled the engine fuse box to find from which circuit was the 70 amp fuse... it was a big red cable that went into the dash... so i opened the fuse box in the dash and found the cable!

I unplugged all the cables that went into the fuse box and it seems that doesn't matter which one i connect the test light comes on! There are two cables that don't lit the test light, one in the back of the box and another (purple) in the front....

in the back of the box are two plugs... both white with blue locks, the lower one doesn't drain the battery. The upper one does, and both the black ones in the front too... (according to my test light).

As my car is a punto evo 1.4 8v with s/s but grande punto lights and bumpers and dash, can a punto evo owner help me please! i don't know what else to do.

 

[EvoStevo]

I just had a look at my evo fuse box, identical to yours except I dont have the 50A fuse.

The user manual is a load of rubbish, looks nothing like the fusebox.
This is something I think I'll try and get from them when I next visit.

 

[etche]

So... i took mi gp to a dealer and they told me that the battery had died (that it didn't hold charge anymore) and that it had to be replaced... can I replace it with a higher amp battery? (originaly had a 63 amp/h) I would like to put a 70 or 75 amp battery.

The dealer said that the battery drained because i had an excessive electric consumption and that the engine in idle wasn't able to charge it. According to me the excessive consumption came from a short in the fuse box and not from the aftermarket things I have installed (I'm still removing one amp), they said that it was my amps and foglights.

I also asked them how did they found out that it was an over consumption and not a short that drained my battery during the night... they said that the car's computer said that it was an over consumption... so i'm not that sure if the problem is fixed.

Still, I'm getting a 6 month guarantee