Battery

[MrsMidnight]

I seem to have a drain on my battery. Have for a while now. Pulled out the stereo and disconnected my sub when it decided not to start on Monday thinking it's probably related to that.
But nope, although it's been fine all week it, it struggled to start this morning, only left it for a day! All the dials flipped round etc so deffo a drain somewhere.

Just wondering if anyone had any ideas of what it could be or if they've had a similar issue and what they found it to be!

Emma.

[Dum-Dum]

I'd thought it was one of the relays but I'm not god with these things.

[WiNgNuTz]

I'd thought it was one of the relays but I'm not god with these things.

Not what I'd heard.

On topic, have you made any other changes to the electrical system recently? And if Danny has a multimeter, get a reading from the battery and alternator to make sure they're charging properly.

[Connor]

Best way would be to test with an amp meter and pull the fuses one by one

[Daniel306]

http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Parasitic-Battery-Drain

[MrsMidnight]

Thanks guys, will get him to do some investigating for me! Fingers crossed I don't have a repeat of it not starting at 6am haha

[Jtrigga]

It's more than likely the battery sounds like the classic signs of it being on its last legs.

[Niall]

Yep will be the battery. Loads of them will be going this time of year!

Its very easy to check for parasitic draw. Neg lead off, multi meter in line of battery and neg lead on amps, unlock car then lock and watch the readings (will have to wait 5 mins or so for various bits to shut down if they don't instantly on the 306. Id expect a reading of about 0.02a or there about.

Also, moved to the correct section.

[Midnightclub]

You say the battery but it was brand new only a couple of years ago.. I will check and see what's the story with any kind of drain coming of the battery though.

Seems a bit odd that it's not consistent, like it'll be fine for ages then randomly one day the dials will flip round and it'll be slow to crank

[WiNgNuTz]

Knowing the quality of the French electrics, could be an intermittent short somewhere maybe....THAT will be fun to find!

[Midnightclub]

Yes.. I was thinking this I remember doing a test yonks back with it the last time we changed the battery and couldn't find any significant drain on it. If it is the battery though, it'll probably still be in warranty!

[Niall]

Just because it's only a few years old doesnt mean it can't be faulty. If you do lots of short trips, it could destroy it nice and quickly not to mention winter puts a serious strain on them.

[Midnightclub]

It had this issue even when it was doing long trips daily, it'd do nearly 60 miles a day with 20+ being motorway.. so some sort of weird drain seems likely. But recently it's only been doing short trips, so maybe coupled with the cold could be killing it :/

Would it be possible a dodgy earth point could cause it?

[Niall]

No.
If it's nr a dodgy battery then its suffering from draw which you need to test like I said above.
Or, it could be that your alternator isn't charging it but you would notice this as once it went flat, that would be that and it would need charging.