Renault Clio - Draining Battery - Throttle Body Sensor?

thewintermute

As referred to in a previous thread, the war departments Clio is playing silly buggers, the battery goes flat every night. Its not a bulb staying on, and the mechanic who has it, has after a week diagnosed that the problem is the throttle body sensor draining power by staying on.

I'm rubbish when it comes to auto-electrics, so I'm hard to convince.
He reckons a second hand one can't be found (Entire throttle body, as he says the sensor is non-removable) and that a new one would cost around what the car is worth and do I want to spend that kind of money?

It's a '99 1.2 Clio 2, and apart from this fault it's a brilliant little car that I'd be happy to hang onto if it wasn't going to cost the earth to fix this.

Any advice on where to source a part like this? I'm guessing this guy has checked the breakers yards.
Any info is appreciated.

(I'll be over on teh bangernomics thread and making phone calls in the meantime, can't afford much else)

Anan1

Were that my car i'd be bringing it to a good auto electrician for an opinion. I could be wrong, but I think there's a bit of a smell of 'I can't find what's wrong but I can't admit to that' about your mechanic's response.

shamwari

I agree with Anan, that excuse is up there with "the dog ate my homework"

Unless I am mistaken, there is no supply to the throttle body with the IGN key off. I would dearly love to know how your mechanic arrived at the conclusion.

Remember what I said a few threads back about the alternator.....;)

thewintermute

I hear what you're saying.

In fairness, my bull****-meter has been going crazy since the car went into this guy. At first we were waiting for him to get an auto-electrician to look at it, then he said the auto-electrician couldn't diagnose the fault, but something the auto-electrician had said gave him an idea what might be wrong. This is after he couldn't find what was wrong with it for a few days.
Hmmmmm....it doesn't take a genius to to see that this could end up with me paying for one of his 'hunches'
The missus has used this guy for years, but, having testicles myself, I tend to be wary of explanations I can't understand or rationalise.

I'm seriously sceptical and really can't afford to be throwing money away.
Anyone know a decent auto-electrician in the Drogheda area?

shamwari

Juts sent you a PM...

Anan1

thewintermute wrote: »

I tend to be wary of explanations I can't understand or rationalise.

That's a very good way to be.

ltdslipdiff

Check the fuse box under the bonnet for corrosion on wires causing leakage, and check for a hot relay... just my tuppence....

shawnee

Had the same problem with a Corolla and found it very frustrating. While waiting to sort out the problem I fitted one of those battery cut out units on the battery pole. Works very well until you get a decent auto electrician to sort the problem and your battery will not be flat in the morning :D

jimmyw

Well there is a simple way to test the so called drain is to disconnect it on a temporary basis and see if the battery goes flat.I cannot see why he/you cannot find a whole TB in a scrappy.

thewintermute

shawnee wrote: »

Had the same problem with a Corolla and found it very frustrating. While waiting to sort out the problem I fitted one of those battery cut out units on the battery pole. Works very well until you get a decent auto electrician to sort the problem and your battery will not be flat in the morning :D

Well he's sourced a 2nd hand Throttle body, so I'm going to see how that goes, if not the above solution sounds fine to me. I'm guessing it just disconnects the battery whenever you want? Is it the sort of thing I could run a switch into the cab of the car from? Because if it is, I could live with that.

Anan1

thewintermute wrote: »

Well he's sourced a 2nd hand Throttle body, so I'm going to see how that goes, if not the above solution sounds fine to me. I'm guessing it just disconnects the battery whenever you want? Is it the sort of thing I could run a switch into the cab of the car from? Because if it is, I could live with that.

Make sure you have your radio code to hand first!