Battery being drained

funkey_monkey

Got a car which when locked leaves its inside map reading lights above the dash on and drains the batteries.

Add certain times the central courtesy light will flick on too. And the indicator light will come on and hold static.

I know, how long is a piece of string, but what things should we be looking at first before we go down the route of an auto electrician?


Thanks.

Huawei Gallagher

Locate the switches attached to the door posts, perhaps one of them is stuck making car think door is open. Maybe oil it or something.

Dirty Nails

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Got a car which when locked leaves its inside map reading lights above the dash on and drains the batteries.

Add certain times the central courtesy light will flick on too. And the indicator light will come on and hold static.

I know, how long is a piece of string, but what things should we be looking at first before we go down the route of an auto electrician?


Thanks.

So they don't stay on if the car isn't locked?
Might be a help if you said what the car was.

funkey_monkey

Dirty Nails wrote: »

So they don't stay on if the car isn't locked?
Might be a help if you said what the car was.

Correct. Izusu Rodeo.

TherapyBoy

Sounds possibly like a circuit finding an earth where it’s not supposed to. Bring it to an auto-electrician.

zg3409

Got a car which when locked leaves its inside map reading lights above the dash on and drains the batteries.

Take out the bulb. I've never used those lights anyway

Add certain times the central courtesy light will flick on too.

Take out the bulb or switch it to off if it has a switch position

And the indicator light will come on and hold static.

Take out... OK you got me there. It could be a lot of things, but the only thing that turns on the turn indicator is the flash relay. When you say indicator light is it a turn indicator or the sign that says a door is open?

Auto electricians can be expensive. I've disabled dodgy systems in old cars in the past and moved on with my life. There are switches on each door that trigger courtesy lights, but modern cars have fancy electronics that take that signal to allow dimming and auto delay on leaving car.

funkey_monkey

What I think this might be related to is that the rubber door strip down the side of the front window was destroyed by the owner holding on to the a pillar getting in and out of the car causing water ingress and water pulling in the footwell.
It has been replaced and car dried out a few months ago so would have expected the symptoms to emerge at the time.

Bmw123d

funkey_monkey wrote: »

What I think this might be related to is that the rubber door strip down the side of the front window was destroyed by the owner holding on to the a pillar getting in and out of the car causing water ingress and water pulling in the footwell.
It has been replaced and car dried out a few months ago so would have expected the symptoms to emerge at the time.

This would be a easy fix if ur still stuck il offer to help you out if ur local

funkey_monkey

Bmw123d wrote: »

This would be a easy fix if ur still stuck il offer to help you out if ur local

Thanks, that but has been fixed. I'm just wondering has the water ingress caused the wiring to get corroded and the battery draining issue.

Bmw123d

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Thanks, that but has been fixed. I'm just wondering has the water ingress caused the wiring to get corroded and the battery draining issue.

A battery sitting in water will naturally drain. Wiring sitting in water will also cause it to corode turn green and brittle and just cause havoc. Have u checked the wires that where damaged up all along the loom.

newmember2

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Thanks, that but has been fixed. I'm just wondering has the water ingress caused the wiring to get corroded and the battery draining issue.

How much water are we talking? I guess corroded cables if lots of water, or else possible door lock mech/sensor issue. If you know where the convenience control module is, have a look around there for water ingress/ blocked drains. Run a scan on the car and you might get some idea.

funkey_monkey

newmember? wrote: »

How much water are we talking? I guess corroded cables if lots of water, or else possible door lock mech/sensor issue. If you know where the convenience control module is, have a look around there for water ingress/ blocked drains. Run a scan on the car and you might get some idea.

Enough to see a slight puddle in the drivers footwell.
Will need to get a diagnostics tool to check. It did put on the mil at one stage.

newmember2

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Enough to see a slight puddle in the drivers footwell.
Will need to get a diagnostics tool to check. It did put on the mil at one stage.

Check under the carpet there if you haven't already to see what may have been affected.

funkey_monkey

Okay. Spent some time in this to say. Looks like it is the central locking circuit which is pulling 0.8A.
The fuse doesn't look great.
Spent the afternoon looking through it and going through the fuses with multimeter across the earth.
Registered a 0.8A drain which is not than what it should have been. The reading lights in front were illuminated.
Located at the central locking circuit when I pulled its fuse the drain dropped.

So, I remembered that the cabin light wiping flicker so took a look at it. It was switched off. How've, when I removed it (festoon) I noticed that it was badly corroded and one end had separated.

The manual states that the cabin light and reading lights illuminate when a door is open.
Both worked correctly when all doors were opened/closed. However, what I had noticed was that the cabin light was not powered at times when the reading lights were powered - so there is some secondary use of the cabin lights I am not aware of.

Did not know what to do and then I remembered that once I tried to reverse the indicator light locked on.
So, checked all lights. Rear right hand side brake/side light was not working. Removed the bulb and it looked fine, but was severe corrosion inside the base.
Switched in a new bulb and lights working as expected. Put multimeter across earth and now there is no drain.
I had thought third had cured it, but the reading lights remain on and I can't see why they would or should. Manual gives no secondary reason for them being illuminated, but not the main cabin light.

Need to reset the alarm now.

Doubt this is fully resolved though until I get central locking to work. When I go to lock with the fob, the alarm unit beeps and then once they stop (23 beeps) the alarm sounds and hazard lights flash.

Any suggestions?

funkey_monkey

Just to add, when I turn on ignition, the hazard lights flag once.

TherapyBoy

This still sounds like a bad earth to me. I think you have a circuit earthing where it’s not supposed to.

funkey_monkey

Yes. Looking at it now. The reading lights are behaving differently to the cabin light. Some times on sometimes off. Will have to read up on how to find the location of the bad earth.

funkey_monkey

TherapyBoy wrote: »

This still sounds like a bad earth to me. I think you have a circuit earthing where it’s not supposed to.

Yes. I can slam the doors and the light goes off /on.

Just need to find the source of the earth which I doubt will be easy.

TherapyBoy

Find the circuit that’s misbehaving & check the earth for that circuit. Keep working back like this, replacing the earth straps if necessary, until all circuits are doing what they are supposed to, a bad earth problem like this can occasionally ‘chain’ it’s way through multiple electronic elements in the car.

Or try an auto-electrician? This has been a persistent problem for you.

funkey_monkey

TherapyBoy wrote: »

Find the circuit that’s misbehaving & check the earth for that circuit. Keep working back like this, replacing the earth straps if necessary, until all circuits are doing what they are supposed to, a bad earth problem like this can occasionally ‘chain’ it’s way through multiple electronic elements in the car.

Or try an auto-electrician? This has been a persistent problem for you.

This is the first day we have looked at it. So after only a few hours looking I know the problem circuit. Just need find the actual fault itself. If no progress is made we can throw it in somewhere but I am happy to fiddle about with it over the holidays now I have some free time.