flat battery mystery solved!

[nick9one1]

Had a few flat batteries recently and just got to the bottom of it.

it seems my glovebox piston was snapped - quite common. Although I didnt even know it was supposed to slowly drop down so never noticed it.

It seems that if your leave the interior lights on normal, the car dims all the lights regardless of if the glovebox/boot etc are left open.

But! if your turn the interior light off, your glovebox light doesnt go out!

So because my glovebox was broken, I actually caused the battery to go flat by flicking the interior lights to off!

 

[Kelza]

Yeah this happens alot with the glove box,glad you got it sorted..

 

[SCFC_Messiah]

Just tested this myself off the back of this thread (thanks!) and my glovebox light is always on too. My glovebox doesn't slowly open either, so presume the piston has snapped. How do I go about fixing this? Thanks

 

[nick9one1]

if you take the side of the dashboard off (like the fuse cover but on passenger side) you'll see the mechanism.

first I would pill out the gas strut. start by unclipping the 2 pin plug, then twist and pull.

its quite obvious where the plastic had snapped on mine. I got a soldering iron and plastic welded (melted) it back together.

its not actually the piston that snaps, but a little arm it connects to. Its worth seeing if the piston is seized before reassembling (as mine was) otherwise it will just snap again. A little WD40 cured mine.

 

[SCFC_Messiah]

Cheers Nick

Took mine out this morning and neither the plastic arm moulded to the glove lid or the piston itself had snapped. However, the two had been disconnected from each other. I'm guessing there's a pivot pin that holds the two together? Well that is missing on mine, so I'm going to have to bodge something together as I doubt I can buy that pin separately

My guess is the piston had started to seize and impair the glovebopx from opening, so the previous owner removed the pin.... however he'd left the piston out slightly which meant the metal contacts were connected, which was why my light was permanently on

Just need to lubricate the piston, make a pin of some sort and then reconnect it all