A few weeks ago I fitted heated seats, while I was doing this I had the car open all day, so drained the battery. I jumped the car and all was well.
A few days later I came to it in the early morning for work and again it was dead, so I jumped it, and as soon as I got to work a bought a brand new battery (690A cold cranking current, 72Ah) to replace the 4 year old Bosh S3.
That was not the end of the story however, it refused to start this morning, a week after fitting the new battery. So I have spent the afternoon investigating. I have done the following:
The alternator runs at 14.4v, so it's not that.
I connected my multimeter (fused for 20A) in series with the earth terminal of the battery.
Once the car has been locked, the current settles down to a steady 1.4A, and stays there!
I have unplugged the fuse for the amps in the boot, not that, I have unplugged the heated seats (my first suspect), no change. I then went through both the engine bay and interior fuse boxes, unplugging and replacing them one by one, but no one fuse will make it drop below 1.2A.
I have heard stories about the alarm sounder, I replaced it with a second hand one about 8 months ago, the alarm is fully functional.
A few side notes: recently when I press the unlock button, the car seems to unlock (lights come one and I hear the lock solenoids), but sometimes I can't open the doors until it's been pressed again.
The only thing that I know of that stays on is the glove box light (due to a broken microswitch), but it's a 20mA LED.
I have a number of DTCs that I haven't been able to clear for about 8 months, they include intermittent faults for both rad fans, and implausible signal faults for both window winder regs. I will post he current DTCs when I scan to tomorrow.
Any input would be greatly appreciated! I am current carrying a spat battery in the boot, and it's getting a bit tiresome doing all the ABS sensor calibrations and output tests every time the battery dies!
Cheers, Ben
A few days later I came to it in the early morning for work and again it was dead, so I jumped it, and as soon as I got to work a bought a brand new battery (690A cold cranking current, 72Ah) to replace the 4 year old Bosh S3.
That was not the end of the story however, it refused to start this morning, a week after fitting the new battery. So I have spent the afternoon investigating. I have done the following:
The alternator runs at 14.4v, so it's not that.
I connected my multimeter (fused for 20A) in series with the earth terminal of the battery.
Once the car has been locked, the current settles down to a steady 1.4A, and stays there!
I have unplugged the fuse for the amps in the boot, not that, I have unplugged the heated seats (my first suspect), no change. I then went through both the engine bay and interior fuse boxes, unplugging and replacing them one by one, but no one fuse will make it drop below 1.2A.
I have heard stories about the alarm sounder, I replaced it with a second hand one about 8 months ago, the alarm is fully functional.
A few side notes: recently when I press the unlock button, the car seems to unlock (lights come one and I hear the lock solenoids), but sometimes I can't open the doors until it's been pressed again.
The only thing that I know of that stays on is the glove box light (due to a broken microswitch), but it's a 20mA LED.
I have a number of DTCs that I haven't been able to clear for about 8 months, they include intermittent faults for both rad fans, and implausible signal faults for both window winder regs. I will post he current DTCs when I scan to tomorrow.
Any input would be greatly appreciated! I am current carrying a spat battery in the boot, and it's getting a bit tiresome doing all the ABS sensor calibrations and output tests every time the battery dies!
Cheers, Ben