Leaky electrics???

[TNT ANDY]

Hmmmmm???

My battery (race type) only lasts 3 days before I have trouble starting my car. have a C1J EFI set-up and after 3 days, the engine turns over, but not fast enough to fire, I suspect that the ecu is not seeing enough juice on cranking.

My question is this - I have measured a constant leak of 2.05A when the ignition is turned off. Is this acceptable?

I have pulled all fuses to see if this drops - nothing.
I have disconnected the ECU completely - nothing.
I have disconnected the altenator - This is leaking 0.02A (assume normal)

I thnk 2A is too much but can't be sure, so before I start removing the dashboard and centre console - any ideas out there???

[Tony Walker]

Yes about 5 times too much.

[Tony Walker]

alarms have a habbit of draining batterys, boot light? unplug relays one by one.
cigarette lighter sticking in?

[BluntyR5GTT]

defo 2nd what tony says about alarms draining the battery

[Os8472]

Pop the drivers side indicator out and remove the relay from the horn, it's it in a **** spot and gets wet easy and can use juice even with ignition off

[TNT ANDY]

alarms have a habbit of draining batterys, boot light? unplug relays one by one.
cigarette lighter sticking in?

Relays????

I'll try that next - good idea.

Alarm? (origional Cobra) I'll cut that out of the loop also.

No boot light

Cigarette lighter is no longer in use.

Thanks for the other 2, I'll report back in a couple of days.

Andy

Does 2A sound a lot?

[TNT ANDY]

Cheers lads - food for thought this.

[Tony Walker]

shouldnt be more than 0.5amps

[Os8472]

Relays????

I'll try that next - good idea.

Alarm? I'll cut that out of the loop also.

No boot light

Cigarette lighter is no longer in use.

Thanks for the other 2, I'll report back in a couple of days.

Andy

Does 2A sound a lot?

Ain't a massive amount but if it's constant drain 24 hours a day without the engine running its quite alot yeah.

[TNT ANDY]

thanks for that Tony

[TNT ANDY]

Right checked everything above now with no joy, thanks for all the suggestions and if I had a £1 for everytime somebody suggested the boot / interior light I would be a rich man.

It does however look like the leak is on the large grey cable that goes down and onto the starter motor. I believe this is also a junction to feed other things, fan / alternator possibly??? Is that right??? If so do the windings in starters start to deteriorate over time? Any experience on this anyone?

[Andrew Cooke]

that fat cable to the starter goes to the starter solenoid, I can't see that leaking, I think it only goes to the alternator (big fat cable) did you try disconnecting that?

[TNT ANDY]

I have a junction in the bulkhead where I can disconnect the lead going down to the starter, I disconnected the grey lead from the junction and hey presto - 0.25A leaking only and not the 1.98A which I currently have when connected up, so I guess thats got to be it then.

[Nick k]

when the say you have disconnected the alternator, is that the red battery + cable? The grey cable you disconnected on the starter solenoid also goes to the alternator on the red cable! That fault you have sounds like the diodes in the alternator failing and drawing that 2 amps you are loosing,

[TNT ANDY]

when the say you have disconnected the alternator, is that the red battery + cable? The grey cable you disconnected on the starter solenoid also goes to the alternator on the red cable! That fault you have sounds like the diodes in the alternator failing and drawing that 2 amps you are loosing,

No, it's not the alternator, I've disconnected that a while back. Goto be the starter solenoid breaking down. I'll slam 240v down it and see if it shows any signs of leakage.

[TNT ANDY]

No, it's not the alternator, I've disconnected that a while back. Goto be the starter solenoid breaking down. I'll slam 240v down it and see if it shows any signs of leakage.

It's not the starter or solenoid - the hunt continues and the leak is now on a fairly large red cable going back into the bulkhead on the right hand side of the heater (looking into the car from the front). I assume this goes to a large joint behind the dash