Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 16:33:37 -0800
Reply-To: Scott D Foss <turbovans@JUNO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott D Foss <turbovans@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Battery looses voltage
Content-Type: text/plain
1. First place to think about is the radio installation.
Anything that was just worked on by anyone is a good
place to investigate.
2. If neccessary you can verify that it is a car-off battery drain ( as
opposed to an intermittantly bad battery - which can happen, for sure ! )
by disconnecting the battery when you leave the car parked etc.
If it always is OK then, like it can start the car when you re-connect
it, you know the car is sucking juice
when it is shut off.
3. Of course you have eliminated all sources of left on things like
interior lights, radio, radio extra amplifier etc.
4. Here is the normal key-off battery drain test.
with the car off put a test light between the positive battery cable
clamp and the positive battery post - if
something is on it will show by illuminating the test light bulb - the
more the current draw, the brighter the bulb.
NOTE ! the clock is always " on " so expect to see the light illuminated
from this source - the way it usually looks is the light will be bright
when first connected, then grow dimmer in a few seconds, this is the
"capacitance " effect of the clock.
By the way, i don't believe there is a way to take the clock out of the
circuit ( by pulling fuses for example ) except to unplug the entire dash
at the back of the
dash/ speedo assembly.
5. another basic procedure, once you've determined that there is indeed a
key-off current drain that is not from the clock, is to pull fuses one at
a time.
The idea being to determine what circuit is causing a current drain.
Of the times I've had this problem, it almost never was a simple " oh
it's the tail light circuit,"
but somewhere in the car,
IF YOU REALLY HAVE A KEY-OFF CURRENT DRAIN,
there is " a blockage or leakage of fluids or elcectrons ."
6. lastly, don't assume the battery is not the culprit.
I have seen faulty new batteries, and intermittantly faulty new
batteries.
7. Additonally, measure the " resting voltage " of the battery with the
car off. If the car has been off say a couple of hours, and the charging
system is working correctly, you would like to see 12.6 or 12.7 volts
resting voltage.
The resting voltage should hold over a few days time.
8. sometimes you even need to just try another battery,
but cover all the basics first.
A regular load test of the battery is not much use in your dignosis.
And I only use really good batteries, not your 39.95 specials, and I
don't think much of Sears Die-Hards either.
good luck, work very carefully on electrical things
as always !
