Battery drain over 2/3 days

[jeff1954]

Wash your mouth out with soap and water

Jeff

[rosemary]

Hello Mike
Well I'm back on the job. Rigged up the multi tester across the negative terminal, on the tester's 10 amp range, pulled every fuse with no discernible effect. Thought, am I being impatient here, read somewhere, in your Posts I think, that it takes about 30 minutes for the processors to shut down after closing down the car. So rigged up the leads and tester to sit on the closed boot lid, locked the car with the tester reading, once it had settled down:- 2.4 Amps, went for a cup of tea. Returned in about 20/25minutes and the tester is reading 0.7 Amps. Is this about right for low current drain, it equates I think to a clock and alarm light blinking as it does on the dash. So I am still not sure what caused the new battery to drain as it did, perhaps the glove box pressure switch hadn't reset properly after I had replaced it all. I'm going to disconnect it altogether, don't need a light in the box anyway.

[rosemary]

Hello Mike
Just a quick update. I left the tester in situ reading 0.7Amps, unlocked the car, went and had some lunch etc eventually going back to the car an Hour or so later. The reading had fallen to .02/.03 Amps with the car unlocked (no alarm blinking). Feeling a bit more confident in the car now.

[J44EAG]

That does sound very much more like what should be occurring, Dave.

See how it goes now.

Mike

[rosemary]

Hello Mike and All
Yes I am going to stop now, for a while, and see what happens over the next couple of days, however one final point at this time.
You will recall that I said I am going to disconnect the Glove Box lighting assembly altogether. Well I did but had to reconnect straight away. Why?:- On disconnection of wiring coded 4R8T-14A007-BA feeding the Glove Box Light I lost the power to the Interior Boot opening button and the Exterior Boot opening button. All was restored on reconnection. Unfortunately and most irritating I had removed the Glove Box to do the disconnection and re-assembled before I discovered the loss of the boot opening controls and it's a real fiddly job getting the Glove Box back in place.
The Fuse schedule in the handbook does not suggest there is an association between the Glove Box and these controls.
Dave

[J44EAG]

You will find a full schematic for the car on the Jaguar Topix site. Pay by the day, week, month, year, etc. You can download and print off any material.

The circuitry is rather mind blowing on a modern car. Much of it operates through the CANBUS network so some linking could perhaps occur quite easily.

At least you have things reasonable well back under control again.

Mike

[rosemary]

Mike
I've just bought the MS2108A Clamp Meter you mentioned in a previous post to try and get to bottom of this battery drain avoiding disconnection of the battery.
I am a little confused with the instruction manual in respect of the REL function.
Can you explain what this is, and give a simple guide to setting up the meter for measuring the dc current flow.
On first try I was getting what must have been pre-set figures,i.e. a current flow of 3.7 Amps which I know from my previous efforts equates to the processors and interior lights on but I had everything off, then every time I clamped the meter on I'd get 3.7 amps again, clearly odd.
Dave

[J44EAG]

I think REL is a release function. I know. Pigeon English again from the manufacturers.

Clamp the claw around a +Ve cable that you know is flowing current and set the selector to the 40a scale. You then have to muck about with the buttons until you see DC in the window. The problem is the writing is a bit small so you have to look quite hard to see you are on DC rather than on AC.

Mike

[rosemary]

Hello Mike
Thanks and yes the display is small. I clamped the negative cable from the battery, should I have clamped the positive as a norm for these meters.
Dave

[rosemary]

Hello Mike
I think I've cracked the REL function on the Tester, a bit at least. I rigged up a headlight bulb , 55 watt, on to a spare battery I have, charged, and showing 12.11 Volt. Setting up the meter on the 40 amp DC scale. The meter reading was floating 3 or 4 amps before I clamped it on, in thin air, I pressed the REL button and it zeroed the display. I then clamped it on a lead and it read 4.29 amps which equates to 51.95 Watts, given inaccuracies I think that probably is about right. The gobbledygook in the manual is still confusing about this floating figure however. As far as I can see its something to do with the Hold function. The car seems to be behaving itself at the moment so we will see. I might get the NEW (7/4//17)battery that's in it Drop Tested by the supplier just to check I don't have a duff one.
Dave

[J44EAG]

Just get one of these units, David.

One of my best and most useful tools.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SILVERLINE-CA ... 2405579518

Mike

[rosemary]

Hello Mike
Thanks for the tip, just ordered one, now fully tooled up
Dave

[rosemary]

Hello Mike
Got the Silverline Unit and practiced on my old batteries:- 05 battery from the S-Type Original replaced last year as you may recall after getting persistent ABS warnings on start up showed "weak" on unit test even though showing 12.4 Volts, 2012 Battery from XF changed this year simply because of age, showed "strong" on unit. New battery in S-Type disconnected and showed strong on unit test, so confident nothing wrong with that battery.
Everything has been ok until today, Sunday, however when I went to start the car this morning the battery was flat. I had used the car for the past 3 days including a trip to Swindon and back on Thursday, disappointed.
Dave

[J44EAG]

Weak is an appropriate phrase as 12.4v is a half discharged battery state, Dave. You need to be looking at 12.8v as a very minimum for a battery to be of any use.

With the drop tester connected and the switch pressed for 15 seconds, what does the voltage level on the battery drop to?

Still with the tester connected, have someone start the car with you watching what happens to voltage drop when the engine cranks. What does voltage fall to at that time?

Still with the tester connected, what is the charge voltage immediately after starting and what is it after ten minutes of engine running?

Mike

[Montana5]

Weak is an appropriate phrase as 12.4v is a half discharged battery state, Dave. You need to be looking at 12.8v as a very minimum for a battery to be of any use.

The well known generally accepted Battery condition by voltage scale i've used over the years is...
12.65 (and above)=100%
12.45=75%
12.24=50%
12.06=25%
11.89=0%

Doug.