battery issue

Hi,

had all sorts of issues with my 88 cabby, they all now seem to be OK, except one strange one………since I have had the car there has been an electrical problem which I and 2 auto electricians cannot seem to get to the bottom of.

The battery has always discharged after a couple of days, which as this is my daily driver, has never been too much of a problem.

I had it in to a electrical guy last week and he said my stereo needed a ignition feed which he done and all was good.

2 days after driving OK, to work , back home for lunch, back to work and home again in the evenings, I came out of work to come home one night and it was as dead as a dodo.
Bit stuck so called the AA.
He came, jump started the car, no probs, followed me home confirmed the alternator was charging (New) and said there was no draw on the battery.
I assumed I had left a switch on and that it was a strange coincidence and forgot about it. It was OK until 2 days when it did it again, now I am confused……Please help……

Just a couple of things ….I have 2 batteries and both are OK, in fact one is brand new. All the fuses and relays have tested OK, There still is no draw on the battery and the battery is charging fine.

There is a toad alarm/immobiliser which is disconnected and the car was an auto converted to a manual. I can sometimes hear a clicking noise coming from the fuse box area but it is only sometimes and doesn't necessarily coincide with the flat battery.
 

Remove your alternator plug when you stop, if it still happens its not your alternator.

If not let me know

Thanks its a good start

Sorry madferret are you talking about the the 2 spade connectors a red and a blue which connect to the battery? the blue one looks fused at the battery end.

Shaun

The plug should be on the alternator end,

the only thing I can see are 2 spade connectors, no plug as such.
Shaun

Might be different to mine then, but Red is the +12v (well about 13.5-14v usually) and the other is the charge sense circuit that does your battery warning light, regardless if it breaks the connection from alternator to battery these are what you disconnect.

Actually the 1st thing you should check is that the earth strap to the chassis is working properly, check the resistance (with the battery disconnected) from the top of the valve cover (give it a scratch or 2) or other shiny bit of the engine to the earth strap end battery clamp, brains not working tonight, should've mentioned that earlier.

sorry that last bit was a bit to tech for me. Do I need a meter to check the resistance? was going to change the earth strap anyway so that I could put quick release clamps on. it was the chassis attatchment that threw me, as Halfords just do the strap with no sleeving down one end and no bit to screw to the car.Do I need a gfs one or can I adapt? Sorry for my vagueness this is the 1st car I have ever played with apart from my 73 bay which gives me no grief.

The earth strap itself is fine, just clean it up with a wire brush, scourer pad, or PCB rubber, this way you'll know that your earth is good.

You could try the old jump lead trick of clamping one to the neg terminal of the battery and one end to something like the alternator bracket.

Its the connectors you clean up btw, not the lead itself

thanks again, will clean earth weekend, test alternator and let you know. My bus is back on the road next week after winter and I will not be so reliant on the golf. A bit of time to check stuff.

Dead battery faults I look for generally, Not charging properly, or Draining.

Not charging is usually the voltage regulator on the alternator, or the earths.

Draining can be the voltage regulator again, or something like the alarm, car stereo wired up with permanant live (i.e not on ignition), or 'something else'..

Madferret,

Finally got to the bottom of the battery issue, Was the heater off the manafold, Thanks for your help

shaun

You mean the manifold heater 'hedgehog' ? What was it doing staying on or something?