Xsara 1.4 Y Reg Battery Drain

[CSMetalhead89]

Hi Guys.

 

About 2 years ago I bought a Xsara 1.4 and up until just before christmas 2014 I had no major problems with it.

However since then my battery has gone dead 3 times.

I have taken my car to my local garage, I have used this garage for my previous car, as has my dad and my grandad. He has been able to solve all problems with them.

This one however is a different kettle of fish.

He has checked the battery (its only about 7 months old) and it is fine. He has also checked the alternator which is also fine, as are all connections to the battery.

When he has connected the car to the diagnostics it is showing a drain on the batter that is about 40 times larger than it should be. Upon doing some more investigations he removed a fuse from the internal fuse box (F9) I believe it was and this cut the drain. This being where the fun starts.

This particular fuse controls the multifunction control unit for the cars electronics and could mean it is one of about a thousand problems.

 

Has anyone else had a simillar problem?

Any information would be very much appreciated as I enjoy the car, it is very comfortable and has only done 42K miles now and has no rust anywhere on it.

 

Thanks in advance

Craig

[paul.h]

Welcome to the forum, what year is your car ?

 

Did you have any problems before you fit this battery, just in case it is a faulty battery despite the tests done on it ?

 

When checking the battery drain, you need to do it about 5 minutes after removing the ignition key and closing the doors since it takes time for the car bsi to shut down since this will be taking power and the process of measuring the drain may stop the bsi shutting down. So it may be possible the drain test could have given a false reading.

 

Do you have any accessories on the car which are not original such as a phone charger, sat nav, towbar, different radio or alarm ?

[CSMetalhead89]

The car is 2001.

 

The can ran fine before the new battery was fitted.

 

The test on the battery was done either 3 or 4 times.

 

As for accessories there is nothing that isnt original in the car that I am aware of. As for the radio I have had it removed as we thought it may have been leeching through it, but no luck there.

[paul.h]

There is a new topic on the C3 section which may be worth keeping an eye on - another case of a battery going flat http://www.citroen-owners-club.co.uk/citroen/topic/22310-c3-draining-battery-please-help/?do=findComment&comment=82428

 

I had to replace the battery on our C5 a few weeks ago since that was on its last legs, it seemed to charge up quickly but did not have enough capacity to start the car if not used for a couple of weeks. Demand for new batteries increases a lot in cold weather since this can kill off a borderline one.

 

If the drain was 40 times normal then if normal is around 10mA, that gives about 0.5 amps, equivalent to 6 watts - so you could check if any bulbs are not going out - boot, any glove boxes. If it has an alarm you could check if its battery is ok and not needing constant charging.

[CSMetalhead89]

As far as I am aware the car doesnt have an alarm.

As for the boot light I have had that removed as that was another factor because the boot would unlock itself while I was driving. Since removing it I have had the lock changed on the boot. However out of habbit I still lock my doors so it cant unlock itself