hello all, i have a 51 plate ford ka. The battery was dead when starting one morning so purchased a new one from halfords on tuesday. come saturday the battery was dead. have charged it a few times and some days it will last 2 or 3 days others it will only last 6 or 7 hours. I drive 120 miles daily (60 each way) and the alternator charges the battery to full as i had the AA come out to jump it. The guy said it was pulling nearly 1.4amps off somewhere. A guy at work put his tester on a few days later and the same drainage occurs but it appears to be intermittent as it wouldn't show the drain until about 5mins after everything was off when i tried yesterday. I dont lose any lights whilst driving or any flickering like previous posts on here i've read. Not to complicate matters even more, but when driving to work this morning i turned the headlights off and the sound stopped coming out from speakers but radio headunit still on, turned headlights back on and sound started, did again a few more times??. It now won't do it when i try lol. No upgraded speakers/amp/sub just standard is this an earthing issue? and is it enough to draw nearly 1.5 amps?? any help on what to test/carry out next would be greatly appreciated as it is driving me mad jump starting every morning!! thanks in advance

 

There is a contradiction though, as you say the battery was fully charged, yet the recovery guy jump started you?

This suggests there is a problem with the battery charging!

It all depends how the test was done, but if that draw was performed as how you would leave the car something is not right!

If you think there is a draw the easiest way to go about it is by process of elimination, remove fuses and note the circuit that affects the reading.

Martin

 

Sorry, I meant the battery is fully charged after driving so the alterantor is charging the battery. The battery is not even 2 weeks old either. I will start pulling fuses and see what happens. I'm not very machanically minded but after reading similar posts questioning the alternator circuit staying open and drawing from the battery?, does it have a direct feed from the battery or will it be within a circuit and the rest of the fuses??

 

It will have a 'Smart Charge' system, in other words the charging circuit is electronically controlled. There will be a fuse for this.

Martin

 

Put the tester on this afternoon once the battery was fully charged, and connected up ( watched youtube video on how to test drain correctly) and 4amps was being pulled. pulled all the fuses one by one. fuse 1 made it drop to 2.5 which is 20a heated rear window, central locking. And fuse 2 also did the same which is 10a interior lighting, clock, radio, diagnostic socket, heater module. pulling both out obviously dropped it to zero. those fuse descriptions are from the haynes manual. any ideas on what to do next, and what is the likely cause for the above?

 

You need to wait for the car to go to sleep. Yes cars do actually do this. So open the bonnet, lock the car and leave it for at least half an hour. If it has a switch on the bonnet that activates a light or an alarm or anything then make sure you press it down with something so the car thinks bonnet is shut.

Wait for at least half an hour for the car to go to sleep before testing anything.

 

I left both fuses out overnight and this morning battery was showing 12.7volts. i put fuse 1 (20amp, heated rear window, central locking) back in and left car locked with window open so i could still access fuses without having to disconnect and hold door switch and left for 30 -40mins like suggested above. with this fuse back in it is only pulling 0.1 from battery. i went back out an hour after and still the same so no problem with that.

Fuse 2 ( 10amp,interior lighting, radio, clock,diagnostic socket, heater module however is pulling 4.5amps off. at some point someone has had the passanger door card off as its loose and the speaker doesn't work on that side so i'm guessing that its been played around with and that should be my starting point i would think? any suggestions on possible causes or what to test/do next??

 

went through all the switches and connections on the door after removing door card, everything seemed ok, no cuts or corrosion. I pulled the headunit out, it is the original with the front screen heater switch integrated into the unit and firstly removed the switch and no drop. when i disconnected the headunit it dropped down 0.2. I bought it the car from i guy i work with and he said that in the 3years+ he had it the head unit was never removed. the wiring looks original. can something inside be causing it to pull that much from the battery and basically mean that the unite itself is knackered??

 

So with the headunit connected it's 4A+ and when removed it's .2?

If so that is hard to believe as a radio does not draw a lot of energy in it's own right.

Is it the original one?

Martin

 

Hi,

Yes with it connected its over 4amps, without it 0.2-which i would imagine is the central locking and clock etc, so normal??. yes its the original headunit. the previous owner said that it had never been touched since he owned it. the wiring looked like the original and had ford sticker/tabs on still, nothing looked damged or corroded. I suppose the only way to tell would be to try another unit? might explain why in my first message when i turned the headlights off the sound stopped and when i turned them back on it started again. hasn't done it again since though.

 

No, If you disconnecting the headunit makes the difference, then that is the problem!

Turning the lights on also will illuminate the headunit, so would explain why it effects it, it sounds as if it may be shorting inside!

Martin

 

yeah thats what i meant that the headunit was the problem as it shouldn't obviously do that when you turn headlights on/off and would explain why it did.

time for the bin then. i guess the only option is to source a different unit and test/try to make sure its nothing else. thanks for your help.

 

My SportKa did the same. From what I've been told its a common fault with ford radios (affects Ka,Puma,Fiesta etc..) I disconnected my radio and its been fine ever since

 

Does the radio wire have any extra wires for amps or anything as when I've fitted amps in my own cars including when I had my ka I used the wire for the switched source to turn amp on also check wire from alternator to battery as it may be charging but when I had my ka it was cracked which provented it charging battery fully