I appreciate this May be in the wrong location but hoping some one may shed some light as I am At a wits end to be honest,

FRST, just won't hold its charge, and it's breaking me !

The car always needs to be jump started , regardless !. And after 20 mins of the car running my clock starts to pulse along with the interior lights and previously the heaters! I can turn the ignition of and maybe If I am lucky re start the car within the hour "rare tho"

I've replaced, the wiring from battery to , starter, then to the alternator I've cleaned the earths , I've even added an additional earth to the alternator ,

I replaced the alt With a second hand replacement from stevo and he had no problems with it. It's had a new belt.

I can't find any wires arcing out, or loose connections , the battery light on the instrument panel isn't lit up.

The battery is newish, and the water levels are fine!.

I have had.. A dodgy ignition relay that I had to sort the wiring and source a new relay (now my heaters and rad fan are not working)

Any takers , ideas , pointers ?

Cheers, Matt

 

Perform a battery drain test. Connect an ammeter in line with the battery, start pulling fuses one by one then watch when the reading drops significantly.

Does it have any aftermarket equipment like stereos, alarm/immobilsers etc?

 

No alarm,immobilisers or stereos fitted, I had them all removed as to eliminate them as probable causes.

I had motorzone perform a batt/alt test and the readings at the battery were pulsing 11's 12's 15's then on the 20's

 

Battery then surely

 

I did think that , but with the battery being new(ish) I checked the water levels and all seemed fine... I did jump start the other day , took of the live jump lead of both cars went to take the eart of my car and it burnt the hell out of my fingers!. :-/

 

Were they boot lace thickness jump leads or proper thick ones?

 

To be fair they aren't the best but the thickness is about that of 5p .

 

do a drain test then see what it's drawing, then if it's high remove fuses one by one till it drops and see what said fuse does simples.

 

new battery is the first thing i would attempt. it might have a faulty cell which is draining to earth (short)
if possible get hold of an amp clamp, with the engine off see what the drain is, average multimeter is 10amp limited so if there is a substantial drain you'll blow the fuse inside.
to give you perspective a single 5w interior light bulb draws 0.5amps.
much more than that and the calculation to work out ur battery capacity becomes relevant.
your battery will have a reserve capacity on it.
thats the load it can take before it becomes unusable.
if rc = 50 then it can take 50 amps for 1 hr or 1 amp for 50 hours etc. (all quoted on a BRAND NEW condition battery)

my money is on a shagged battery

 

Wow thanks guys, Chris that's really interesting thanks ! Can a battery be shagged even if it's relatively new?. It's less than 1months old?.

 

12* months

 

If the voltage at the battery was pulsing from 11 to 20 as you said here when motorzone tested it then the voltage regulator in the alternator is duff and it will have fried the battery. It won't make any difference how old the battery is, that would kill a brand new battery. Looks like you need a new alternator and battery.

 

Today I went and got a brand spanking new battery, smashed it on jump started it up 1hours driving, turned it off and DEAD!

What I did notice is now, every so often the battery light comes on when booting it!, it's very faint tho!.

Any way the shop tested the battery and again readings were erratic AGAIN14's then into 20's.

Help.... This is madness

 

Then it sounds like you regulator/brush pack on your alternator has gone/going. So it's not charging properly, so either repair alternator or replace, but you need to test it properly first.

Get your self a tester and start car put it to 20v and put it on terminals and see what it's doing, should be a constant 13-14v. Turn all lights everything on.
I

 

Alternator is duff