When the car is left standing for a few days, the battery loses charge. After about 2 weeks there is hardly enough power to start the engine.
It is a new battery and has been tested.
Can anyone suggest what could be draining the battery?
Could an immobiliser be a drain?
Any help would be much appreciated.
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Does the battery go flat if you disconnect it?
Have you checked for the boot light staying on? Is there a non-standard radio fitted - and if so; who fitted it? Is there an aftermarket alarm fitted?
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There is no boot light.
No, the battery does not lose charge when disconnected.
It is a non-standard radio but I am sure it is turned off.
The immobiliser is an aftermarket version. Would the blinking red light be part of the problem?
Would it be a difficult job to disconnect the immobiliser?
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Pull both fuses on the radio and see if that makes a difference.
Don't mess with the immobilizer yet - you may walk into a nightmare.
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If it's not the radio, the following will find the circuit that's causing the problem.
Disconnect the battery negative lead, set a multimeter to current (amps) and connect one probe to the battery negative, and the other to the disconnected cable. The reading on the meter will tell you how much current is being drained from the battery and causing it to go flat.
Work through the fusebox, pulling each fuse in turn, checking the meter, and replacing it. Removing one of the fuses will cause the meter reading to drop to zero (or close to). When this happens, you have found the circuit that is causing your problem. Find out what is on this circuit, and go from there.
Cheers
DP
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if its a non gen radio is it a "face off" radio, if so do you leave the face on as they consume a lot of amps just being fitted as the other post says an amp draw is a good test anything over 0.2 of an amp is bad the lower the better, dont forget to disconnect the interior light as you check for amp draw,remove the bulb is best
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Thank you for those 2 answers.
I will follow the directions as soon as I get the chance.
I had no idea that the face of a radio consumed a current.
Does this only apply to after-market radios and not to manufacturers fitted versions?
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try an amp draw and see how much it consumes !
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Have just been working through all the fuses. I have found a drain of 0.3 of an amp with all fuses in position.
When I remove a particular 20 amp fuse the draw drops to between zero and 0.1 amp.
According to the manual, this fuse covers the central locking system, which this car does not have.
The problem is that when this fuse is removed, the hazard warning lights do not function.
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starcott
Has someone Scotchlok-ed a feed off the hazard switch - maybe a memory feed for the radio?
Silly question for a Corsa; but has it ever had a Tracker fitted?
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what number fuse in the fuse box, i will check wiring diagram
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The fuse causing the drain is Number 13 20 amp top left.
Also Number 16 size 30 amp, which the handbook say is for Windscreen Wipers, is missing, but there is no socket for it.
And Number 20 size 30 amp, which the handbook says is for the Radiator Fan, is missing , but there is no socket for it.
And Number 1 size 20 amp, which the handbook says is for Hazard, Horn and Int Lights, is missing but there IS a socket for it. The hazard lights, horn and int lights all work.
There are also a fuse in position for Electric Windows, which we don't have.
Is there a solution to this muddle?
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Is there a solution to this muddle?
Yes; don't buy a Vauxhall.....
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OK. I know its a few months ago.... but I think I have solved this one (at least I had the same problem with 1995 Corsa 1.2).
The top left fuse (20A) in my Corsa controls interior lights, horn, hazard warning lights and (undocumented) also the display panel (clock/radio/temp).
I also got the 0.3A leakage (actually 0.27A) when everything is off - this is due to the display panel temporarily coming on when you first reconnect battery (to allow you to reset date etc). This switches off in less than 5 minutes.
However, I then noticed the current rising to 0.78A at times. Eventually located an occasionally faulty boot switch - but the boot lamp staying on was never visible because it is covered by the back shelf when the boot is closed.
Lazy solution - remove boot bulb.
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Common on a car of this age is the boot light wiring wearing through its insulation where it constantly flexes & bends to join the main body near the top of the hatch inside the rubber trunking and causing an occasional open circuit with another wire meaning the boot light is on all the time.
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On this exact same topic - can I thank Backroomers for their suggestions which proved extremely useful in sorting out the problem of a discharging new battery.
A few months ago, we replaced the battery on my son's 1.2 '96 Corsa B. We also replaced the radio with a non-standard Aiwa as we had lost the radio code - the radio was not too impressive, anyway. We learned that the 'unreliability' of the first radio was most probably caused by the poor switch connection in the ignition switch barrel so we bridged the 2 power supplies - i.e. the 'switched' supply to the radio with the 'constant' supply which maintains the presets. We thought that, provided the radio was switched off, then there would be no drain on the battery.
After about 4 days of non-use, the battery was flattened - it was then that I learned from this forum that the removable front on the radio consumes a significant amount of power. Now, if the car has to be parked for overnight or longer, we simply have to remember to remove the radio front. So far - so good - let's hope there isn't something else!
Any more problems - and it will be time for the multimeter test.
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