Vauxhall Vectra C - Battery Drain

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Tue 25 Jan 2011 11:26
Vauxhall Vectra C - Battery Drain - Mad Mal

My Vectra seems to always have a flat battery, which I thought I'd cured when I bought a new one a couple of months back. It used to go flat when the car wasn't used for about 2 weeks, but now it's flat the next day. Checked the alternator and it's charging at about 14v. Tested for a drain using my multimeter in series with the battery earth cable, doors locked, waited for the ecu to close down, and got a read of 0.2 on the 10A setting. Am I right in thinking this current draw is too high? I read somewhere to expect 0.05 maximum, otherwise it might be a diode fault in the alternator?

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Tue 25 Jan 2011 13:15
Vauxhall Vectra C - Battery Drain - tdc

How about disconnecting alternator battery feed overnight,reconnect in the morning and if she starts problem solved?

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Tue 25 Jan 2011 17:39
Vauxhall Vectra C - Battery Drain - Peter.N.

0.2 amps or 200m/a does sound a bit excessive, that's about 5ah per day or 50ah in 10 days, your battery may not even have that capacity especially if you car is petrol, I would expect that to discharge the battery in less than 10 days, but that is not sufficient to drain it overnight.

Try disconnecting the battery overnight as per previous post, you could also check the current drain at several different times while its standing in case there is some intermittent fault, if nothing found you could have a faulty battery, have you still got the old one?

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Tue 25 Jan 2011 18:03
Vauxhall Vectra C - Battery Drain - Cymrogwyllt
The classic one is the light in the boot staying on
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Tue 25 Jan 2011 19:27
Vauxhall Vectra C - Battery Drain - elekie&a/c doctor
As already mentioned,200ma is too high for a static drain.A figure of around 50ma is nearer the mark.However for the battery to drain overnight a more substantial load is reqd.Possible heater blower motor control (if fitted with climate panel)or even electric power steering motor not shutting down.hth
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Wed 26 Jan 2011 13:58
Vauxhall Vectra C - Battery Drain - rrvfireblade

i dont know diddly squat about electrics but re the ac/doctors post i had a bmw 520 that used to drain the battery overnight,,found out that it was the final stage resistor on the heater blower,,and it is possible for it to drain even with the ignition switched off as i think the electrics for it are independent,dont know whether you have same set up on your vectra but worth a shout

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