Although i asked the question about the alternator being on it’s way out it has come to my attention with the holidays that if my car is left with a charged ( new battery 100% fine ) it loses its charge (dies) which tells me that it must be getting drained from somewhere all connections are tight i cant find anything wrong anywhere else. i cant afford to go to an auto electrician. The car is a mercedes C220 diesel m reg 1994/5 the car is in excellent condition. the alternator is still only putting out 12volts back to the battery. grateful for advice i have had some answers but not sure how to use this yahoo answer thing sorry thanks.
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Accessories March 19th 2011
March 19th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Well something is draining it for sure, but what is a can of worms. For a quick fix, go get you a disconnect for the battery cable. Just keep in mind that everytime you disconnect the battery, the radio, etc will probably lose its presets (clock, etc).
March 19th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Any car that has electronic items like a radio and clock will eat away at the battery over time. Though the display in the item takes only a minute amount of energy to operate, if the car is standing still for a long time period in storage, the battery will be drained from keeping the display functional over time.
Cold weather also affects the life of the battery when it’s not seeing daily use. The alternator can’t work when the car isn’t operating, so the battery recharge cycle can’t keep up the charge.
Consider obtaining a solar charger to keep the battery up. It plugs into the cigarette lighter or clips to the battery terminals and keeps the charge at a decent level.
If possible, the car needs to be driven once in a while to maintain the battery and to prevent the tires and the fluids from becoming damaged from being idle.
March 19th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
The car’s electrical system is drawing standby power from the clock, radio memory, alternator or an alarm system. If you have access to an ammeter ( measures electrical current draw), disconnect the positive cable and measure the standby draw. Anything more than one amp will eventually drain the battery within hours. Disconnecting the battery when parked for an extended time will save you this aggravation.
March 19th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Ok. Buy a cheap volt meter. 10 bucks. Connect to battery for voltage reading. You should see the volts dropping. Make sure everything is off, including chargers etc. Now, find the fuse box and pull one fuse at a time looking for the voltage drop to stop. That’s the circuit that’s the problem. Don’t leave door open as the interior light will pull voltage as will the light under the hood if up. Disconnect the hood light and if door needs to be open to access fuses, use something to shut off door switch. Some of these have the battery under the back seat, and the fuses can be in more than one location like under the dash and in the engine compartment. You should see no more that .5 of a drain normally. Any thing over one volt is not good.
Luck!
Papa
March 19th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
this is far fetched but i have seen a jaguar turn it own head lights on drain the battery due to a faulty switch. when it got dark the light sensor on the dash would turn them on. the only way it was figured out was it happened to come on when some one was there. you might disconnect some circuits &put an amp meter in to see whats drawing power when its not supposed to if the alt is only putting out 12 volts that is way to low and is more than likely your problem it should be 24 there fore you batt is not fully charged
March 19th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
The problem sounds simple but is not as simple as youd think You hacve a bad connection and it’s draining your battery ,try unhooking some thing and see if it stops the drain, if not unhook something else and repeat until you find the source. Then, just fix the problem.