Battery drain

[phil300]

Can any body tell me how many millamps the d40 stx uses when all turned off doors shut nothing left on.
How long should I be able to leave before battery is to low to start (standard battery) 2009 model.
Thanks guys.
Cheers Phil.

 

[phil300]

Who`s got a multi meter go disconect your battery and check how many milliamps
it draws mine is about 150 milliamps is this normal.
Thanks
cheers Phil.

 

[Jason]

Are you reading it on a multimeter or a guage setup?

What's worrying you about it? Has your battery gone flat quickly recently? Any new electrical items installed recently?

 

[KraftyPg]

I'm not about to take my battery leads off for the sake of it because resetting everything annoys me but I wouldn't be overly worried about a 150mA drain. How long you can leave it is just a matter of working out the 150mA against the 70A battery if that's what you've got (I think 70 is standard). However I would still only use that figure as a guide as the 150mA draw you found may not be 150mA at all times. Even so it takes a long time at 150mA to drain a charged 70A battery.

 

[Old.Tony]

If you're drawing 150mA constantly, your vehicle will go for about 93 hours before the battery starts to suffer damage. That's just under four days.

When you consider any long-term power consumption from a lead-acid battery, only rely on on bringing the battery down to 50% of its fully-charged capacity. Your car will generally only bring the battery to about 70% of its full capacity, so in real terms you only can rely on 20% of its capacity.

In your vehicle that's 0.2 * 70 = 14Ah. 14/0.15 = 93 hours or just under 4 days.

If you allow the battery to drain further, the plates in the battery will start to degrade and perhaps warp. Sulfation will commence, where the battery acid begins to crystalise and form conductive chunks that fall to the bottom of the cells and short them out, destroying the battery.

I should add that one of those $20 solar panel modules could be place on the dash (if the vehicle is stored outside and facing north) allowing the car to be left in storage much longer. I think they supply around 100mA, so you're still going to run at a loss, but you extend your "time away" by 3 times.

 

[phil300]

Thanks guys found a relay on all the time, some of my work fixed now.

thanks again.
Cheers Phil.

 

[westy350]

Has anybody had this problem? what relay did you find was stuck on mate? my battery keeps going flat within a few days and i work fifo so every time i come back from work i have a flat battery? any help would be good.

 

[Old.Tony]

Westy, where are you from (roughly)? Are you driving a D40? Do you have anything plugged into the cig lighter socket below the air conditioning controls? Are your cabin lights on? Do you have an electronic anti-rust device installed? How about a two-way radio?

 

[Scubamurph]

I have left my D40 parked up for over 3 weeks and she started first time.

Sounds like you something is holding on when you switch off the ignition.
Have you wired in anything new to the vehicle?

Murph

 

[mitch92]

Yep definitely sounds like something is working when it shouldn't be. You should be able to leave your vehicle for a few weeks and so long as the battery is good nic. it should fire. Can you get a milliamp reading? if so this will probably tell you what it might be?

Mitch

 

[westy350]

Hey guys, I have unplugged everything, have no anti rust device and can not think of anything else that could be drawing power i disconnected everything i have installed and still have the problem, its doing my head in. might have to book into Nissan and see what they can find whats the bet they blame something I've installed and have to argue about who's paying for it. if anyone has any idea's they would be helpful.

 

[Old.Tony]

Okay, it is possible for the battery to lose power quickly by itself - it's called sulphation, and it usually happens if a battery is allowed to discharge too much. The lower the state of charge, the faster the sulphation progresses.

Here's what I would do to test it. You will need to write down your tripmeter values if you use those for recording fuel economy, and you will need your radio PIN.

1) Get home, turn off the car, disconnect the negative battery lead.
2) 30 minutes later, use a multimeter and measure the power in the battery, write this and the time down.
3) In the morning, measure the battery voltage and note down the time.

If you have more than about 0.1V to 0.2V variation then there's a good chance you have a serious problem with the battery. At this point you could find someone with a C-Tek charger and ask them if they'll do a "Recycle" charge cycle on your battery for you - generally get good results if the battery isn't too bad. Otherwise, it's battery replacement time.

If your battery hasn't dropped more than 0.2V, you still have a 'leak' somewhere, and you should try this:

1) Disconnect the battery again
2) Insert an ammeter between the battery and the negative lead
3) Look at the current being drawn
4) Start pulling fuses and note which fuse lowers the current draw.

Good luck!