Flattery Bat......

Got a problem with my GQ fellas any auto sparkies on here? It sat for a fortnight and the battery was flat as a pancake and I put it down to the cold weather so I charged her up. That's when the saga began as I thought I had a crook charger. Got a newie (Thanks Aaron) and charged her up but it was flat two days later again so decided the battery had given up the ghost. This was considered strange as it was only 14 onths old and it's a good Century, never been flat before now? Got a new Century and put that in and two days later F*&K me swinging it's dead flat again ffs..... I noticed there is a small spark from the terminal when reconnecting and now the volt gauge isn't showing much above 12.4ish when charging. Would there be a crook diode in the alternator that is allowing it to drain the battery and if so how do I determine this, as in what could I disconnect first off the alternator and then reconnect the battery and let it sit for a couple for days and see if it goes flat again? I've tried disconnecting the alt and the multi still shows a .5A discharge. Anyboby else got some other way to test the alternator to see if the current drain is through there?

Hi wobbly,

Check out youtube, google etc for a way to test for 'parasitic draw'. It would probs be the best way to locate the source of your problems before you go ripping out alternator and stuff. Its basically a way of isolating which circuit is causing a 'draw' of voltage draining your battery.

Ash

Pull all of your fuses, including
any accessories in-line fuses
one at a time and watch
for the current draw as you
do each one. If you have
no joy there, pull the
fusible links, which will
most likely point to the alternator.
If no difference, disconnect the alternator
and watch the current drop to zero.

Use a multimeter in line to check for current draw through the battery. You will see how many amps it's pulling, normally you should see a little bit of current for the clock and stuff anymore than a little you've got a problem for sure

No mattter what the parasitic draw is, the Charging Voltage should be 13.8 or better.
12.4 ish volts when engine is running can be an indication that you have dropped a phase in the Alternator diode pack.

0.5 Amp parasitic is a tad high but it depends how accurate the meter was/is.
Prior to the problem have you recently fitted any accessories like Elec Brake Controller, Head Unit or sound gear, Battery Management, Alarm, GPS etc etc

Essentially you have two issues, one the Alternator is not charging and second the parasitic draw is high (if genuine).
Fix the charging issue first

I have had problems in the past on my other 4x4 with the trailer plug.
But you need to sort this asap, or it will cost a fortune in batteries.

Got it sorted hopefully with a bit of help from Azza at Qikazz. The charging rate was okay @ 13.8V both at the battery and the alt terminal. Where the issue was a faulty multimeter and once I sorted that out it was a simple matter of disconnecting the alternator and the 2.5A draw went to .02A. Got a new alt of Azza and when I throw that in we'll see if that has solved the problem. Thanks for the input fellas. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wobbly

Got it sorted hopefully with a bit of help from Azza at Qikazz. The charging rate was okay @ 13.8V both at the battery and the alt terminal. Where the issue was a faulty multimeter and once I sorted that out it was a simple matter of disconnecting the alternator and the 2.5A draw went to .02A. Got a new alt of Azza and when I throw that in we'll see if that has solved the problem. Thanks for the input fellas. :D

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So your battery is going flat because of a faulty muli-meter?? what the??
OR is the alternator poling or shorting