Thread: Post-recovery rapid battery drain

I was thinking the same as Dave.

Check your multi meter against a known good battery, either 1.5v or 9v.

Also, change the battery in it.

A flat battery in the meter can give strange readings. If possible, confirm your measurements with another meter. Just to be sure, to be sure...

2:53am

Just got home from work, tested both batteries. Both remain over 13 volts. Aux is slightly higher than starter. Car started perfectly.

Could there still be a problem in the solenoid?

If I have glowplugs, why does my orange light have a choke symbol on it instead? Just a Land Rover quirk? Or is it possible I have a heat-exchanger instead?

How do I check for a fault with the glowplug timer?

its a landrover thing. (or your vehicle wasnt originally a diesel in some cases)

to check your dual battery solenoid the simple way put the meter across the aux batter, turn on the heater fan to high, the headlights to high and then cycle the ignition slowly to each position, if the voltage dips slightly as all the accessories come on then the battery is permanantly connected. I dont suspect this will be the case as the aux voltage was higher than the cranking battery voltage.

to confirm what I think might be the fault, in a quiet environment cycle the ignition for the glow plug light timing, if you dont hear a click when the light goes out then the glow plug circuit is to blame via a stuck solenoid. Next disconnect the main feed wire to the glow plugs and clip your meter onto that and replace the fuse. If you get volts with the ignition off you've found your suspect. if you get 0V cycle the ignition and you should get battery voltage for a few seconds before it drops off again.

you can also do that test by clamping a light to the same wire.

Probably won't get to try all of this until Monday. I only woke up a short while ago, and I have to get to work again soon.

Thank you everyone for their advice though! I'll keep you posted.

Just at work and I had a break, so I tested the batteries again. Over the course of the night they went from 16/17V, up to 19 again. So I checked my multimeter against an AA battery, which is supposed to be 1.5V, and I got a 2.3V reading. I guess my multimeter is buggered?

nope....

your multimeters battery is flat. paraphrasing what the guy who does our cal work on the work meters

"some meters use the battery to power up the bit that does a voltage reference thing, as the battery in the meter goes flat this reference goes out and the meter will over read voltages and resistances then under read capacitance and continuity"

So I finally had time to get a new battery for the multimeter. Everything seems to be reading fine, with Aux around 14 and Starter around 13.

I go to detach the wiring from the glowplugs, and I don't have a spanner small enough. Looks like I need a 6mm, and my smallest is 8mm.

I was thinking I might not need to detach the wiring though? Could I just attach the negative lead on the multimeter to the engine block, and the positive to the wire? I don't see how the glowplugs could be earthing through the engine though, with such a high current. If they're not, why is there only one wire attached to them?

As I said, electrics aren't my strong suit.

Judging by this picture, it is earthing through the engine. Does that mean I can check for current without detaching the wire?