Thread: mystery current leakage

I will put my money on the Battery as well.

Not sure if the D1 has the same system as my P38, but the BECM takes 2-3minutes to go to sleep after you lock it till this happens there is 1amp there abouts being drawn, once it sleeps its the same as your reported current draw.

I had an issue a few years ago with current draw, took me a while to find it........drivers lumbar button was active, I actually heard the sound of it doing its thing before I found where the power was going with the multi meter

Stick with the lead calcium battery and get the biggest sucker in there that you can, 950CCA minimum is my call, I currently have an 1150CCA, they scare the #$%^ outta the credit card.
You get al sorts or weird things happening in a P38 with a bad battery.

so what is a healthy voltage for a battery?

Originally Posted by rar110

so what is a healthy voltage for a battery?

With no load and fully charged;
12.6v - 12.8v for a flooded lead acid and
12.9v - 13.1v for an AGM although the Optima red top is 12.8v and yet the yellow top is 13.1v .

Under load depends on the size (cca) of the battery and what you are trying to crank over but mid 11's is acceptable.


Cheers,
Paul.

Originally Posted by harro

yet the yellow top is 13.1v ..

all my yellowtops are 12.6

Originally Posted by Eevo

all my yellowtops are 12.6

12.6 to 12.8v would be considered fully charged for most batteries (Optima included). But you want to charge Optimas at a higher voltage than flooded cell batteries (13.4v min I would guesstimate).

To the OP - I think your battery is probably the issue - likely has an internal issue. Calcium batteries can be a little problematic to diagnose - I understand they can come back up to a 'charged' voltage when not actually fully charged.

FWIW, I consider a pair of Odyssey PC1500 batteries to be the best arrangement for a Defender.

Well the problem is resolved. The 110 now starts no problem, and no leakage.

Here is my theory about what's happened. The problem started when I went to start the 110 and found the original calcium 900 CCA battery was completely flat. I attempted the charge the battery which didn't accept charge at all. So I took it out and fitted a wet battery that was gifted to me. This battery is much smaller being 600CCA. Before and after fitting I charged the wet battery. This bought the charge up to over 13 volts. But the multimeter was showing me voltage drop from this battery. After the RACQ gave there opinion about a current leak (which confirmed the reason for voltage drop) I found a wire had rubbed against the chassis and was bare. I suspect the wire/chassis connection caused the current drain to the calcium battery. I later found that when disconnected from the battery charger the wet battery's voltage steadily drops until the battery settles to about 12 volts. So the voltage drop I was recording on the multimeter after disconnecting the charger was the wet battery steadily working its way back to 12 volts and not current leakage. Also, even when around 12.5 volts this battery didn't have enough amps to turn over the Isuzu 4BD1 starter (which made me think a starter problem).

For some reason I decided to try charging the calcium battery again, and it accepted charge this time, settling to 12.6 volts. So I refitted the battery and no starting or leakage problems.

So thanks for all the suggestions. I have learned quite a bit along the way to solving this.

Not quite sure your logic is sound Pete.

After having a single Ca battery last ~7 years, I bought several more. I have found that they are happy sitting for long periods, but in dual battery setups have been lacking. I have had the main battery go flat (even overnight) several times even with a traxide DBS...

In short, we are talking batteries which are ~13V when the vehicle is parked but which rapidly drop to ~11ish V overnight - with no load.

Originally Posted by n plus one

12.6 to 12.8v would be considered fully charged for most batteries (Optima included). But you want to charge Optimas at a higher voltage than flooded cell batteries (13.4v min I would guess)

yeah using the charger, its about 14.8v i think