hey, well my '96 felicia is having a bit of a power problem lately, i havent used it since sunday (28th sept) and today (sat 4th oct) the battery is nearly dead, not even enough juice to start the engine.

the battery is fairly new so it isnt the battery, any idea what could be draining it? or is it normal for a felicia of this age to empty the battery in about 6 days?

thanks

Have you fitted a new radio recently?

I had a radio that did this to a brand new battery in two

weeks - fitted an old original radio of the type supplied

with these cars and not had any problems since.

@Graphite58 there's a chance the drain was caused because the wiring in the car keeps both like and switched live wires constantly on. What you need to do is cut the the wire which should be live switched and connect this to the wire switched live by the ignition switch.

thanks for suggestions, care to elaborate anewman? where abouts should i cut this cable and where would i find it?

If you haven't changed the stereo recently I would not look to the stereo first as being the cause. Either the battery is not getting charged enough (not being driven often/long enough, a slack drive belt, or failed voltage regulator/alternator) - or something is draining the battery. Drain can be checked for by using something like Automotive Current Tester > Maplin (would need the max one). You remove the fuse and put it in that then insert that into where the fuse was and it will give a figure for amount of current being drawn on that circuit.

If you haven't changed the stereo recently I would not look to the stereo first as being the cause. Either the battery is not getting charged enough (not being driven often/long enough, a slack drive belt, or failed voltage regulator/alternator) - or something is draining the battery. Drain can be checked for by using something like Automotive Current Tester > Maplin (would need the max one). You remove the fuse and put it in that then insert that into where the fuse was and it will give a figure for amount of current being drawn on that circuit.

Why not get a cheap digital test meter -more versatile in the long run .

On volts range - run engine -check charge voltage -should be around 13.8 -14 volts with a bit of rev .

Then on amps range ( start off as high as possible ,ideally 10a) (READ INSTRUCTIONS FIRST ) remove negative lead and put meter in circuit ,negative lead to battery ,positive lead to cable . Any more than about 500Ma ( thats .5 amp) ---start looking at pulling out fuses to see which one is causing the leak .

As an extra - the OHMS range can be used for checking fuses out of circuit .

Learn how to use the meter and it will repay your efforts many fold .

Why not get a cheap digital test meter -more versatile in the long run .

:iagree:

you don't need an expensive one unless you need to measure pulse widths or duty cycles etc, you can get away with a cheapo one from maplin, i paid £3.99 for one which is perfectly adequate for most stuff

Before you go into test meters etc etc, have you made a simple test to see if the courtesy lights etc go out when you close the doors? It's really common for people to turn the boot(trunk) courtesy light to permanently on without realising it, or rarer, the pin switch to get stuck to "on". Do the same for any other circuits that are "live" with the ignition switched off (check switches etc etc)

Fairly new battery, unfortunately, can mean nothing, it's worth getting it checked by the supplier for a dead cell. Plus the recent colder weather probably hasn't done any favours (assuming you're in Britain lol) - it killed a 4 month old pair of batteries on my lorry at work!

Take the bulb out of the boot light , the switches are prone to sticking , and leaving the light on. If you have a parcel shelf in it you wont see that is on