I have a 1.9 Diesel Felicia with a major short in its electrics. Came out one morning and found a flat battery. thought I'd left interior light or something else on, Tried a jump start from our other car and a 4 in 1 jump starter pack with no luck- just turns the engine over then dies. Took Battery off and with a buz- tester discovered there is a short from the live battery lead across the body chassis. Tried disconnecting starter motor, Steering column cover etc but all seems fine no rubbing points . Any ideas

Regards

Dennis

A buzz tester is not going to do you any good as it will buzz right through the windings on the starter motor; if the battery really were shorted out the way you think, it would explode!!

Does the diesel have an immobiliser like the 1.3 and 1.6?? You probably need to get it reset after discharging the battery; I am unsure how to do that, hopefully someone else will come on and tell you; or you can search for the answer.

Not acquaint with the Felicia electrics ( hopeful in months to come ,I won't have to ) , but a short ( or leakage path across battery) could be anything or anywhere .And don't forget there'll be some items powered with ignition off . Shouldn't be starter ,as there's a solenoid in way ( not energised the starter is not in circuit),but might be an idea to take lead off to eliminate it . Then ,short of calling in an auto sparks , I'd start pulling fuses and see if the leak disappears . What might be nice to know is the quiescent load on the battery . ( i.e things running with ign off -clocks/ecu etc).Looking for this sort of fault is pure detective work .

And personally I wouldn't trust something that tests without giving a value . First get expected result .Then test and compare result against expected ,then evaluate .And lastly - be careful of voltage on test meters - most DVM are low voltage ,but the older AVO's use a (from memory) 22.5 volt battery on the high ohm range - although Id expect some form of protection on the ECU .