Hello,

My Fabia developed a flat battery after 3weeks standing after lending car to family member. I never had a problem, but the battery is 5yr or 6yr old and looked after using ctek charger.

 

Whilst changing today I checked the battery drain using 10A and COM on multimeter bridging negative side of battery (multimeter in series). Once the current settled down it remained at 0.14A (140mA). This is too high. 

 

I started checking/ pulling fuses found on drivers side of dash. Anyone doing this make sure you disconnect multimeter each time you open drivers door or the load on multimeter might blow its fuse or cause a fire.

 

Fuse 4 (interior light) was responsible for 0.02A. Probably due to Philips LED interior lights fitted.

 

Fuse 45 (Radio) resulted in a total drop to 0.00A (The interior lights don't come on when battery reconnected, don't know what happened to the extra 0.02A?)

 

What can I do about this Radio drain?

I thought I had left radio on, but it was off. Switching radio on through open window resulted in 0.67A drain. Entering radio code and switching off radio returned battery drain to 0.14A.

 

Is this normal for a Fabia1 07 vrs?

 

I left the car with multimeter connected for 10mins and it still read 0.14A so not the computer remaining awake etc.

 

Car has no modifications to electrics.

 

I wondered if locking the car might lower this drain, but I didn't want to risk blowing my multimeter with a sudden loading.

 

I guess I could buy a clamp type meter without risk to equipment. 

 

Whilst checking fuses I found a couple of anomalies. One fuse for interior lighting was 15A but handbook and online states 10A. I have replaced it with 10A. The original fuse typeface looked different to all others in the fusebox.

 

Another fuse  37 (rear fog light and indicator) is overated at 7.5A. Handbook states 5A.

It appears original.

 

Shall I downgrade this one?

 

What shall I do about the radio? Common issue?

 

Thanks

 

From my experience of chasing an excessive battery drain while the controller were asleep, on a late 2009 SEAT Ibiza 1.4, it did not make any difference if the car was locked or not.  Is the radio a genuine Skoda one, ie like what would have been fitted at the factory?

I've found that some fuse values were changed in some of my VW Group cars when compared with the owners handbook listing, only reason to drop a fuse value back down would be to protect the wiring , if you think that the present value could compromise the safety of the car then yes change them if not I would not bother.

 

Edit:- while that drain is higher than spec or is desirable, with a battery that was in good health and regular use of that car, this problem might not have been a show stopper.

Edited 14 June, 20205 yr by rum4mo

 

2 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

it did not make any difference if the car was locked or not.

I suspect you are correct. Some newer cars eg octavia 3 and other brands, just opening a door results in car 'waking up'. Not evident on the Fab

 

4 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

some fuse values were changed in some of my VW Group cars when compared with the owners handbook listing

I thought this might be the case. I had a Xantia in family from new and its fusebox ratings were very different to the handbook. Citroen dealer checked and confirmed.

 

7 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

Is the radio a genuine Skoda one, ie like what would have been fitted at the factory

Yes. It is the Symphony unit. I have not had the car from new but radio and speakers look untouched. 

 

Everything on radio works well and speakers too.

 

Do you think the radio is faulty internally or could radio be grounding?

 

What shall I do next?

 

If I need to take out radio what tools do I need? 

 

Thanks Rum4mo 👍

 

 

 

 

Was the key in the ignition when you were measuring the 140mA?

 

18 minutes ago, Wino said:

Was the key in the ignition when you were measuring the 140mA?

Y and N. The key was accidentally left in the ignition at position 'off' at '0' initially when I was about 10 fuses in. Seeing the key I took it out just to rule out any effect.

Every fuse I pulled thereafter still gave the same readings,

140mA after 15s following battery reconnection. Left for 10mins, still 140mA

 

 

Edited 14 June, 20205 yr by bmbmdmb

Fuse 10 is the 's' contact fuse, live whenever key is in the ignition switch. That probably caused the radio to wake up internally, even though off.  This may have persisted for long enough to cause the situation you're seeing. 

15 minutes ago, Wino said:

's' contact fuse

I wondered what that one meant.

 

I said fuse 10 but only a guess + / - 5 fuses so fuse 5 to 15.

 

The fuses were pulled one at a time, battery reconnected via multimeter and current reading measured after 1min then battery disconnect and fuse replaced. 

 

The radio still has power if car ignition off and key pulled out if radio switched off and back on.  

 

 

So, I am probably seeing a false positive, so to speak?

 

How can I confirm this is the case. A DC 'clamp' multimeter? Like on in picture or

See 1min 20s into video. 

Would this allow the battery connection to car circuits to be undisturbed?

 

Edited 14 June, 20205 yr by bmbmdmb

10/15 minutes is not long enough to wait, you need the key out of the ignition, all doors and bonnet closed or at least the car to think they all are and the vehicle locked, 140ma is reasonable initially while the canbus is still active but you should check again after 30 minutes and then one hour.

Edited 14 June, 20205 yr by J.R.

9 minutes ago, J.R. said:

10/15 minutes is not long enough to wait, you need the key out of the ignition, all doors and bonnet closed or at least the car to think they all are and the vehicle locked, 140ma is reasonable initially while the canbus is still active but you should check again after 30 minutes and then one hour.

You might be correct. Not sure about the Fabia but I read that a Land Rover Disco4 takes 30min for the computer to 'rest'. If locked using key it takes 3min.

 

So, repeat with multimeter but leave an hour maybe?

 

Bonnet up okay?

 

 

I'd always make sure the ignition key is out of the switch and all doors closed, the bonnet, in my experience being open will not stop the controllers from being put to sleep and is really essential to be kept open to allow you to take some measurements, remember as well, even leaving doors or hatch open for an extended period will also allow the controllers to go to sleep, that is why the interior lights go out after roughly 40 > 60 minutes.

 

DC clamps just do not work well down to the current levels you are looking for, well a small current DC clamp might be okay but its jaws will be too small to clamp over the main battery leads. I have a quality AC and DC current clamp and its minimum range is 5 amps and on that range it can not discriminate between small ranges in low currants or noise, been there done that already.

 

Edit:- again consider getting that battery checked for poor health, a friend was having trouble with his C4, so as he did not have power in his remotely located garage, I suggested that he bought a basic jump pack that had an internal gel battery as a cheap way to make sure that his car could be started when used once a week during lockdown, with the warning that his battery might be in poor health. After a few weeks of using that cheap jump pack he found the inconvenience of having a big jump pack in the car too much trouble so I suggested that he got his battery tested and replaced if necessary, he ignored that and bought an £90 capacitive compact jump pack, that worked well its seems but every time he needed to use his car, and every time he had to restart it during his shopping trip he needed to use the jump pack, so after handing over maybe £50 for the battery based jump pack and then £90 for the capacitor based jump pack he was forced to hand over £100 for a cheap low quality battery via a fast fit outlet. I had suggested buying a quality and big enough battery from Tayna and fitting it himself, but he rubbished that idea,  so no doubt this fix will work for a few months. It seemed that in his case, buying a "safe" charger and charging the battery up once a week/month was never going to happen, neither in the car or out of the car!

Edited 14 June, 20205 yr by rum4mo

11 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

ignition key is out of the switch

Y, schoolboy error.

 

14 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

DC clamps just do not work well down to the current levels you are looking for

Out of interest what would you use the DC clamp for if they are a bit insensitive? Presumably automotive uses? I have read on other forums about injector testing in situ or glowplug testing.

What use would AC clamp be for? Domestic mains? Any examples to DIYer? Thanks.

 

I will test again and leave over 1hour and report back.

 

Thanks 

Current clamps will be available for a range of current measuring capacities and for what form of supply they are used on both frequency and measuring form, like "true RMS" or just RMS or DC, 

 

The Claude Lyon current clamp I have was bought really more for use on domestic appliances so it has only a couple of ranges that suited me when I bought it also it was chosen as it suitable for DC use as well - at a guess it has a 200Amp and 5 or 10Amp range and a jaw opening big enough for any of my car's I've owned main leads. I'd be happy using it for measuring down to 1Amp but below that I'm not so sure. Unless you have a need or a desire to mess about with domestic appliance checking and repairing, I'd not bother buying one, most domestic work and cars can be covered with good DMM as can this searching for battery draining, just as I think was said already to watch out for the initial higher current so that the DMM is not damaged.

 

Edit:- part of the problem you can be up against here is having a DC current clamp with a jaw big enough for these high current leads then trying to measure a range of currents that these leads would not normally be running while being tested. Small jaw clamp + small diameter wire + small current should be okay, but not big jaw clamp + big wire + small current.

Edited 14 June, 20205 yr by rum4mo

On 14/06/2020 at 20:02, J.R. said:

should check again after 30 minutes and then one hour.

SOLVED.

I have been chasing my own tail. 

The current drain on the battery dropped to 0.00V after 30mins.

On 14/06/2020 at 21:04, rum4mo said:

consider getting that battery checked for poor healt

A battery checker said good, recharge. It is not holding charge for long periods, so I bought new one. Had to wait until lockdown eased to fit as car lent out to NHS nurse in family. 

 

The car is definitely lively now the new battery fitted.

 

Another reason I got interested in checking over for battery drains was my brothers Astra H has a drain. A CTEK fully charged higher than needed capacity battery was drained in 3 weeks. The car alarm was tripped just trying unlocking it. I had to use key in doorlock to gain access. 

This model has a CIM fault due to cost cutting by Vauxhall. Under steering wheel are aluminium contacts that corrode increasing resistance. The steering controls play up and the horn does not work. 

 

Thanks

 

Ps I probably do not need the clamp tool but useful info Rum4mo. Thanks.

 

PS just finished bleeding front brakes. The slide pins that have rubber sleeve both seized and will not go back! Looks like the rubber has swelled with age. Just ordered new £18 for both front calipers slide pins (x4) or £36 at local motorstore. New caliper carriers are £32 or less for 288mm discs per front corner.

Good enough, not easy sorting things out during lockdown, and must have been even worse while you were helping an NHS frontline worker, not a nice situation to be in, but luckily you have got out of it now.