Hi everyone, I’m having a problems with a drain on the battery during autumn-winter time. The battery is fine but sometimes it runs out of power after less than a week. Seriously high currents. I suppose it is a combination of low temperatures (condensation or rain) (I live in The Netherlands). The battery is new and I have measured the standby current as around 15 milliAmperes normally. I have a Pioneer radio and no alarm. I suppose that last winter there was a leakage current by cables immersed in water or by condensation somewhere. I checked the trunk and under the seats inside but everything is perfectly dry there always. Any ideas or tips where to look for or which components to check (lights ....) motor compartment, My wife does not want to drive it anymore and I really worry about coming season. Thanks for reading
Greetings, Searching the forum will come up with a few posts on the subject - the main themes are linked to the car's small battery and the alarm (which I think you don't have). There are other points too. If you can measure the standby current, as you note, and you have the time, you could narrow down the source (sources?) a bit by pulling each of the fuses in turn (there are two fuse boxes) and seeing if any stop/lower the standby current. That should hopefully allow you to focus on a small range of suspects linked to that fuse. You could leave any offending fuse pulled when the car's not in use (though that may be a bit of a hassle having to put it back in before taking the car out) and/or you could perhaps get a battery maintainer (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battery-Maintainer/s?k=Battery+Maintainer and elsewhere) to keep things topped up. I find my battery maintainer helps greatly even when the car is left for a period - esp. over winter.
It might not be the case with yours, but a good few years ago, I had the same issue. If I didn't use the car over the weekend, but just in the week to drive to work, it would only just last the weekend to start on the Monday. Well, it would start ok, but by Tuesday it might not. So not long. I had a replacement car stereo, but it failed. I put the original back in, and the battery life went way up. I could easily leave it for a week and still be able to start the car. Not 100% sure now, but I think mine was a Pioneer too.
Mine goes flat in just over 2 weeks. My standby current is 30mA with a pioneer double din stereo. I understand if he battery drops to below 11V it becomes damage and looses capacity. So could it be your battery has been damaged. In the UK you can get a free battery check in some retailers. Is this an option for you? Also, I have installed a disconnector (from ebay) on the battery and isolate it if I know I'm not going to use it for a week or so.
I also have this same issue. The battery goes flat after a few days but having said that, it is still the original batter from 2008! I will be purchasing a new battery in the coming days but would be interested in the disconnector!?
A couple of ideas to add in to the above..... A standby current draw of 20 - 50mA would be considered pretty normal for vehicles with any 'always on' functions. But for the weany battery in a Copen (054) that could deplete the battery in about 60 days. Add to this the usual self-discharge of a lead acid battery at about 0.2. - 1.0% of charge per day so thats quite a loss in addition. Lead acid batteries are not particularly durable items: I've learnt through the experience of years to change a battery at the first sign of it failing which, commonly, is this time of year when the night time temperatures are getting chilly. 054s may be weany, but at least they are cheap!
Try this link Stu. 1*Small-sized Battery Switch Isolator Terminal Quick Cut-off Disconnect Master | eBay UK
