I've had the same old school 4x4 yard twill sheet for more than 50 years and its still in frequent use, weighs nowt, washable if needed [I've never ever washed it] and its lived in various boots for all those decades. The attraction is easily marked Chenille chair or old scaffolding boards you can whip the twill out stand anything on it and the remaining sheet will come all the way up the sides to protect leather seat back or door cards etc.

I get .5-.7 less per gallon in the winter, others lose considerably more. I have an inline stat, a Webasto secondary heater and use 99p's worth of pipe lagging as a cold air dam in the winter. These things combined contribute to reaching an engine working temp and comfortable cabin temp very quickly, and the quicker you can get to a half on the gauge the less money per gallon loss - it really does add up, somewhere on these forums Leedsman, Goggsy and I decided that an unscientific (-)5MPG would be a fair 'guesstimate' of how much extra the diesels cost in the winter.

Your existing battery sounds like its 100% fully discharged, essentially its fooked @ 10.5 volts. Best of luck with the RedTop starter battery, they are happy taking a full 15.0 volts from the alternator so the 14.4 buttonMOD should be perfectly safe. Best of luck.

 

Well, I'm charging the battery once a week.

Leak off is 600mA, if I pull the ip ign fuse or the rdo ewd/rr wpr, it goes down to 140mA.

I'm assuming pulling the IP IGN isolates the rdo ewd/rr wpr anyways.

Going to buy a better battery. The problem subsides when the glow plugs aren't used as much of a morning (still to test the glowplugs). My Optima doesn't fit, think it's a plant battery, not really for car use.

Fuel economy has went from 26mpg, to 22, to 27.6. Current tankful is looking better again, but it is getting warmer (I don't think it's the additive making the difference, it's just not ticking over to defrost any more).

 

That once a week is a pain, been there done that. 600 is way high it should be from fifteen to twenty five milliamperes.

I used an air saw to 'chonk' out bits of the battery holder[/URL] etc an fitted a 'wrong way round' Merc / BMW issue big boy that I know is a re-badged F21 Varta 80 by 800 Start-Stop Plus AGM Car Battery 12V 80Ah [580901080]. in frustration and never used it since the F21 was installed, its a great little 'get out of jail card' if ever needed. Unused and charged x3 times a year, kept in the car at all times, also brill for running the grandkids lappies or charging flat phones and camera's etc. Best of luck to you Scotsman4th.

 

Started looking more into the battery drain today.

With the keys out, the radio can still be switched on (my last one couldn't do that, when you switched the engine off, it would cut out after a little while) and the electric windows work. There may be other things, but that's the ones I've noticed.

If the keys are out and the radio on, putting a window up or down switches off the radio until you release the window switch. I say up or down, if you hit the drivers window switch, it cuts off the radio but the window doesn't operate. If the radio isn't on, it blanks out the clock.

So obviously there's something not right.

Pulled the window switch on the drivers door today, no change.

Plan tomorrow is to disconnect the radio and see if that loses the drain. I've read somewhere before about issues with the radio (or amp?) drawing power constantly.

Found where I read about the radio or an amp.

Chrysler Grand Voyager - flat battery | Technical matters | Back Room Forum | Honest John

 

I'm using a Bosch S5 008 77AH Battery cos they were on special offer at the time. These are L265 X W165 X H185 and require slight adjustment to battery tray.
MPG I'm happy with for such a big comfy car. Can go to Edinburgh or Newcastle and back on £20-£25 that's 26-34mpg. I mentioned it before it carries 8x4 sheets of ply or 3m boards. Well now that's the second set of second hand Patio/French doors I've carried inside this year so far. Only problem is the weight but able bodied helpers have been at both ends so far. Just need a joiner now but saved a fortune so far.

 

Most measured CCA never gets close to spec, most CCA measuring devices in garages are of the type that were invented in the 40's. Most modern devices duplicate the same crude measure using an algorithm of the crude 40's technique. The only gear capable of measuring CCA in use on electrics hungry cars with any accuracy at all are expensive. I've got a dinky little BA7 that I've cross tested against known output[s] and its very close to accurate.

I've carried two spazza wagons on one occasion, like goggsy sheetgoods, and an MT500 on one occasion. Like Goggsy I wouldn't swap for anything but at least a 6-speed automatic transmission Voyager.

There's plenty in here somewhere buts its gonna take some finding. Andy is a good bet for general electrics, ditto tfb. The IOD [Ignition Off Draw] fuse switches off the radio & ancillaries. The TIPM [Totally Integrated Power Module] is also a well known culprit of all things spooky & irrational.

REM : Your vehicle does not switch off for 15 minutes after you think it does.

 

Hmm,

You know, the windows working when ignition off (and key out?) is a BIG tell-tale, as I believe that's illegal (If it were manufactured that way) as it's a bad safety breach.

Anyway, that makes me think some jiggery pokery in the electronics, and my best bet would be the radio harness. Is it an after-market radio by any chance? I'm wondering if the constant battery feed has been mixed/joined to the ACC/ignition on lead and so the radio harness is actually feeding voltage back into the ACC equipment.
Especially because you say when the radio is on and try the window the radio goes off. Does it quickly cut off, i.e. no delay, no clock display, etc? That sounds to me like a bad ground/live path leaking through, so again dodgy wiring around the radio.
(I'm assuming when key out ignition and a door open the clock on the radio is still on? If so then that's wrong!)

Kinda long shot, but that would be the easiest fix. I'd say go with your plan, remove the radio completely. Whilst back there, look at the cables on the harness, have they been tampered with, any tell-tale black electricians tape joining wires together or those blue clip-on connectors. (Especially if you have a car-bluetooth kit installed or similar)

If not, then it's like QinteQ says, process of elimination using the fusebox.

 

This small power draw you's are on about, would a relay sticking on cause this as I was thinking about the Radio/Window switch article. The question is what controls the automatic switch off of the radio after so many minutes on removing the key. My idea is if a relay is sticking on with say a radio current and if you add a window switch current it may trip out. I'm looking to current to even coil side of relay. Just an idea as gremlins are everywhere.

 

Key out ignition and door open, clock is on, yes. Radio cuts out immediately you press the window switch and comes back immediately.

Standard radio, but as I sat down to get started, I noticed signs that the front panel had been removed before.

Got it off, removed radio, to find this behind it.
[IMG][/IMG]

So it's had an aftermarket stereo at some point.

Here's a closeup of the wiring.



I put it back together at that point, I'll have another go tomorrow. I'm swaying towards swapping the grey/red wires, but thought I'd ask first, and try to find out for sure by looking at wiring diagrams.

Earlier, I pulled the IP IGN fuse and the RDO ewd/rr wpr, left it for 15-20 mins and the leak off went down to 40mA.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

Aha,

OK, well yes the telltale there is the door window takes the radio off, then it comes back on afterwards, that rules out the relay really, unless it's stuck fully but not passing enough current (Highly unlikely I'd guess)

And after finding that interesting cut and paste job behind the radio I'd agree.

Unfortunately I'm down in London at the moment without my trusty Voyager or I'd go take a look and a few meter probe tests, but you're on the right lines. I'd get my multi-meter out and check the wires you're looking at there.

I think the following is the right diagram, again multi-meter and test what you get.



Interestingly, are the wire colours matching either side of the blue connectors? As assuming they've just spliced into the original wiring I'm going to bet those pair of wires are crossed so one colour one side of the plug connectors and a different the other!

So we're looking at pins 1 and 2 on the diagram crossed, which on your photo do indeed look like the red+grey wires on the second photo nearest to camera left two.

Good luck, and hopefully this'll solve it. It'll certainly not be helping your power drain issues if it's constantly providing power to the ACC side of the ignition.