Battery dead after only a few months

[Meek_racing]

Last night whilst pissing it down with rain the battery decided to die on me at a cross road. I managed to get it back after a jump start but there was nothing left to even lock to doors...

The car has a new alternator and battery so something is taking life out of it rapidly... With recent stalling problems, would a high comp setup drain that much power from constant starting? The car was on a RR yesterday, would that have any contributions to the issue? I've checked all earth leads and they seem to be fine. Are there any checks I can make?

Currently on charge atm, the gauge shows half charged so I'm baffled :S

 

[Meek_racing]

Can someone move this to fault section sorry.

 

[DannyR]

Voltage on battery without and with car running?

Need to jump start it to find out.

 

[pastieman]

Get a muilt meter out and check the charge rate with the engine running to see if the alternator is charging the battery!!

Then check the battery if it is dropping voltage!!! With engine off

These two quick tests will rule out the battery and charge system !!

 

[Meek_racing]

I bought a new battery anyway, the old one had 2004 on the date stamp. Same issue, will crank once or twice but then nothing. The light stayed on to start with and then went off later on, I now have the emission and battery light on. Whenever it does crank, everything will go dead so I have to wait 2 minutes for the keyfob and electrics to work again. Spoke to Mick who advised me to clean and check all fuses and electrical contacts, all seemed fine but gave them clean anyway... still no luck.

The car wont start and even if i did get it to do so, will stall when I come to a junction and back to square one I need to get this plugged into a diagnostic but have no way of getting the car there... Poop!

 

[DannyR]

Anyone local got an RSTuner they can bring to you?

 

[dmallett]

Mine wouldnt start the other day and turned out to be the connector on the battery was worn, could be worth having a quick check of that?

 

[Meek_racing]

Anyone local got an RSTuner they can bring to you?

Nope, not that I know of

Mine wouldnt start the other day and turned out to be the connector on the battery was worn, could be worth having a quick check of that?

Already cleaned the terminals. It just seems to die once it cranks over. Something earthing in the loom or poor connection. It was chucking it down yesterday so might be water in the loom somewhere.

 

[Meek_racing]

I thought I'd check the lambda sensors due to the emission light being on... Post cat sensor had a pool of water in the sleeve so dried it out, applied contact spray, then a bit of WD40 around the wires to repel any more water. The car now starts but both engine and emission lights are on. Need to take it to the garage now to see what the error code is I'm still convinced there is water somewhere and will cause more problems.

 

[Dan@SJM]

I've had a few in recently that the alternators have been draining the battery.

 

[MartinR]

I had the same lights on the dash after running mine at viezu yesterday, Turned out when it hit the limiter during the run it snapped the live cable off the alternator (corroded connector)..All sorted now and back to normal.

Your car looks great by the way, good job

 

[Meek_racing]

Cheers,

I wish I could have stayed longer but I had a house viewing to sort out

I checked the car again today and all seems well. The battery is 12.8v on it's own and 14.5v when engine is running.

 

[Sam@NP]

Check the starter motor isn't draining it.

 

[Meek_racing]

That was my first thought with the call stalling all the time and constantly needing to restart, being hi comp id assume it's drawing more current anyway. How do I check the starter motor though?