Car won't start and sparking noises from fuse box

[D4WNO]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping you could help after 2 failed visits from the AA. The car was fine, parked it up overnight and the next morning it wouldn't start, it was ticking but didn't try to turn over. Turns out battery was completely drained, so replaced with a brand new one to test. It drove fine, parked it up for 2 hours and same had happened again. There is an electrical "sparking" type noise coming from the fuse box inside the car by the steering wheel and a "whirring" electrical noise from the one in the engine bay. Even with the car locked and alarm on the headlights would flash by themselves sporadically every few minutes

The radio etc will come on but there's no power to even unlock the steering wheel. AA came out again and said battery is absolutely fine so it's either an earthing/grounding problem or one of the relays. Something is causing the battery to lose all power, no lights etc seem to be staying on when I exit the car.

Has anyone ever seen this before and what was the issue in your case? Thanks in advance for any advice given, I really need my car and am literally stranded where I live without it, nightmare.

It's a 2006 Clio 1.4 Dynamique by the way

 

[D4WNO]

Just a note, once the battery is charged up it starts fine, I just need to find out what is draining it so quickly (within 2 hours)

 

[klm182]

check all your fuses/relays ,mine got water in them and then the old battery failed.
aa man said its a common fault on clios (water getting in engine bay)
check if any fuses or relays are green,sand contacts down.
only do one at a time so you no were they go.
spray abit of wd 40 round .
the aa man should find the fault lazy git.

 

[klm182]

sometimes it can be the battery, I had a new aa one fitted and few days after the radio wouldn't work, then car wouldn't start.

another aa man came out said the battery is ok but flat.,but you mite of got a dud one.
he put a better grade of battery in,as the car needs a strong battery.

he said sometimes you don't no how long the new batteries have been standing before being sold.

check the date on yours, see when it was made.

Just a note, once the battery is charged up it starts fine, I just need to find out what is draining it so quickly (within 2 hours)

 

[James1470]

the AA are sh*t .. the other week the mrs asked me to pop to her work as her friend had a problem with her clio, basically, it needed a coil pack. but he decided that id didn't and he'd just stick a random set of plugs out of his van. so I nipped back to work, got some proper plugs a set of leads and a coil pack and took them back over to fit.. the plugs he'd fitted happened to be a fair bit longer than the correct ones ... also, 2 of those he fitted looked ancient and caked in oil and rust.

your wasting your time with those muppets, if you don't know call a proper garage out. plenty of people will come and check it out at your home if you cant get it across to there place.

as KLM182 says make sure everything is pushed in, no water about, its quite common water getting in.

 

[glowworm105]

I'm not sure if this is going to apply to you in any way but just in case, find the big black earth wire that bolts to the gearbox and check to see if it is broke at the end, causes non starting etc, mine snapped on my old mk3 I bought a new battery etc but in the end this was the cause