Jonesaaaay93
ClioSport Club Member
Hello all,
I'm looking for some help and advice from anyone with a bigger brain than me (this should therefore be a very active thread!).
I have been having an issue now for quite some time with my Clio 182 draining batteries completely flat.
To give you the whole story;
Car was off the road for a few years, last summer we got it back on the road (after my daily car was stolen...). Part of that process included a brand new battery and alternator.
Fast forward 4 or 5 months and my boot solenoid started playing up and eventually stopped working all together. I don't drive daily (perks of working from home somewhat) so the boot not working wasn't a pressing concern for me to I left it for a while. A few weeks later I started to notice the car taking a couple of tries to start, then eventually battery has become completely flat and car will not start. We test the battery and its fine (no faults just flat) - we replace it anyway and only a couple of weeks later the same story unfolds - car goes from starting first time, to starting after a couple of turns, to completely dead battery. Same thing - battery is flat. It's worth noting at this point that we noticed that when the battery was flat (or I had disconnected the battery), the boot started working again which made us believe it could be the faulty solenoid draining the power. So, we give the battery a full charge, and at this point I believe we also changed the solenoid. All looked well this time, car was starting up fine, and we past the usual days/weeks without an issue. Then one day I came out and can you believe it, battery is dead again.
We believe the alternator is fine - first indicator is that the car will start and fire up no issues while the battery is charged - and on frequent occasion I have gone to the effort of disconnecting the battery overnight (even days at a time) and the battery is always charged when I come to plug it back in - so on the occasions I do take it out, it is all happy.
There is no aftermarket radio - although the radio currently doesn't work so I'm unsure if everything is plugged into the back of it...
Long story short - what are the best ways to test for some sort of parasitic draw/fault? Is there anything that I could easily do/check to identify the problem?
Appreciate it is likely a 'needle in a haystack' scenario, and all of the above may not be of any relevance so apologies if you read that and it's not!
I'm looking for some help and advice from anyone with a bigger brain than me (this should therefore be a very active thread!).
I have been having an issue now for quite some time with my Clio 182 draining batteries completely flat.
To give you the whole story;
Car was off the road for a few years, last summer we got it back on the road (after my daily car was stolen...). Part of that process included a brand new battery and alternator.
Fast forward 4 or 5 months and my boot solenoid started playing up and eventually stopped working all together. I don't drive daily (perks of working from home somewhat) so the boot not working wasn't a pressing concern for me to I left it for a while. A few weeks later I started to notice the car taking a couple of tries to start, then eventually battery has become completely flat and car will not start. We test the battery and its fine (no faults just flat) - we replace it anyway and only a couple of weeks later the same story unfolds - car goes from starting first time, to starting after a couple of turns, to completely dead battery. Same thing - battery is flat. It's worth noting at this point that we noticed that when the battery was flat (or I had disconnected the battery), the boot started working again which made us believe it could be the faulty solenoid draining the power. So, we give the battery a full charge, and at this point I believe we also changed the solenoid. All looked well this time, car was starting up fine, and we past the usual days/weeks without an issue. Then one day I came out and can you believe it, battery is dead again.
We believe the alternator is fine - first indicator is that the car will start and fire up no issues while the battery is charged - and on frequent occasion I have gone to the effort of disconnecting the battery overnight (even days at a time) and the battery is always charged when I come to plug it back in - so on the occasions I do take it out, it is all happy.
There is no aftermarket radio - although the radio currently doesn't work so I'm unsure if everything is plugged into the back of it...
Long story short - what are the best ways to test for some sort of parasitic draw/fault? Is there anything that I could easily do/check to identify the problem?
Appreciate it is likely a 'needle in a haystack' scenario, and all of the above may not be of any relevance so apologies if you read that and it's not!