Long story short, dead battery a few months back so I replaced it with a new Interstate. Have a tender on the battery which will always start with a red light but would always switch to green (red=charging, green=charged and monitoring). The duration from red light to green light would depend on if I plug it in right away or a few days later. When I replaced the battery, I set up the radio (actually figured it out) and my car has an aftermarket amp and sub-in front. I forgot to hook up the tender and a week later the new battery was completely dead. Turned off master switch, pulled off the battery leads and charged the battery with a real charger. Disconnected the amp and did not re-set up the factory radio figuring that is what was draining the battery. Started car, did ECU re-learn, 13.7+V at battery while running and 12+V when off. I usually keep it on tender but noticed lately the tender light never went green. I checked the tender output voltage and it was only 11.7V (it used to be 12+). The light actually will flicker red/green/red/green/red .if I touch the tender. I have no idea how old the tender is (came with car so Im guessing 7-8yrs old) so I unplugged it an ordered a new one figuring it was going bad. 3-days later and the battery is again completely dead (like 9V). Is there a good way to figure out what exactly is causing the problem. Its a 2002 model and I find it incredibly frustrating that I cant let the car sit for a week without the battery going dead. All lights are off, front bonnet is closed, doors closed, etc. Radio is OFF. The headlamps are in the auto position (should I switch that to OFF??) I understand the OEM radio is on the battery circuit and not the run circuit (IE I can turn on the radio when the key is off). Someone suggested I switch that over first, then start figuring out what else might be killing the battery. Any suggestions? This is very frustrating.
From everything I read on here, it almost always can be traced to an aftermarket stereo setup. I know it doesn't specifically help, but with so many posts over the years, that seems to be the number 1 suspect.
Fuse 69 (panel D) is the radio alone. After I get the battery charged, I think I'll just pull it and see if that helps at all. If it does, then I know the cause and I can rip out the aftermarket crap, and put the radio on the run circuit instead of the battery.
Got home and had to use the manual release on the front bonnet. Turned off master switch. Removed battery cover and battery says 11.0V Put on charger for couple of hours until it was ~12.6V Switched back on master, started car and did the ECU relearn procedure (from Voicy's site). While idling the voltage was 13.7+V at all times at both the battery terminals and at the quick charge connector behind the driver's seat (which tells me that is likely hooked up OK). Got home, shut everything off and the battery is now at 12.6V I left the passenger window open and battery cover off so I can check the voltage again tomorrow AM and see where it's at without opening the door and activating the car (manual not F1 but I understand things come on when you open the door). New tender should also be here tomorrow. Will remove cover behind front seat and see how everything is hooked up, plug in new tender and hope it keeps a charge. Still kind of annoying that a $150,000 list price auto cannot keep a battery for a few days and still gets a sticky interior.
That doesn't seem normal. I wouldn't rule out a bad battery. New or not, I'd get it tested or pull it, charge it and observe what happens to the voltage when not connected to the car.
What brand tender are you using? (just curious, most all work just fine, though it sounds like you had one that failed)
It's this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CITK8S/ref=psdc_15707061_t1_B000CITKCE as I mentioned, it was already installed when I purchased the car. Replaced it with this model https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CITKCE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Their web site says it works for automotive but I wonder if I should have gotten the 1.25V Tender Plus model instead. When I checked the voltage this morning it was 11.7V. So it's either completely bad or has some massive drain in the system. Hate to have to do the ECU relearn again, but I going to take Canuck's suggestion and pull the battery, charge it fully and let it sit overnight and see if it holds a charge. If it does, then I may have to find time to do Voicey's test outlined here and figure out what is causing the problem. https://aldousvoice.com/2015/01/25/ferrari-360-f430-battery-drain/ Ugg...the 308 never did this...
To be very clear. YOUR car has a problem. Mine can site for 2 weeks and start perfectly fine. This "It's an italian POS they build crap" thing isn't true. The wiring system/loom actually works pretty good. There is something wrong with your car. It shouldn't drain the battery in a week. A new charger doesn't solve the problem. You need to go through the system and find what has been done to it to cause the draw. Start with the radio. Then look for alarm systems or tracking systems. Everybody complains about the radio and sound system and then changes it to something boomin'... only to then have a car that can't start. Find the problem. I recommend pulling fuses, starting with the radio fuse and check the voltage on the battery in 24 hours. When you find the cause and correct it, then get a new battery for the car. All this drain to zero will have trashed it.
To be fair, lots of cars have this problem. I'm not the first owner to experience this. But you're correct, a new charger will not solve anything. I need to find the drain in the system and fix it.
Some time ago I posted a thread about parasitic battery drain and I included a paper that wrote up. The information in that paper is a compilation of information that is publicly available and includes a description on how to determine what the parasitic current drain is on your car and some guideline on what you might expect to see. It also has info on batteries. Here is link to that post .... http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/144363221-post1.html From what you describe, you may indeed have something wrong with car that is causing too much current drain when you turn off your car. But, then again, your battery could be in very poor condition. Regards, Steve
Batter is ~6-months old. The PO told me he also replaced the battery during his ownership and always had to keep it plugged in or it would drain. Thanks for the info. I'll take a look at it tonight.
Also use your hands to touch/feel the relays. If one is warmer or hotter than the others you could have a stuck relay. Just one more thing to check. For me it was my PW relay that was hot when I checked it first thing in the morning. Changed it and problem gone. Car will now sit for 2 weeks.
Those are all fine, and the .8 amp model you ordered is a good one. Capacity, whether .5 amp, or .8 amp or 1.25amp really doesn't matter much...these are just for keeping the battery topped up, so a .5 amp might take an hour to do so, (depending on state of charge) versus 20 minutes for the 1.25 amp version. Not a big deal either way. (I have noticed though, that a smaller .8 amp tender can bring a battery up to a higher state of charge than a 4amp tender.) Probably not a huge difference )
Thanks for the suggestion. I seem to recall reading something in another thread about the PW switch being 'stuck' causing a problem.
I just checked my receipt to see what I had bought to fix my problem. Sean, sorry, I meant to say the PW ECU (#8 in diagram). Was hot to the touch (Diagram borrowed from Mike M on another recent thread) Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks, will check that tonight. All the relays were cold and all the fuses looked good. The owners manual calls out the radio fuse (Panel D, #69) as a 7.5A fuse, but a 30A fuse was installed so I pulled it out. Tonight I'll turn off the master switch and disconnect the battery and see if it holds 12.6+V over night. That will at least tell me if the battery is holding. If yes, I'll put it back in the car and see if it will hold again for several hours. If it does, then I know it's the radio. If not, I'll have to use Voicy's set up to figure out what is pulling all the power while the car is off.
Good place to start. If that works the next step is to grab a multi-meter, set to amps, and systematically remove each fuse and put the meter in the circuit. They circuits should be dead. If they are drawing you can narrow down the subsystem that is the problem. Note: I have seen places on the wiring harness that were worn through from rubbing. These can be hard to find but if you know what circuit it is a lot easier.
That's a good idea, but I'd have to sit in the car and reach behind the fully forward seats with the doors closed to ensure everything is "off" before I start checking fuses inside. If I ever figure this out I'll post what I did for any future searches.
Seats come out with a few bolts. And, there are a bunch of fuses in the front trunk so you would need to have the open as well.
found a better method to check draw at the fuses and don't have to remove them; https://www.motor-talk.de/forum/aktion/Attachment.html?attachmentId=721311
I would have started with disconnecting the cable from the negative terminal of the battery to insert a multi-meter set up for current measurement. You would just need a decent digital multi-meter, which you should own anyway, and be familiar with how to make an in-line current measurement. Anyone with the same car should be able to provide a normal "resting" current measurement for their car (that does not have battery discharge problems.) Someone has likely already made the measurement at some point and posted it here but probably will be hard to search for. Current draw should be similar to the vehicle that does not have problems. If it's similar then you probably have a battery problem. If it's too high then you probably need to start pulling fuses and relays one-by-one until you see a normal reading. Could take a while with all the fuses and relays in modern cars! Having said all that, if you do have a high current drain situation and your battery has been heavily discharged a number of times then some damage may have been done to the battery too. I would have the battery charged on a "proper" charger as opposed to a trickle charger and then have a load test done on the battery.
In my earlier post I described how to use an ammeter to do this. It is not as simple as just hooking up the meter to the negative post and the battery cable. You have to jumper it first to let things stabilize. Then after 20 minutes or so, without opening a door or pressing the remote fob, disconnect the jumper to take your ammeter reading. I do not have a baseline current draw ... but I would think it should be in the 50mA range (give or take). If more than 100mA, then I would suspect an unusually high draw. Steve
