RE: Battery Drain (again?)

["Fadeev, Alex" <Alex.Fadeev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> New battery, good alternator, but if the car sits 
> still for 24 hours or longer, dead battery. What to do?

Bill,
	You have a power drain on the battery. All that's left is to find it
;-)
	If you are handy with volt/am-meter, connect it between negative
battery terminal and ground (body). Make sure no electrical devices are
running, all lights are off (remove the drunk lid light), etc. Remove
battery ground strap and you should see no more than 70 milliamps of
current. That's your OBC clock, radio and DME (possibly something else). If
you have much more then 70 milliamps, you have a drain. 
	Now start removing fuses one by one and observe any changes in the
current draw. Eventually, you will identify the circuit where the draw
occurs. Now pull out the Bentley and see what electrical devices reside on
that circuit. Your culprit is one of them. Remember to exclude OBC/radio/DME
circuits from the list of suspects on the first pass. 
	If you don't have an ammeter, try removing fuses as you let the car
sit overnight. If it starts the next morning, you had pulled the fuse of the
circuit causing the draw. Same as ammeter test, only much more time
consuming, battery draining and frustrating. Get an ammeter.
	That being said, check all lights (door, trunk, etc) first. If you
have a lock heater in your E30, that thing can get stuck and drain the
battery in no time. 

good luck and let us know what the culprit was
alex f

  

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