Battery draining issue.

Cape Town people must be rich, I can't believe no one has a guy and you are being sent to those expensive places, here in Joburg we have a guy for everything, you can still go to the fancy workshops but not because there are no guys.
 
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Bosch quoted R 805 for diagnostic. Thereafter they will say what is needed and I decide if they proceed. If I go with them, my wallet is going to cry. If I can't find the fault this week, I'm going to bite the bullet and pay.
 
Devon101 said:
Bosch quoted R 805 for diagnostic. Thereafter they will say what is needed and I decide if they proceed. If I go with them, my wallet is going to cry. If I can't find the fault this week, I'm going to bite the bullet and pay.
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It's a pity you are so far away. I LOVE a challenge!

Sorted out many electrical issues on cars, usually someone else's, fitted many radios/fog-/spotlights/ etc. over the years.
 
Devon101 said:
Bosch quoted R 805 for diagnostic. Thereafter they will say what is needed and I decide if they proceed. If I go with them, my wallet is going to cry. If I can't find the fault this week, I'm going to bite the bullet and pay.
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I guess you don't have much of a choice, but do give it a try and then you will take it in when you don't come right.
 
TheChamp said:
The very point of taking into to a fancy place is because they should have the fancy machinery to pin down the fault in no time at all, otherwise there is no point, so I am surprised at that kind of pricing structure, they should know how long it's going to take them already.

Question is, if they don't know if they will locate the fault in the first hour, how do they know they will get the fault in the second, third or fourth hour, will they get it in 24 hrs?

I am not liking it at all, but it's your choice. For me a fair way of doing it is a fixed, once off price on diagnostics, then a quote to fix the problem after it's found.

Don't you have a Bosch Diagnostics somewhere around?
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What makes you think he doesn't have a fancy machine to check with? The problem with the fancy places is that rely too much on the fancy machine and not enough on experience/brainpower. The fancy machine also does not always have the answer and then the machine operator at the fancy place is stumped because he only knows the machine.
 
TheChamp said:
The very point of taking into to a fancy place is because they should have the fancy machinery to pin down the fault in no time at all, otherwise there is no point, so I am surprised at that kind of pricing structure, they should know how long it's going to take them already.
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What's wrong with that pricing structure? Anyone who claims they can pinpoint an electrical fault in your car without even seeing it is pulling a fast one.
 
Devon101 said:
Bosch quoted R 805 for diagnostic. Thereafter they will say what is needed and I decide if they proceed. If I go with them, my wallet is going to cry. If I can't find the fault this week, I'm going to bite the bullet and pay.
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Did you try the fuse pulling thing?
TheChamp said:
Cape Town people must be rich, I can't believe no one has a guy and you are being sent to those expensive places, here in Joburg we have a guy for everything, you can still go to the fancy workshops but not because there are no guys.
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Our guys all left for Joburg :)
 
lkpat said:
What's wrong with that pricing structure? Anyone who claims they can pinpoint an electrical fault in your car without even seeing it is pulling a fast one.
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I never said anyone should pinpoint the fault without seeing the car, why should you twist my words like that?

I am saying the place should know how long it should take to diagnose the fault, they should be able to commit on that, they are saying they charge per hour but they are not sure how many hours they will take to pinpoint the fault, that sounds like BS to me, as I asked if they don't know they can find the fault in an hour how do they know they will find it in the next hour, how do they know they will find it in 24hrs?

A diagnostic fee should be fixed so that the customer can budget for it, anyone who is good at their job should be able to give a definitive quote, ie, "we charge 650 per hour and it is a 3hr job".
 
TheChamp said:
I never said anyone should pinpoint the fault without seeing the car, why should you twist my words like that?

I am saying the place should know how long it should take to diagnose the fault,
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Diagnose=pinpoint.
What does it mean to you?
 
There is no machine that will diagnose a current drain quickly on old cars, you have to do it methodically. Time consuming.

The fred got distracted so I may have missed a few things but you mentioned current drain of 2.49 and 0.790. The 2.49 is a massive drain, the 0,790 is a cause for concern. Ideally it should be below 50ma.

Disconnect the negative terminal of the battery and hook up your multimeter to measure current. After the measurement always put your leads back and turn the multimeter to volts/off. If you forget you will blow the fuse in the multimeter - expensive fuse.

Have a look in the main fusebox or secondary fusebox for big square fuses - usually 80 to 100A. Some of them can just be pulled out, some have bolts attached to them. Pull them out and see if it makes a difference - usually alternator diodes that go have a drain of over 1 amp. If they are bolted in then disconnect the battery negative and remove the main power cable at the alternator and disconnect plugs. Wrap a cloth around the positive cable to prevent it from arcing/shorting out.

As mentioned before, remove all the smaller fuses and test - make sure all doors/boot are closed. Check if there is not another fuse box under the dash as well. Feel if any relays are getting warm - that indicates a fault with the relay or the wiring / switch etc. The amp reading may change with time, now it is minimal but later on it may increase. Come back later and check again.

As long as you keep charging the battery it should be fine, you will have a reduced lifespan, don't use the alternator to charge the battery, use a battery charger. You can work out how bad your drain is using the formula - battery life (hours) = battery capacity (ah) / current draw (amps).

If you are reading 4/5v on the battery - you have a massive drain. I would start at the alternator first, even though it is new/newish.
 
Good morning.

Yesterday my nephew was working on the car when I got home. He said the alternator was the issue. He installed it incorrectly after previously saying it was done correctly.

This is after the alternator was fixed and the car started. We checked about 30 minutes later and it went to 13.
1712725482115.jpeg

This is the power draw when the car was still off after the alternator was fixed. 1712725571940.jpeg

When the car was pulled in, we noticed the engine fan was still spinning. It was spinning for a while even after the car cooled down. The car was switched on then off and only then the fan stopped spinning. We checked again after a while and the fan was on again. We decided to disconnect the fan and leave the car as normal to check if it will start fine the next morning. The car started fine this morning as it should be doing. We are going to connect the fan back and see if anything changes by tonight. If it is drained again, the issue could be the fan. We have checked the coolant and its okay.
 
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Know a person in cape town with a rav, toyota cannot see the fault, they need the fault to be on in order to see it.

Some cars, vw and chery, there fans goes on after you switch it off, if it gets hot there in front.
 
Devon101 said:
Good morning.

Yesterday my nephew was working on the car when I got home. He said the alternator was the issue. He installed it incorrectly after previously saying it was done correctly.

This is after the alternator was fixed and the car started. We checked about 30 minutes later and it went to 13.
View attachment 1688901

This is the power draw when the car was still off after the alternator was fixed. View attachment 1688905

When the car was pulled in, we noticed the engine fan was still spinning. It was spinning for a while even after the car cooled down. The car was switched on then off and only then the fan stopped spinning. We checked again after a while and the fan was on again. We decided to disconnect the fan and leave the car as normal to check if it will start fine the next morning. The car started fine this morning as it should be doing. We are going to connect the fan back and see if anything changes by tonight. If it is drained again, the issue could be the fan. We have checked the coolant and its okay.
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Great job, but remember the problem might not necessarily be the fan, but rather the fan circuit, as in the wiring or relay. Also remember that the fan circuit is linked to the coolant temperature sensor.
 
upup said:
Know a person in cape town with a rav, toyota cannot see the fault, they need the fault to be on in order to see it.

Some cars, vw and chery, there fans goes on after you switch it off, if it gets hot there in front.
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I get this. The engine was warm but the fan went off after we started it again. It went by itself when the engine was cooler. It should go off automatically once the temp drops.
 
upup said:
Know a person in cape town with a rav, toyota cannot see the fault, they need the fault to be on in order to see it.

Some cars, vw and chery, there fans goes on after you switch it off, if it gets hot there in front.
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Yeah, I have only see VW do that, some guy had a, Scirocco, it also started doing the fan on after the car is switched off thing all of a sudden even when it wasn't doing it previously.
 
TheChamp said:
Great job, but remember the problem might not necessarily be the fan, but rather the fan circuit, as in the wiring or relay. Also remember that the fan circuit is linked to the coolant temperature sensor.
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We are going to check those. I want to check how much power the fan draws when the car is off. I doubt its high enough to drain a full battery.
 
Devon101 said:
We are going to check those. I want to check how much power the fan draws when the car is off. I doubt its high enough to drain a full battery.
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Oh, believe me it is, check the fan fuse and you will see, it's one of the biggest fuses you will find, probably 30A or so, even when it's not at high speed it is still good enough to drain the battery in no time.
 
TheChamp said:
Oh, believe me it is, check the fan fuse and you will see, it's one of the biggest fuses you will find, probably 30A or so, even when it's not at high speed it is still good enough to drain the battery in no time.
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Thought it would be a bit of power and the major issue is the alternator.
 
Devon101 said:
Thought it would be a bit of power and the major issue is the alternator.
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if your fan is running when it shouldnt ,you have a negative fault on the circuit ,maybe at the fan switch or at the relay itself , corrosion could be the problem at the earth point or at the relay .pull all the relays one at a time and put them back into their sockets it may help clean the clips contacts in the sockets .dont do more than one relay at a time .
,
 
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