What is killing my New Battery?

This is the Forum for all your Citroen Technical Questions, Problems or Advice.

Moderator: RichardW

citroenxm
Posts: 8061
Joined: 30 Dec 2004, 23:10
Location: Somewhere in North Wales, Anglesey
My Cars: M reg Xm S2 2.1td Auto Exclusive. 269k and rising
L reg XM S1 V6 12v Manual SEi
L 94 XM 2.1 TD auto total resto

2008 Peugeot 207 Sw 1.6 16v hdi. 217k and rising
2010 Peugeot 207 SW 1.6 8v HDi 161k and rising
x 70

Post by citroenxm »

Well - Ive a VERY interesting Xantia Draining Battery story for you, in which my mate owned (Managed to get him to ditch the Xantia and buy an XM 2.1 SED 1991 - which can stand a MONTH ands still start first time)

The car in question, was a 1997 P reg Xantia TD Dimension.. if used EVERY day was not a problem, however, if left for more then a day at a time, the battery would be down.. however, he discovered when parking up in his DARK garage in the winter, that the Glow Plug orange light was ALWAYS lit EVER SO DIMMLY - You'd never see it in the daytime, but in the garage in the dark he just noticed it..

I went through everything prior to this, swapped altinators, looked at wiring , did the meter tests, but it all came back clear.. once we found the plug light glow, I tried my best on the curcuit, but could not cure it.. by now he'd fallen for the XM.. I never fixed it, but just thought it MAY be something to look at and consider..

(The garage had to be pitch black to see the glow - My 1994 TD doesn't do it, and she always starts left a week or not)

Paul
Sharing a pug 207 1.6 hdi Sw 16v.
M reg Xm 2.1 td auto exclusive S2 269k and rising
L reg XM V6 12v SEi auto .. Light project

A very sad...
1994 XM 2.1 d auto
User avatar
falling-out-with-my-car
Posts: 1928
Joined: 06 Apr 2008, 15:26
Location: Northamptonshire
My Cars: Citroen C5 Aircross 8 speed Automatic, Flair Model with far to many toys and nice comfy armchair like leather seats. ha ha Ive just had a conversation with the car. setting everything up verbally
x 24

Post by falling-out-with-my-car »

well I thought I'd check that one last night and there are no lights on the dash semi lit.

battery levels drop of a period of about ten days if the car is left, this is the first time I have experienced this behaviour and though perhaps it was something to do with freezing temps for more than a week.

battery levels are good to, maybe its something to do with dark snowey days using my veg oil preheater and my lights and not running the car long enough to replace the charge by jove I think Ive got it.

regards Nigel.
Citroen Xantia S2 1.9 TD estate 189K soon to be broken for parts Jan 2017 headlamps & radiator fan assembly already spoken for & A 1987 Citroen 2CV6 special just for fun.
New addition Citroen C5 2.0 HDi Exclusive Hatch purchased 09/12/2016 with 83K on the clock.
Peter.N.
Moderating Team
Posts: 11563
Joined: 02 Apr 2005, 16:11
Location: Charmouth,Dorset
My Cars: Currently:

C5 X7 VTR + Satnav Hdi estate Silver
C5 X7 VTR + Hdi Estate 2008 Red

In the past: 3, CX td Safaris and about 7, XM td estates. Lovely cars.
x 1199

Post by Peter.N. »

Hi Nigel

Any car battery will go flat if left standing long enough, the length of time it stays up depends largely on the condition of the battery. Because of the large plate area of modern batteries they will start the car with perhaps only 10% of their capacity left but the reserve capacity is very small so that even the light drain of say the alarm system will flatten it in a comparitivly short time. The sort of temperatures we have had for the last few weeks will quickly sort out the men from the boys in the battery stakes. My XM batteries will go flat in a few weeks if the car is not used.

Stand by drain may only ammount to about one amp hour per day, which in the normal course of events is negligable, but leave the car for two or three weeks and that is say 20ah which is all the capacity an old battery may have.

Peter
Post Reply