Xantia TD SX Battery drain

[citroenxm]

Hi ..

Have an issue with a customer car, the battery is draining causing slow or no starting...

At first I thought I had cracked it, as I fitted my Amp Meter between the Positive pole and the lead terminal, and found a drain of 0.9 amps with the Key Off.. Just to recap, car is a TD SX with completely PROPER normal suspension.

I went through the fuses and found the fuse for the Diagnostic socket and interior lighting was causeing the 0.8 amp drain.. however, it hasn't solved the problem. The battery is still going flat. Is this becuase theres still a 0.4 amp drain?

What should a TD SX have with the key off ? 0.01amp drain? Which I would assume would be for Clock and radio memory? Is 0.04 amp still too much?

Cheers

[spider]

0.4 sounds too much.

Not the boot light stuck on is it ?

You'll have to remove items / unplug them to accurately identify the source of the drain. A faulty radio draining too much permanent feed current is very rare, but not unknown.

[CitroJim]

0.4 is far too much Paul, it should be 0.04 (50mA) or thereabouts...

Foxglove lamp? Boot lamp? Wireless? Alarm?

Keep pulling fuses until it drops to what it should be...

[citroenxm]

Ive already eliminated interior lighting from fuse f15.. so ill have to go back and see if we can drop it further..

its not the radio cassette .. Pulling its fuse made no difference.. so its something else..

will report back when found.. So it should be virtually nothing on the xud td for amp pulling from battery?

[CitroJim]

On a TD all that should be left operational is the clock, IR receiver (S1), central locking/alarm and Hydractive ECU if fitted. On an S2 part of the CPH stays fired up for plip reception/alarm and central locking. Total current draw should be no more than 0.05A..

If it has a keypad immobiliser that stays a bit live for the flashing light...

You say it has PROPER suspension. Check the Hydractive ECU is not keeping the suspension in soft mode. Normal cause is the boot switch - it's not the same one as the boot light one and is in fact the same one as operates the alarm...

[citroenxm]

Haha Jim.. no proper suspension with no hydractive suspension...

[CitroJim]

Ahh well, won't be the Hydractive system draining the battery then

Let us know how it goes as this subject has come up in the past without any real conclusions as far as I remember...

[spider]

The way I used to check these kind of odd problems was to have a multimeter connected in series to measure the 'drain' and with someone watching it remove a fuse one at a time, if no better replace and remove another etc.

Do not overlook ones in the engine bay either.

This way you will hopefully find the cause.

An unlikely cause is the alternator rectifier shorting which will cause drain, but I think I've only seen that a couple of times over the years.

The only other memorable cause of this which won't apply was on a 106 where there was a 3A odd drain, there's a relay under the ECU plate on the inner wing on some of these and that had decided to fill with water and rust 'on'

[citroenxm]

Spider,

Thats exactly what I did and thats how I came across F15 was draining 0.8 amps, and when pulled it dropped, but I cant remember if it dropped to 0.4 or 0.04 amps now.. So I need to look further..

I need to return anyway, got a message from the owner, the battery is still going down...


Jim,

I did have this before on an X regSX HDi in which you also advised me on.. Not long after I sold the car the owner was complaining of flattening battery. With the amp meter in line between the Battery pole and terminal connection, there was about 2 amp drain. On this car it turned out to be the Radio Head unit which I replaced with a CD unit and all was well again.

Incidentally, it was a S2 single slot Tape unit by Phillips that was draining..