I have been suffering battery failures (flat) on the green 80 since I bought it. I swapped the Optimas for some new standard batteries. Since then the Optimas have actually come up on charge on the bench and have been fine. So I have a pair of perfectly good red tops!
The new batteries have been completely flat a couple of times now after standing for a week. The alternator is kicking out plenty and there are no other odd niggles or anything. I have disconnected all the old sub woofer wiring and so on but still been losing juice. I unplugged the TVSS module and still had losses. So today I had some time to do some tests. With the ammeter across the batteries I got a test result of 4.5 amps with side lights on. Seems fine. Front ones are LED.
With nothing on at all, I am reading 0.13 amps. I set the alarm and it flipped between 0.13 and 0.15 with the flashing LED. With the alarm disconnected it's still 0.13. I pulled all the added wiring from the battery terminals and the fuses out of the aux fuse box. Still reading 0.13. Now I don't really understand these things but .13 of an amp is higher than it should be, yes?
I haven't pulled the alternator plug yet becaue I'm busy, but it's next on the list. But I repeat the alternator is working perfectly. In fact the truck is a joy to drive. But I can't keep punishing the batteries like this. It does one school run per week and other than that rarely turns a wheel. But these are 85 Ah batteries and should not be flat after a week. I have put the CTEK 10 amp charger on them and they are both happily sitting in the float charge mode now. I have used the good old fashioned heated coil battery tester on them and I could have made toast on the element. They held a load no problem. They're nearly new. I have pulled all the dash fuses and put the tester in and none of them are registering any load at all.
I guess the alternator is my last port of call but anyone got any more ideas? There really isn't anything on in the truck. No additional LEDs or anything. Even the stereo is disabled.
The new batteries have been completely flat a couple of times now after standing for a week. The alternator is kicking out plenty and there are no other odd niggles or anything. I have disconnected all the old sub woofer wiring and so on but still been losing juice. I unplugged the TVSS module and still had losses. So today I had some time to do some tests. With the ammeter across the batteries I got a test result of 4.5 amps with side lights on. Seems fine. Front ones are LED.
With nothing on at all, I am reading 0.13 amps. I set the alarm and it flipped between 0.13 and 0.15 with the flashing LED. With the alarm disconnected it's still 0.13. I pulled all the added wiring from the battery terminals and the fuses out of the aux fuse box. Still reading 0.13. Now I don't really understand these things but .13 of an amp is higher than it should be, yes?
I haven't pulled the alternator plug yet becaue I'm busy, but it's next on the list. But I repeat the alternator is working perfectly. In fact the truck is a joy to drive. But I can't keep punishing the batteries like this. It does one school run per week and other than that rarely turns a wheel. But these are 85 Ah batteries and should not be flat after a week. I have put the CTEK 10 amp charger on them and they are both happily sitting in the float charge mode now. I have used the good old fashioned heated coil battery tester on them and I could have made toast on the element. They held a load no problem. They're nearly new. I have pulled all the dash fuses and put the tester in and none of them are registering any load at all.
I guess the alternator is my last port of call but anyone got any more ideas? There really isn't anything on in the truck. No additional LEDs or anything. Even the stereo is disabled.