So just to be clear, this parasitic draw is just 0.39A yeah? That's nothing. The ECU is always on, so you will never get zero current drawn from the battery.
Your original battery must be shot, or that level of draw would not be an issue. You're looking for something that doesn't exist...a fault. Except for your dodgy battery that is.
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If you are saying that by pulling the fuses at the back of the vehicle the parasitic draw ceases it might be worth checking each core of the multicore tow bar socket cable as it could be possible there is a breakdown in the insulation of one core that is shorting out to another core all inside the outer covering.
(29-03-2020, 04:24 PM)Zion Wrote: So just to be clear, this parasitic draw is just 0.39A yeah? That's nothing. The ECU is always on, so you will never get zero current drawn from the battery.
Yeah, almost 400 mA. The draw in a healthy system is at most 50 mA. And when I pull the fuses in the back I get a draw of just 10 mA, which is perfect.
(29-03-2020, 04:24 PM)Zion Wrote: Your original battery must be shot, or that level of draw would not be an issue. You're looking for something that doesn't exist...a fault. Except for your dodgy battery that is.
A 400 mA draw will discharge my battery to 50% in less than four days. I often don't drive my car for four days (I work from home). So even with a brand new battery that would still be a problem for me.
(29-03-2020, 05:33 PM)Pedronicus Wrote: If you are saying that by pulling the fuses at the back of the vehicle the parasitic draw ceases it might be worth checking each core of the multicore tow bar socket cable as it could be possible there is a breakdown in the insulation of one core that is shorting out to another core all inside the outer covering.
Yes, this is a great idea. I just don't know how to do it If I had the cable in my hands, with each wire inside it exposed at both ends, I could use my multimeter, but now I only have one end exposed (down by the tow bar socket).
How would you do it?
(29-03-2020, 05:33 PM)Pedronicus Wrote: If you are saying that by pulling the fuses at the back of the vehicle the parasitic draw ceases it might be worth checking each core of the multicore tow bar socket cable as it could be possible there is a breakdown in the insulation of one core that is shorting out to another core all inside the outer covering.
Yes, this is a great idea. I just don't know how to do it If I had the cable in my hands, with each wire inside it exposed at both ends, I could use my multimeter, but now I only have one end exposed (down by the tow bar socket).
How would you do it?
Hello Tobbe,
If the parasitic draw disappears after removing the two fuses you have some how a short in the wiring behind the fuses in the part from the fuse holder to the tow bar socket pins.
There are two ways to do it.
The easiest way is to measure with your multimeter the resistance between each tow bar socket pin to ground. With no short it should be in the Meg-ohm level. If this shows no problems you have to check all the tow bar socket pins to each other. I would do it first on the tow bar socket from outside. The next step could be on the front part where the wires are connected to the tow bar socket pins.
But there could be a problem. The probing voltage and the current of a modern multimeter is typical very little and the "short doesn't fire up".
In this case you could connect a 9 .... 12V battery with minus via your multimeter to the ground of the car and step by step the plus pole of the test-battery to the tow bar socket pins which should have live under function. Then you measure the current which is running over the short.
I enclose the schematic of several tow bar sockets.
Regards Rolf
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The following 1 user says Thank You to rolf50 for this post:1 user says Thank You to rolf50 for this post • Tobbe
I have a specific continuity test setting on my multimeter where it will beep when it completes a circuit. So used that, and placed one probe on the brown (ground) wire in the tow bar socket, and the other probe on each of the other wires. No beeping. Switched over to measuring ohm, just to make sure, and they all had the same resistance. But you kind of expected that, didn't you
So I switched to your other suggestion. Force-feeding 9V through the wires. Unfortunately that didn't give much either. My multimeter said 350mA from all wires to ground. That's more than I expected. So either they're all shorted to ground, or none of them...
I have now put my battery back into the car, and reassembled everything except the tow bar electricity stuff. I'll run the car for a few days, just to make sure nothing is still eating away at the battery, and that disconnecting the tow bar does indeed make the problem go away.
(31-03-2020, 10:04 PM)Tobbe Wrote: I have now put my battery back into the car, and reassembled everything except the tow bar electricity stuff. I'll run the car for a few days, just to make sure nothing is still eating away at the battery, and that disconnecting the tow bar does indeed make the problem go away.
Hi ..just wondering if you confirmed that the towbar wiring was the problem?
My Vehicles: 2015 Berlingo Enterprise Van 75 1.6Hdi
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If I had the cable in my hands, with each wire inside it exposed at both ends, I could use my multimeter, but now I only have one end exposed (down by the tow bar socket).
