Battery problem

[Tobbe]

Hi

Just bought a 2009 Multispace last weekend. It has 120000 km, or a bit under 75k miles on the clock. Anyway... It started fine multiple times when I took it for a test drive before buying it. Fueled up during my drive home, and it started right away with no problems. But then, after it had sat for a couple of days here at home it wouldn't start. I heard clicking sounds when I turned the key, but the engine didn't turn over. Was in a rush to get the kids to school, so just took our other car instead.

After work, I checked the battery with my multimeter. 6.44V. No wonder the car didn't start!



Tried to hook up my charger. Didn't even register that it was connected to a battery, so no luck charging it



That's how I tried to hook up my charger, but no lights turned on, so no charging.

Next up I tried to jump start it using my other car. Hooked up the jumper cables the same was as I hooked up the charger in the photo above. Again measuring with my multimeter I got a bit over 12 V on the battery. But the car still wouldn't start! 



Out of ideas I gave up for the time being. A day later I got another idea to try. If I hooked up the battery to my other car with my jumper cables, maybe I could get my charger working. 



It worked!



That was yesterday. Left it charging overnight, and today when I went out to check on it my battery was up to a bit over 12 V, and the car started again! Yay!
Checked again with the car running, and the alternator seems to be working, got a reading of about 14.4 V on the battery with the engine running.

So, two questions.
1. Why didn't the car start off of the jumper cables?
2. What the heck happened? Why was the battery down to just 6.44 V? How do I make sure it doesn't happen again?

(I guess technically that might have been more than two questions )

Thanks for any input!

[Tomcat3]

If you still only have 12 volts after charging the battery then you need a new battery.

[jj9]

So, two questions.
1. Why didn't the car start off of the jumper cables?
2. What the heck happened? Why was the battery down to just 6.44 V? How do I make sure it doesn't happen again?

(I guess technically that might have been more than two questions )

Thanks for any input!

1. 
If the battery on the berlingo was down to 6.44v it will pull down the donor battery, it's sometimes impossible to jump start a car when the battery is very low no matter what the meter says.

2.
You have either got a drain on the battery, or the battery is knackered. 
Get the battery checked.
Check for a parasitic drain (videos on youtube showing how) 

.

[polar]

As Tomcat and JJ say ^^^^^^

[Tobbe]

Thank you all for your replies.

Went out and checked the battery tonight again.



Only 9.26 V in the battery, from just sitting there. Definitely something draining the battery.

Hooking up my multimeter inline with the battery confirms the draw.



0.37 Amps. From what I've read online this should be closer to 0.05 amps (50 mA)

Next up - check the fuses. Now I only checked the fuses next to the battery, not the ones inside the car. But I did find two suspects.





Unfortunately the layout in the fusebox doesn't match what I have in my owners manual
So, does anyone here know what those fuses are for?

[Tobbe]

Here's a closeup of the fuses that seem to have a voltage drop



It's the red one with "40" on it, and the green 30 fuse with the probes on it.

I found this page https://fuse-box.info/citroen/citroen-be...2018-fuses and it has pretty much the same diagram as I have in my owners manual. I'm guessing the red 40 fuse is "Built-in systems interface", even though it's oriented in the wrong direction compared to that diagram. But the 30 one, which one is that? I'm guessing "Wipers" or "Pump", is that right? Which one in that case?

[jj9]

Before testing have you let the car go to sleep?

To do this you may have to lock the car and find a way to hold the bonnet pin down if there is one.


I'm afraid I can't help with the function of the fuses.

.

[Tobbe]

I don't think there is anything sensing the bonnet is open. At least I don't recall seeing any warning lights or anything in the car when it's open.
I did not lock the car. I'll make sure to do that tomorrow and measure on the fuses again.

[cancunia]

Maybe pull the fuses & see what does not work?
Are you leaving the car with doors closed for 10 mins to allow all the systems to 'sleep' before disconnecting the battery?

[Pedronicus]

I might be a bit dense here but in your pics of testing each side of the fuses with the prods your meter seems to be set on voltage. Surely each side of the fuse will have the same voltage. You would need the black prod to ground/-ve to get a true voltage reading on either side of the fuse. What is the '051' showing on the meter?