HELP! battery always drained, is the alternator charging?

NICKYB

hi all, thought i'd rack all your brains as mine are mashed!

its a Z22SE in a astra convertible and all started 4-5 months ago with what i thought was a flat battery so it was changed and all was well until a week or so later, i did put the old battery on charge which is still a great battery.

as said a week or so later the same happerned with the car being dead but jumps off without any effort from the spare battery that used to be fitted and this could be once or twice a week, it did this for a good few weeks with me being undesided if i should try another alternator or not due to the random patterns of it.

its done it the last few days after having a good run of 2 months ish so once again messed about with batterys, checked all wiring i can see etc. but nothing stands out to me, this time its daily so really had enough now mainly as its my wifes car & it means i have to mess about every night after work nor does my wife need to be asking strangers for a jump start or lugging a spare battery about with her.

evrything is as if it has a flat battery with the clicks on the turn of ignition, the only thing i have noticed is when the ignition is on without turning futher the ABS unit starts whining which builds up quicker & quicker as if a helicoptor about to take off ( sorry but thats the best way i can discribe it ) it may just sound strange with the noise building up due to lack of power but thought i'd make it aware just in case.

so.... any ideas guys?

thanks for your time & help

Daz

Same issue as i had on my coupe. i fixed it by replacing the battery earth leads and new positive to the starter motor.

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NICKYB

Daz said:
Same issue as i had on my coupe. i fixed it by replacing the battery earth leads and new positive to the starter motor.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Oh rite, did you get them as genuine parts for the job or just universal stuff daz?

kabby

I've hit the same problem - fixed it with just the earth leads and used universal stuff.
Try it before changing anything else.

JohnnyN

This happened on our old Zafira. Daz was going to fix it but a wrote it off just up the road from his house! lol!

Daz

Just pop into a good factors and get them to make up a new leads for you, the one buy my works crimps the eyelets on for me, and supplies new terminals to go on the battery,(as the old ones dont come of the leads)

NICKYB

Ok guys, thanks for this, I'll go this route & report back hopfully with good news!

Daz

Previous owner of mine had fitted a new alternator to cure it... but didnt work... i cud start the car no probs in work, drive home, 16miles, turn it off , open garage, and it wudnt start.. so checked the charging at the battery , was around 12.8 volts, probed a bit further down the cable and it was 14.5... so opened the cable up and it was all blue/yellow ish,

NICKYB

Daz said:
Previous owner of mine had fitted a new alternator to cure it... but didnt work... i cud start the car no probs in work, drive home, 16miles, turn it off , open garage, and it wudnt start.. so checked the charging at the battery , was around 12.8 volts, probed a bit further down the cable and it was 14.5... so opened the cable up and it was all blue/yellow ish,

Sounds like the same mate, wife went out this morning with no problem as I put a fully charged battery on last night then this afternoon went to get fuel & she had too ask for a jump start to leave!

si_c1978

You can test the theory by running a jump lead from bat - to starter earth as the are similar.
Also check across the alternator terminals with the engine running you should see 14v iirc

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NICKYB

si.c1978 said:
You can test the theory by running a jump lead from bat - to starter earth as the are similar.
Also check across the alternator terminals with the engine running you should see 14v iirc

Sent from my X8 using Tapatalk 2

thanks matey, i'll go try that.

i have had a quick look when i got home & the earths are more complicated than i first thought, i take it that you mean the earth that goes to starter & alternator at front of engine bay?

if so its not an easy place to play about in and has all the other little bits that split out the casing, do i just un case it all and put new lead in across the front to the battery?

sorry for sounding thick but i am totally usless at electrics, i can wire a amp but thats about it.

i did jump it off when i got home and took it for a quick drive and i had, T/C, ABS, coolant lights etc keep jumping up then needles jumping about before the power steering went completly but am i right in thinking thats just becasue of the battery draining as the window was really struggling to come back up.

any help will be great guys, many thanks

si_c1978

On the alternator just use a multimeter and test the heavy duty leads for voltage from a solid earth(block or body) you should find one easy enough! Room is an issue persistence rules!
It does sound like your battery's draining and not so much an earth issue with the starter etc

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Daz

runt he car for a while and then feel the earth nd power leads.. mine were toasty

NICKYB

i'll try daz when i get the power in the battery again, will be tomorrow now as had enough.

i don't have a multimeter as of yet, all i have is a battery charger that shows the volts, charging at the battery was 12.5v but when i managed to get a small jump lead on the starter motor it showed up at 13.1v, i see that as a good sign so i did the only thing i could think of and connected a 0 gauge amp earth lead to the earth on starter to the battery connection, not sure if it'll help at all but i couldn't check cause the battery is really dead now due to leaving the car running still the point it cut of from lack of power.

would this help? also what leads was it you renewed daz? live & earth to starter? did you unwrap all the wiring from the casing & replaced the main live & earth?

thanks all

Daz

Yup .. removed all the old leads from the conduit and replaced with new... you cud just get another earth lead made up and add it to the car..leaving the old in place and give that try.. if that doesnt work renew the live to the starter aswell..

NICKYB

Daz said:
Yup .. removed all the old leads from the conduit and replaced with new... you cud just get another earth lead made up and add it to the car..leaving the old in place and give that try.. if that doesnt work renew the live to the starter aswell..

thanks daz, in a way i've done that with the audio 0 gauge earth lead which i did, i've trying the car today after a good charge up also by jumping the car off mine but nothing, just the starter motor clicking.

now with the possable problem, when i added the extra earth lead (only audio one) in my tinkering mood i didn't disconnect the battery and by using the racket it gave a good spark & a bang, now while that give a good amount of light while i was underneath the car i didn't do it again so disconnected power and carried on with it but not sure it did it alot of good....:cry:

am i need of a new starter? the battery is now showing 13.0v which is the highest i've seen it charge within the last week or so but what other damage have i done? other than saying i'm a t**t any help would be great!

thanks

Daz

get a meter and put it to earth and direct to the large lead on the alt... and see what reading it gives.. then report back

NICKYB

Daz said:
get a meter and put it to earth and direct to the large lead on the alt... and see what reading it gives.. then report back

sorry to sound so think daz, what do you mean by large end on alternator? as it just seems so hard to get to properly!

Daz

The battery lead coming off the alternator..

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NICKYB

right.... after a big flash from arc'ing the termanals on the starter with a racket cause i forgot about the battery as it was dead i got another ordered and started the removal of the old & the wiring earlier, i got the old one off & exposed all the wiring, i'm not sure if to fit it all back with a extra earth lead made from audio earth or wait til tomorrow and get a new earth lead made up.

the starter is puzzling me abit tho as there different, the connections for leads are turned slightly but the most difference is the cog in the top, the old one has the cog 'out' were as the new one in 'in', any advise is great.

the old one "knackered" is the cleaner one on left: