Mark944na86

This is weird.

I thought I had a battery on the way out -- a couple of days ago, I had trouble starting the car, and over the last few months I've had to trickle charge the battery a few times now to get up to full charge. I thought the time had come to get a new battery, so I called up the RACQ (local equivalent of the AAA) to get a replacement. They have good deals on price and they offer installation and "deliver to your car" warranty replacement if necessary.

The guy came out to fit it, and to test things out, put the multimeter on with the new battery installed to test the current drain. The only thing that should have drawing power was the security immobiliiser system, which was on.

The current drain read on his meter at 7 amps. No, not 7, 70, or 700 mA. 7 big amps!

I said "you don't mind if I get my meter out to get a second opinion?" (my little analogue only reads to 250mA) and *bang*, yep, right off the scale.

I said "let me disable the immobiliser" (which is activated by central locking on the S2). I turned it off by unlocking the car door, and the current dropped to well under 1A, about 200mA, although his meter was fluctuating a bit

Now here's the strange thing: I put the immobiliser back on, and the current drain rose, but only to about 600mA.

Needless to say I didn't buy a new battery; I'll hold judgement on it until I can figure out what's going on. I suspect the battery I've got will probably hold charge perfectly OK, as long as it's not powering the equivalent of a 100w light bulb while switched off sitting in the garage!

As a place to start, I went through my relays, looking for a rattle, and the ABS relay did rattle a bit (although I haven't seen any other symptoms). I'll replace this as soon as I can source a new part, but somehow it doesn't seem to be the likely culprit.

Anyone seen anything like this before? Any ideas on how/where to start trouble shooting?

Thanks,

-Mark

BTW, there was an empty relay socket I hadn't noticed before, labelled as "gong/catalytic warn". Anyone know what that one's for?

KuHL 951

Does your Central Locking activate an aftermarket alarm also? If so why didnt it go into alarm mode with the hood open during your test? I have to have my Central Locking and aftermarket alarm off any time my hood is open. Maybe it reset to a default when you unlocked it. These cars w/ CL can do some strange things. 600mA is still a big drain, see if the dark current drops when you depress the hood switch that activates the light. A few people have complained of worn wires grounding on the door near the grommet causing all kinds of glitches. It's just a guess on my part really. Hope you find it soon.

Mark944na86

I should have mentioned -- the battery in the RHD 944 (actually designated typ 945 for 944 spermologists) is not situated under the hood, it's in the back hatch area under the LHS "cubby" flap. I guess the engineers wanted to put the steering column through where the battery is located in LHD models...

I don't believe there is anything aftermarket connected up to the factory security system, but I'll check things out a bit further. Maybe the fact the rear hatch was opened while the battery was being disconnected/reconnected was doing something strange... good idea, anyway.

Thanks for your input.

Regards,

-Mark

KuHL 951

Who would have suspected a RHD on a Bay Area car? Same possible problem though with the hatch. Good Luck

Mark944na86

OK, you've finally convinced me to change the "location" entry in my profile...

Rob in Oz

Hey Mark

If you're in Brisbane for a while, you might like to get together with some of the local 944 Guys. PM me if you're interested....

Regards

Rob

JontraK

Hey Mark,

I know its been over 5 yrs since you had this issue but what was the resolution to your problem? Over the last year my battery has been slowly discharging and I've had to trickle charge it several times. Last week I tried to start the car and the immobiliser stopped working altogether (no beeps when I plugged the security dongle). I called up an electrician who said that most probably it was the immobiliser that has died and rewired the car to bypass the immobiliser.

He wasnt 100% sure about the fault hence looking for any suggestions before I take this further.

Thanks in advance,
Rob

odurandina

might you have a dead swich somewhere -- and something isn't shutting down ?