I am having an electrical problem with my ’83 SD. The battery drains to dead when the car sits over night. This is a new problem that has just started in the last two weeks. The battery was replaced last July after four years of faithful service; it just got old and tired. About a month ago I got the car painted. The paint shop left one of the doors ajar for two weeks and drained the battery to dead, real dead. We jumped it and it charged back up fine.

I changed out my AC about two weeks ago. I put in a new compressor, drier and converted to R134. The AC works great. Because of the timing I thought that I must have shorted a sensor or something but I went over it and all is well. Also, I went on a trip last week and left the car at long-term airport parking and disconnected the negative terminal. When I got back four days later I re-connected and the car fired right up. So, I’m thinking it’s not the battery.

OK, here’s my trouble shooting so far. I disconnected the negative terminal on the battery and hooked up an amp meter. The reading, with everything off, was 55 mA. I then took each fuse out, one at a time to see if I could locate a short. Nothing happened till I got to the fuse for the clock/radio and I dropped to 25 mA. Then I went back and removed ALL the fuses. I still got a reading of 25 mA! I could not figure out how I could have a 25 mA drain with all fuses out until I noticed that the positive terminal had a secondary wire on it to an alarm system that was there when I bought the car but didn’t work. I disconnected the wire and dropped to 1 mA.

I thought “Eureka!” right? Yep, well it still is loosing juice overnight. And I am at a total dead end here.

Current leakage through the alternator maybe ?

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Palangi

2004 C240 Wagon 203.261 Baby Benz
2008 ML320 CDI Highway Cruiser
2006 Toyota Prius, Saving the Planet @ 48 mpg
2000 F-150, Destroying the Planet @ 20 mpg



TRUMP .......... WHITEHOUSE
HILLARY .........JAILHOUSE
BERNIE .......... NUTHOUSE
0BAMA .......... OUTHOUSE

Or a defective glow plug relay box.

David

How do I check the alternator?

How do I check the glowplug relay?

Clancy,

Check on those two relay swithes(inner two from driver side fender) for the power seats, for some reason mine are pretty warm even the car has been sitting there for two days. I ve them disconnected and the battery won't drain anymore. I don't know if they are supposed to be warm like that.

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BJ

09 GL320 Bluetec 65K+
07 E320 Bluetec 43k+
05 Nissan Frontier NISMO 4X4 72K+


07 Kawasaki Vulcan 900 5k+ gone
87 300SDL 158k+ gone
91 300D 113k+ gone
83 300SD 220K+ gone
89 300E sold
87 190E sold
83 380SEL sold
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It is unlikely that a draw in the less than 100mA range would seriously effect a decent battery even over a few days. It is possible that your new battery sitting completely discharged over two weeks was ruined. You might try completely charging it (>24hrs @5A) and checking the specific gravity of each cell or seeing if the voltage drops to below 12.75V with the battery disconnected over night.

Bob D.

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Bob D.
Parrish, FL
1 SDL, 1 D, 1 TD, 1 Mog

Just a signature line test.

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Bob D.
Parrish, FL
1 SDL, 1 D, 1 TD, 1 Mog

OK, I took the battery back to AutoZone and they quick charged it and tested it. It tested good. They were nice and said that if my problems persist they will exchange it anyway.

I have brought it back home and am going to give it a charge on my bench for 24 hours to see if that does it any good.

would go to auto electric shop and have alternator
checked 90% of the time a hard to find overnight drain is due to leak back through a bad alternator.
Or you can take the wires off (tape that batt wire) and let it sit overnight or better 24 hours and see if you still have a drain down.....
William Rogers.....

Battery drain can be strange -- the "cheater" test is to take a battery cable off and hook up a test light between the cable and battery -- if the lamp doesn't light, you don't have a drain big enough to cause much trouble over a day or two.

The funs starts here. Either you have a drain somewhere that is intermittant or a bad battery. I'm not fond of autozone batteries, expecially for a diesel -- I've had too many of them crap out on me, most commonly after going completely dead (from excessive cranking on the old 220D). Buy a good Sears Diehard, International Series. These are the only ones I know of that will adequately crank diesels and not croak if run low. They are expensive, but will indeed last for 4-5 years.

For current drains, you will have to pay attention to when it goes flat. Trunk light switch not working properly is a common problem -- you can't tell it is on unless you are in the trunk! Will run the battery flat overnight, usually. The mercury switches in hood light systems were a good one, too -- only ran the battery flat when the car was parked on a steep grade! Think of what is different between the times the battery goes dead and when it doesn't, and work from there.

I hate electrical problems!

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

I like electrical problems. First thing, 50ma current draw will take 1 or 2 months to drain a good battery, so don't worry about something that small.

To drain it in a day or two, you need about 2 or 3 amps. You have something that is intermittently staying on, like a trunk light or dome light, that is drawing it down.

Post back when you find it.

thanks
Joe

OK, I charged the battery on my bench overnight. It was interesting. I borrowed my neighbors 10 amp charger and when I hooked up it read 8 amps and slowly (over 12 hours) worked it's way back to half an amp. I put the battery back in this morning and it has started fine all day. I an anxious to see what I have in the morning.

Tomorrow I have to fly to Sacramento for the week (I live in Ventura, CA). I will leave the battery hooked up to see if it drains (thank god for AAA, if needed).

I will post again on Thursday night.