Hi Everyone,

My first post here, I've had an up to now reliable 2013 fiesta facelift model.

I didn't use it for nearly a month over december/january and the battery was flat when I tried to go out.

Got a jump start and after a drive it was all charged up and starting the car no problem.

Every week now it's needed a jumpstart if I've left it for four or five days. If it's just the next day or two it starts no problem.

Took it back to the garage that fitted the battery last year and it tests fine, alternator charging fine too.

I've disconnected battery and reconnected with an ammeter in series.The current with car all off/parked up is 1.56amps. I've checked there's no courtest lights on(doors shut) and given it a few minutes to settle. I've pulled the fuses out of the engine compartment one at a time. Only fuse 5(passenger compartment fuse box) made any difference, the current fell to around 230milliAmp to 320mA. I've started looking into the passenger fusebox but there is still a current draw of between 230mA and 320mA that I can't eliminate by pulling the fuses or relays out of the engine compartment fuse box. Does anyone have any advice or ideas? I've been having a look around for what might be a normal current draw with the car parked up, maybe 50 to 100milliAmp. Does that sound about right for a fiesta? I thought I'd be able to get the current to zero by pulling out any fuses that would draw current when the car is parked up(central locking) I wondered could the unfused current draw be from the alternator? It was tested as charging okay when the battery was tested. Thanks Richard

 

you always have a bit of current draw while the battery is conencted due to normal leakage current, but with car locked the alarm also draws energy from the battery. also fuse 5 is the OBD port fuse

Cheers, yes, I was expecting a bit of a power draw from the remote central locking but it seems like that should be in the region of 50mA or so. fuse 5 also supplies the passenger compartment fuse box so by pulling that out I ruled out any draw from the equipment supplied by the passenger compartment fuse box. That still works out about 1.2 amps for the passenger compartment when the car is locked which sounds like it's something like at least 10 times too much current.

It's flattening a fully charged battery within 5 or so days

sorry i misread what you had said, i thought you meant F5 in the passenger fuse box, not the engine one, have you done the same test for the passenger fuse box? The other thing is check any vehicle grounds as a bad ground somewhere can cause a parasitic drain. also has anything been added onto the car aftermarket into the wireing loom?

That's okay, yes I'm working through the passenger fuse box, I'm about half way through, I got a bit of a drop in current draw when I pulled fuse 21(audio system, navigation, bluetooth) and fuse 24(SYNC, bluetooth) It was tiny though. There was an old insurance tracker I found behind the glove box and I've taken that out and saved about another 100mA so that's something - it's just the car was fine all last year so I guess that's not the cause but will help to have it removed. I still haven't accounted for about 1.3 amps worth of draw. Thanks for that suggestion I'll try looking for the vehicle grounds. I'm just looking things up as I go, do you know any common places to look for problems like that?

Cheers

the major one is if there is any corrosion on the negative strap that goes from the negative of the battery to the chassis ground

There's about 1.4 amps I can't eliminate by taking the fuses out so I'll put it into a garage and see if they can find it without too much work.. hopefully

22 hours ago, MyWeeCar said:

That's okay, yes I'm working through the passenger fuse box, I'm about half way through, I got a bit of a drop in current draw when I pulled fuse 21(audio system, navigation, bluetooth) and fuse 24(SYNC, bluetooth) It was tiny though. There was an old insurance tracker I found behind the glove box and I've taken that out and saved about another 100mA so that's something - it's just the car was fine all last year so I guess that's not the cause but will help to have it removed. I still haven't accounted for about 1.3 amps worth of draw. Thanks for that suggestion I'll try looking for the vehicle grounds. I'm just looking things up as I go, do you know any common places to look for problems like that?

Cheers

Try searching back through topics for the last week or so. There are literally hundreds of posts on this very same problem.

Have you tried disconnecting the alternator, it could be a bad diode and it is backfeeding from the battery  

Could it be the bluetooth module issue that a few people have had? Apparently there's a bug in a version of the firmware on it which means that if the radio is switched off when you switch the engine off then the module keeps drawing power. Though of course if you've been leaving the radio on when you switch the ignition off it won't be that.