Charging/battery drain problem with my CDTi SRI

**jay w** · 20th December 2010, 00:26

For the last few weeks i have had an issue with my 150 CDTi Sri.

Leave it overnight and in the morning the battery will be dead, and by that i mean nothing

get the jump leads out and it will start, once the car has been run for a while it will be ok for the entire day, the car is a taxi so it is used for 8-10 hours of the day.

So far we have replaced the alternator and battery, i have measured the voltage once the car has been started and it only reads 13.5V, this surprised me until someone commented that Canbus cars sometimes dont charge at 14.4....i don't know how true that is though.

At night i have noticed that the lights 'pulse' as the revs rise, when the car is at idle the pulsing stops, but when driving down a lane with main beam in it is very noticeable, i would imagine this is down to the alternator, however i don't think that the alternator is at fault, my reason for thinking this is if i disconnect the battery overnight it will start with no issues in the morning.

I have disconnected things that have been retro fitted such as my meter and radio when the car is left overnight. again this didn't change anything, the car will still not start.

I am slowly getting to the point where i think it is a power drain, one of the things i can hear once everything is powered down is a fan of some description, almost like a PC fan, my car has sat nav fitted so i don't know if this has some bearing on the matter, is anyone else able to hear a fan running when they turn the ignition off on their sat nav unit (the fan will still be running a few minutes after the ignition has been switched off)

The only other issue i can see is i get the 'safeguard' message appear every day, i have pinpointed this to a faulty door light switch on the OSR door, it wont switch the light on when the door is open, could this cause the issue i have or are we looking at something more serious?

Thanks in advance

**jay w** · 25th December 2010, 19:54

anyone have any ideas as this is really starting to get me down

**lee gsi** · 25th December 2010, 20:15

Did you replace the alternator with a new one?

**benson** · 31st December 2010, 13:52

. UOTE=jay w;1398829]For the last few weeks i have had an issue with my 150 CDTi Sri.

Leave it overnight and in the morning the battery will be dead, and by that i mean nothing

get the jump leads out and it will start, once the car has been run for a while it will be ok for the entire day, the car is a taxi so it is used for 8-10 hours of the day.

So far we have replaced the alternator and battery, i have measured the voltage once the car has been started and it only reads 13.5V, this surprised me until someone commented that Canbus cars sometimes dont charge at 14.4....i don't know how true that is though.

At night i have noticed that the lights 'pulse' as the revs rise, when the car is at idle the pulsing stops, but when driving down a lane with main beam in it is very noticeable, i would imagine this is down to the alternator, however i don't think that the alternator is at fault, my reason for thinking this is if i disconnect the battery overnight it will start with no issues in the morning.

I have disconnected things that have been retro fitted such as my meter and radio when the car is left overnight. again this didn't change anything, the car will still not start.

I am slowly getting to the point where i think it is a power drain, one of the things i can hear once everything is powered down is a fan of some description, almost like a PC fan, my car has sat nav fitted so i don't know if this has some bearing on the matter, is anyone else able to hear a fan running when they turn the ignition off on their sat nav unit (the fan will still be running a few minutes after the ignition has been switched off)

The only other issue i can see is i get the 'safeguard' message appear every day, i have pinpointed this to a faulty door light switch on the OSR door, it wont switch the light on when the door is open, could this cause the issue i have or are we looking at something more serious?

Thanks in advance[/QUOTE]

**benson** · 31st December 2010, 14:07

Hi I am in Torquay with the same vehicle model and year. I too have the same problem I had a new battery fitted. That seemed to solve the problem for 5 months and now its started again.An engineer checked the circuit between the neg and the battery terminal. He found there was adrain on the system of 0.22 amps.This stopped when we removed fuse 9 in the fuse box on the left side of the dash.This fuse was for the multi function module 1. What ever that means .He said it was a dealers job now as he could do no more. Well we know what dealers are like down here. So I am hoping someone can come up with a solution,as the fault seems to be on going with and a lot of other people.Lets hope someone out there can help

**benson** · 31st December 2010, 14:08

I too have the same problem. I have had an auto engineer check it out with a meter and he established ther was a drain of .22 amp and this was eliminated by removing fuse 9 which covered the multi function module 1. THE fuse was found on the left side of the dash. I recharged the battery as it was thought the system would right it self but it has not. I am in Torquay. The car let me down over Xmas yet again I getting fed up with it .The dealers charge so much. So if you or any body can assist I would be greatful. UOTE=jay w;1398829]For the last few weeks i have had an issue with my 150 CDTi Sri.

Leave it overnight and in the morning the battery will be dead, and by that i mean nothing

get the jump leads out and it will start, once the car has been run for a while it will be ok for the entire day, the car is a taxi so it is used for 8-10 hours of the day.

So far we have replaced the alternator and battery, i have measured the voltage once the car has been started and it only reads 13.5V, this surprised me until someone commented that Canbus cars sometimes dont charge at 14.4....i don't know how true that is though.

At night i have noticed that the lights 'pulse' as the revs rise, when the car is at idle the pulsing stops, but when driving down a lane with main beam in it is very noticeable, i would imagine this is down to the alternator, however i don't think that the alternator is at fault, my reason for thinking this is if i disconnect the battery overnight it will start with no issues in the morning.

I have disconnected things that have been retro fitted such as my meter and radio when the car is left overnight. again this didn't change anything, the car will still not start.

I am slowly getting to the point where i think it is a power drain, one of the things i can hear once everything is powered down is a fan of some description, almost like a PC fan, my car has sat nav fitted so i don't know if this has some bearing on the matter, is anyone else able to hear a fan running when they turn the ignition off on their sat nav unit (the fan will still be running a few minutes after the ignition has been switched off)

The only other issue i can see is i get the 'safeguard' message appear every day, i have pinpointed this to a faulty door light switch on the OSR door, it wont switch the light on when the door is open, could this cause the issue i have or are we looking at something more serious?

Thanks in advance[/QUOTE]