Battery Drain

[paulh]

Anybody ever checked what drainage they get from their batteries with the car stationary and everything switched off?
I've been having a few flat battery problems lately so I decided to check mine and found it to be 120/130 ma which shouldn't really be a problem but just wondered what it compares to others.
To be fair at the moment I'm not doing much mileage so it isn't getting much alternator charge but I'm having to put the charger on every couple of weeks.

[Tallyman]

Do you have an alarm or immobiliser fitted? If so, that is possibly the drain; either that or the clock & radio as these need a constant supply to maintain settings.

If you are having to constantly recharge then either the alternator is failing to put out enough charge (unlikely as they tend to fail fully rather than reduce charge) or your batteries are coming to the end of their useful life and could do with being replaced. If you have a multimeter, check the charge rate of the alternator running at tickover to see what it's putting out. Should be around 14.4V.

[paulh]

Yeh quite a few bits and pieces left to drain it, alarm, radio memory and often one or two bits I've left plugged in the accessory sockets but at 130ma should take quite a while, both batteries are less than 2 years old but I'm beginning to suspect that one may be failing so I've disconnected one and I'm just charging one up at the mo and seeing how it fares.
If it's just as bad then I'll try the same with the other one.

[BUSHWHACKER]

I'm still using the original batteries and I can leave the truck alone for four days and it still starts OK. I've got an alarm LED flashing and radio memory using battery power.

Make sure your battery/cable terminals are spotlessly clean and tightly attatched.

[paulh]

Make sure your battery/cable terminals are spotlessly clean and tightly attatched.

They're even chavved up GOLD PLATED

[BUSHWHACKER]

They're even chavved up GOLD PLATED

There's the problem then!