'85 245 drains battery when parked.

When I leave it parked for a couple of days the battery is almost flat,
luckily I live on a hill and can clutch-start it. I've started to disconnect
the battery at night and there is a small spark on first reconnection in the
morning, but none on immediate reconnection, could it be a leaky capacitor
somewhere? I dread and open-ended search for a short at $60/hour, I'm
tempted to put a higher voltage across the terminals and see what starts to
smoke, any thoughts?

 

Hook an ammeter between the positive terminal of the battery and the positive
battery cable; if you've something drawing current, it'll show on the meter.

Once it's indicating, start pulling fuses until the current suddenly drops;
then start checking everything on that circuit.

If none of the fuses has an effect, disconnect the charging wire from the
alternator; you could have a bad rectifier in it.


Gary

 

Garys method is the right one. Don't try the "smoke" method.

I had the same problem. It turned out ot be the power locking. The
switch in the driver's door was broken, and a relay was constantly
activated. I noticed the power locking had quit but did not relate it to
the battery drainage.

The classic problem is the light in the glove compartment. If it stays
on when shut, there you go. Hard to get in there to check it though ;-)


--
Gunnar

240 Turbo Wagon '84 200 K Miles
940 Wagon '92 150 K Miles
on Swedish roads

 

Don't forget that the alternator can flatten a battery overnight if the diodes
(rectifier stack) go leaky. Unplug alternator overnight and re-plug it just
before starting. If the car starts OK then it is the alternator. If the battery
still runs down then take out the lamps from the boot, glovebox and under-bonnet
and see if the battery holds up then.

Cheers, Peter.

: Garys method is the right one. Don't try the "smoke" method.
:
: I had the same problem. It turned out ot be the power locking. The
: switch in the driver's door was broken, and a relay was constantly
: activated. I noticed the power locking had quit but did not relate it to
: the battery drainage.
:
: The classic problem is the light in the glove compartment. If it stays
: on when shut, there you go. Hard to get in there to check it though ;-)
:
:
: --
: Gunnar
:
: 240 Turbo Wagon '84 200 K Miles
: 940 Wagon '92 150 K Miles
: on Swedish roads
:

 

Thank you gentlemen for the excellent advice, why didn't I think of that
myself? Not always at the top of my game- what a great newsgroup!