Battery drain

[iver rek]

I've had the car tucked up over winter attached to a battery conditioner. The latter seems to be charging most of the time, which suggests a drain.
I can see some distant illumiation through an old immobiliser socket in the right-hand corner of the facia. Luggage compartment light on all the time? Anyone know where the switch is?
Also interior lights work but don't turn off withthe switches on the door post. Any link?

Any advice most welcome.

 

[MrHappy]

Presumably you have the bonnet open to connect the conditioner wire to the battery. You need to manually push the bonnet catch to its closed position. This will turn off the luggage compartment light and reduce the battery drain and therefore the number of charging cycles. If your interior light problem persists then you could turn the light off by rocking the light itself. It has 3 positions, on, on with doors, off.

P.S. if you have a 'wet battery' like me, rather than sealed, it's worth checking the levels and topping up with distilled water if needed. My conditioner told me that the battery was fully charged yet it barely had the strength to light the headlights let alone start it. On inspection the battery had very low levels inside but thankfully has been fine since I topped it up.

Hope this helps. []

 

[PORKA]

I had same trouble and turned out to be a faulty bonnet light switch, under the lid the light remained on and flattened the battery in a week!
Replaced the switch no more trouble.
If you have a trickle charger make sure the bonnet closes as normal has the same effect.

 

[iver rek]

Thank you all for the ideas. Have now turned the luggage light off manually and awaiting for results.
Multi-meters are beyond me. My limit is a wet finger to see if a wire is live. Time for the professionals!

Paul Hunt