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i'm leaking electrically !!

theBaptist

Offroader
well my landy is actually :(

need some help pls as i am not at all knowledgeable re electrics apart from knowing red is positive and black is negative !

recently my landy starting having trouble with cold morning starts (2.25 diesel) - glow plugs working fine, 2-yr old Dagenite 105aH battery and engine is in good nick.

now lately it couldnt start at all and starter was turing over very slowly so i jumped started it off a Transit and went to an electrician (30 min drive). he tested battery and alternator and found them both in good shape so he suggested to overhaul the starter which he did.

so i now have a good starter, alternator, and supposodly a still capable battery.

well i left the landy idle for 3 days and guess what it wont start !! knowing the starter is now definately not the culprit i suspected that the battery lost its charge so i trickle charged it overnight and the engine burst into life in 3 seconds - great, apart from the fact that i now know something is using current when it should'nt :(

i now this is not a job for me but i can make life a lot easier is i go to an electrician with a hint of what can be draining the battery ..

i have fitted an alarm 2 months ago and it could be that the prob started since then (alarm siren was hoarse and croaky since day 1 and i have to go and have it replaced but didnt yet) .. could it be the faulty siren ?? the alarm system itself ??

another thing is a have a Kenwood cd-player that i myself connected with wiring going directly to the battery with a relay on the positive wire as close to battery as possible and it gave no probs since a long time BUT now comes the strange aprt of the whole story :

this morning starting was again difficult but it DID start and i went for an hours run and came back and disconnected the battery from the butterfly nut on the negative end - wonder of all wonders ignition, lights, horn etc still worked !!!!!! :eek: hmmm had another look and noticed negative black wire of stereo still attached to battery and disconnected it and now nothing works (bit obvious now) BUT how the hell is a thin earth stereo wire feeding a supply to my ignition, lights etc ??? :eek:

this is basically what i am asking more knowledgeable folk in here, unless of course you can even give me some other clues and help ;)

thanks in advance :)
 
You have a back feed through the permanent live on the stereo unit. It is providing the only route to earth on the system.

If you connect the stereo earth to the body, you will stop it.

Chris
 
thanks Chris :) i will do that at once.

but do you think thats the root of the problem ? or just one of them ?

it has been connected like that for around 18 months at least .... maybe it is being felt now as battery is getting 'older' ?? :confused:
 
We have an ongoing problem with a Peugeot Cabriolet, battery keeps going down over a couple of days. Our Electrician says it's the immobiliser.

We have had after market alarms draining batteries, one even set fire to the dash.

Disconnect it and see if it stops the drain. The other way is fit an Ammeter at the battey and see what the drain is, then take fuses out/ dosconnect plugs and see if it stops the loss.

Chris
 
Get a multimeter and and meausure any current draw off the +ve pole, if you get a reading start disconnecting any suspect gizmos, when you find the culprit just bin it.....................

A few milliamps might be acceptable but anything high is a no no...........

Ah and finally, fit a main cut off switch its insurance against any suspect wiring and fires..................

If you want help just drop a line you know where my garage is...............

Grem
 
thanks Chris & Grem.

i have a cut-out switch but dont use it as lately it seemed to be "intermittant" bzzzbzz bzzz on/off ... :(

dunno why :confused:
 
We have an ongoing problem with a Peugeot Cabriolet, battery keeps going down over a couple of days. Our Electrician says it's the immobiliser.


Chris

Depending on what pug it is you can easily disable the immobiliser for a few days to test it. We had to do one at my mates garage before as the buttons were sticking in the heat! If its the key code type that is!
 
solved !! :D

it wasnt leaking after all and i probably refurbished starter for nothing but oh well ...

a new earth from battery to engine was the solution.

my 'old' earth went from battery to bulkhead to a cut-out switch, and back to battery ... i cannot see the b/head ends and could be the prob lies there or cable old and ragged ...

no cut-out switch now but i dont use it anyway cause of alarm ;)

thanks for input.
 
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