Parasitic drain on battery? LR3

[LtFuzz]

Gents,

First issue with the LR3...

Was glamping with some buddies this weekend in the Olympics here in WA. Woke up to a dead battery. Totally dead. We were pretty deep in the woods, but fortunately came across another truck relatively quickly. If we hadn't found him, we'd be still be hiking as I write this (no cell phone service out there).

W.T.F. was my initial thought. Truck has never exhibited symptoms of a parasitic drain before -- and the battery is less than 2 years old.

We had the interior lights were on for 20-30 minutes at a time as we unloaded... but that should take hours and hours to drain a battery (assuming it was at full charge).

The only other thing I can think of -- from last night -- was that the Nav system, after a series of unlocking/locking/re-locking would sometimes stay on the "Land Rover" welcome screen . But it would turn off eventually (10-20 min? It was a while before I realized it was on). Could that system suck enough juice to drain a giant LR3 battery? Maybe searching for a satellite?

Going to get the multimeter on it tomorrow to see if it's charging properly. My guess is that it will be -- charging system faults aren't as instant as this in my experience. I had no issues on the way home and the starter has never chugged before.

Any thoughts?

This truck is just a daily interstate hauler to work and back. I'm barely on the trails anymore. But once again, my confidence in my Land Rover is back in the toilet...

 

[Mack73]

Many have had to replace the alternator on these rigs.

My guess is alternator is in need of attention. Could be a bad cell in a battery as well - but should be easy enough to identify with a multi meter, if you haven't replaced your battery in 4 years, I would start there. These computer dependant rigs really want a good power source to function correctly.

 

[PhyrraM]

In my LR3 alternator the diodes/rectifiers/whatever started leaking current backwards. This can drain the battery in the form of a (somewhat) controlled short.

In my case it was very obvious, with smoke and burnt electrical smell emanating from the alternator and a dead battery in 20-30 minutes. I suppose it could also happen at a slower, less obvious rate.

I can't speak as to how common it is, but it was in my first week of ownership @ about 68K miles.

 

[proper4wd]

Do a draw test. How good of a multimeter do you have? You need something that is accurate down to 20 mA or so

Disconnect negative battery cable
Connect heavy jumper wire with alligator clips between negative battery terminal and negative battery cable
Connect multimeter in parallel with this
Tun vehicle key on, do not start
Key off
Make sure all dome lights are off
Wait about one minute for major electronics to power down
Remove heavy jumper wire, leaving only multimeter (on current setting) between neg battery and neg battery cable

Over the next 20 minutes you should see the current draw drop down in steps as the systems fall asleep.

On the LR3 the static draw should be in the range of 17mA if I remember correctly.

 

[LtFuzz]

Will do. Thanks for the feedback, Adam.

 

[Jwestpro]

A. the lr3 has a feature called "hunting" or something regarding the interior lights that come on when a door is open - this feature when engaged, keeps all the lights off upon opening of any door. You can still reach up and turn one on and I strongly suggest use of this feature but also only turning on one of the side/single lights as opposed to the front center which turns on all three rows at once.

B. Don't engage feature but be fanatical about turning off all the lights when a door is opened. 20 minutes several times is plenty to kill the battery because these beasts need such a topped off battery to start and make all the systems happy.
C. use a headlamp

from simplest to most complex:
$100? bring a starter battery kit along, even like one of the higher end Black and Decker where you charge it at home or on the road via 12v. Use it to slowly recharge weak factory battery or if powerful enough, to start it.
$200, bring a free standing Optima or Odessey, use it as above but make sure you have charged it before any trip. Tuck it away, tie it down for safety. Easy to jump start your self.
$400+ install 2nd battery with switch and manager that will be isolated from use unless you need to combine it for starting but it automatically charges when engine running.
$$$, do what I did and install biggest 2nd battery and manager but also re route the wiring for all of the left or right ceiling lamp switches and 3rd row reading lamps to the 2nd battery. Leave "hunting mode" for auto main lights always engaged, turn on which ever left or right 1st, 2nd, 3rd row lights as desired, no worries but don't just leave them on forever anyway, in case you need 2nd battery to help main battery start vehicle after a week of camping.

 

[unseenone]

How would you engage this "hunting" feature... it sounds interesting.

 

[leadoverdistance]

De-activating Dome lights while camping

Press the center button on forward dome light till it the dome light flashes (it turns off when you first press it down). This is a 5 second procedure.
The message screen on the instrument cluster displays , "Interior lights off", or sumsuch.

Interior lights will now be manual mode.

As suggested before, use the map lights, they only work at the source it is turned on, and do not turn interior lights on for the entire vehicle.

To reactivate dome lights, press center button down again till it flashes again, after 5 seconds.

Lights are back to auto mode.

Camping will knock the deuce out of a battery, specially if multiple parties keep coming and going fetching stuff.

All the best

Paul

 

[LtFuzz]

As suggested before, use the map lights, they only work at the source it is turned on, and do not turn interior lights on for the entire vehicle.

Pretty gruesome irony there, no?

Thanks for the tips.

 

[peekay]

Use this to detect the parasitic draw on your battery.

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-digi...ockType=G3&PDP_REDIRECT=false&s_tnt=39869:4:0

 

[proper4wd]

That will not have a finite enough resolution to be accurate.

EDIT: and its an AC current meter...

 

[peekay]

try this one:
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-digi...p-03482369000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1

You don't think 3 percent accuracy is enough? Seems like enough to me.

 

[proper4wd]

Its not necessarily the 3 percent, its the resolution.

Will it accurately detect 20mA (thats .0020 amps) via the current clamp through a heavy gauge wire with heavy insulation? At $44.99 I doubt it.

I have been down this road before... 99% of multimeters on the market are junk when it comes to low current, low voltage measurements.

The meter I use has a best resolution of 1mA when going directly through the meter. The current clamp add on (which is a $200 piece of equipment alone) only starts at 30mA... not good enough.