Electrical drain issue with Rover CDTi ?????
 

Yet another problem has arisen, this time it's with my Tourer, which failed to start last night and had all its display lights flashing!!

Disconnected the battery, thinking it might be something to do with the immobiliser and tried to start it this morning - no luck, same again :duh:

Called the AA out again - 4th time in 10 days between the two Tourers - and after checking several possibilities and charging the battery, he got it going!

When he arrived, the battery was totally 'dead' and there was talk of a replacement, but after leaving it on charge for 30 minutes, it had accepted a very substantial amount of amps, indicating it is still in 'rude health'....

His opinion is that the car is now experiencing a 'significant power drain', which could not be caused by something as trivial as the immobiliser, but said it would require someone with knowledge of Auto Electrics to diagnose and hopefully, resolve the issue.

Once again, I am looking for suggestions/input from the Club community to help guide me in the right direction - we are quite despairing of our 75 Tourers at this moment, having spent over a four figure sum between them in the past 8 weeks and we are not done yet, by the look of it.........:getmecoat:

Des; that's a classic sign of a discharged battery, and thirty minutes recharging is pitifully inadequate. Put your battery on a mains powered charger for at least 24 hours at the earliest opportunity.

Simon

Hi again Simon - this is getting rather too regular for me .......

Yes, the AA patrol guy said exactly that and his first attempt at using his portable power pack to jump start the car, proved woefully inadequate.

However, after around 30 minutes on charge, using his Van, the battery was registering over 500 amps out of the 640 capacity - which he said, indicated a very strong and healthy battery! (I have to admit, I thought that was a very fast charge rate!)

His gizmo registered a 'significant power loss' which he was unable to trace and which he said would require the services of an Auto-electric specialist.

I guess we wil soon know how long this charge lasts, but at least we are aware of there being a 'problem' now and will keep the jump leads handy - however, lashing out another £100 (or thereabouts) on a new battery is not an option for me unless/until I can eliminate the possibility of there being an 'electrical drain' somewhere.

It's not a charging rate Des, it's the rate at which his test equipment discharges your battery! But I'm very suspicious of such a reading after only half an hour's charging.

I still think that you should take charge of the situation and charge the battery yourself for 24 hours.

Simon

Most likely the glowplug relay unit is constantly on, flattening the battery, one of the diesel chaps will come along soon and suggest what plug or fuse to remove.

A very interesting response Murphy.....

As stated in my recent posts regarding this vehicle (my wife's), in the last 2 weeks, the AA have attended on a total of 4 occasions (including today's visit) and their 'analysis' of the issue reads like this:

Visit 1 - failure to start - AA "Glow plug problem - fuse changed"

Visit 2 - failure to start - AA "Glow plug problem - - car taken to garage and 3 glow plugs replaced - 4th broken and could not be removed....

Visit 3 - failure to start - AA "fuel delivery problem" - car taken to specialist Diesel specialist and Injectors replaced!!!!! (They were in bad shape generally)

Visit 4 - failure to start - AA "Electrical drain" ...................????

So, we come full circle and our old friends the Glow Plugs are in the frame again!

In addition, the SAME Garage had the car in between all this and carried some minor electrical repairs to the wiring that controls the rear hatch window and the tailgate and yesterday, I noticed that this wiring was getting caught in the tailgate at the roof level when it was being closed! A closer look today, revealed a very amateurish attempt to rewire the cables at roof level, which has left them vulnerable to getting trapped every time the tailgate is used - and the AA guy shared my view that this was a shoddy piece of work - so a visit to the garage Owner to share some 'Customer feedback' with him is scheduled next week.

Given the quality of this piece of work, one has to question whether they might have caused this further problem during the Glow Plug repairs?????

The only puzzle is why it has taken about a week to manifest itself....??

Des; as Trevor says it's the glow plug module which fails. It seems that your various "professionals" haven't identified this possibility! :rolleyes:

Simon

That's the heart of the whole sorry saga Simon (unintended alliteration), I am clearly NOT dealing with professionals - or very knowledgeable ones!!!

The 'bottom line' of my issue is probably best expressed by the question - - -"Who can actually resolve this problem for me?" as I have very limited time available whilst I am in the UK.......

As a small point of clarity - the 'Glow plug relay unit' is the same as a 'Glow plug MODULE'???

Indeed it is!
I'd definitely unplug it or disconnect its fuse which is likely to be at least a 50amp fuse in the under bonnet fuse box. Sorry I cant help further as I am not able to access my discs as they are in my shed and out of bounds at the moment, that's on orders from the wife as I’ve been overdoing things since my op!

The car should still start less the glowplug supply, may just need a little more cranking with a little more throttle.