Battery drainage while parked for a while… any solution?

[Baron von Teuchter]

Got mine off a Land Rover forum some years back for the D4. Looks like this;

I just ordered something similar and a CTEK trickle charger - great idea thanks

 

[ECrider]

I just ordered something similar and a CTEK trickle charger - great idea thanks

My senior moments are getting more frequent. Because it's out of sight/out of mind and you won't see it unless opening the boot etc, I always plong something on the bonnet or put some warning post-it on the dash. Otherwise I'd be likely to drive off and pull my garage electrics out!

Hopefully you are more likely to remember than I am to forget.

 

[Baron von Teuchter]

My senior moments are getting more frequent. Because it's out of sight/out of mind and you won't see it unless opening the boot etc, I always plong something on the bonnet or put some warning post-it on the dash. Otherwise I'd be likely to drive off and pull my garage electrics out!

Hopefully you are more likely to remember than I am to forget.

I did actually think about this and am going to make a point of driving the car in nose first to my shed so I need to walk past the arse of it so I won’t forget to unplug it!

 

[Eric]

My senior moments are getting more frequent. Because it's out of sight/out of mind and you won't see it unless opening the boot etc, I always plong something on the bonnet or put some warning post-it on the dash. Otherwise I'd be likely to drive off and pull my garage electrics out!

Hopefully you are more likely to remember than I am to forget.

I've been putting notices on my dash for sometime, I have one that is actually used when driving "Bike rack fitted". I have a towball fitted bike rack (not used in the Grenadier yet) that I used on the Disco, and when the bike was off couldn't see the bike rack, had many a reversing prang.

 

[ECrider]

I've been putting notices on my dash for sometime, I have one that is actually used when driving "Bike rack fitted". I have a towball fitted bike rack (not used in the Grenadier yet) that I used on the Disco, and when the bike was off couldn't see the bike rack, had many a reversing prang.

Yes had a few of those on the old Disco. Buzz Rack incoming at ramming speed!

 

[tnkatoy]

I’ve been monitoring the battery charge more diligently lately, and it seems to be charging and maintaining the batteries when used daily, but if it’s left for a couple of days, there is a 2.5% drop in charge per day. Correct me if I’m wrong, but with 200Ah of batteries, that would be 5A per day (or 5,000ma), pretty high considering 50-80ma is normal.

The car is left with all switches off (including the power switch) and nothing connected to usb’s, and the keys are over 20metres away.

Has anyone done the old pull fuses and watch the amps test?

 

[Rok_Dr]

I’ve been monitoring the battery charge more diligently lately, and it seems to be charging and maintaining the batteries when used daily, but if it’s left for a couple of days, there is a 2.5% drop in charge per day. Correct me if I’m wrong, but with 200Ah of batteries, that would be 5A per day (or 5,000ma), pretty high considering 50-80ma is normal.

The car is left with all switches off (including the power switch) and nothing connected to usb’s, and the keys are over 20metres away.

Has anyone done the old pull fuses and watch the amps test?

Not quite... The car's system only monitors the starter battery. The auxiliary battery state of charge isn't monitored.

Cheers
Steve

 

[DaveB]

I got in the car this morning after it had sat parked for 2 days with fridge and two inductive pho chargers humming away.
About a Kilometre down the road I stopped so I could take a picture.
I had alarms going off

• Battery extremely low alarm
• Downhill assist not available
• Traction control not available
• TPMS not available

Within 5 minutes of driving at 100kmh it was up to 17% and then 10 minutes later up to 34%
After I drove into town and back all the alarms were gone and it was at 74% charged.
I only have bottles of water in the fridge so I think I will flick the PWR switch off in future if I know it is going to sit for more than just overnight.

 

[Jiman01]

My senior moments are getting more frequent. Because it's out of sight/out of mind and you won't see it unless opening the boot etc, I always plong something on the bonnet or put some warning post-it on the dash. Otherwise I'd be likely to drive off and pull my garage electrics out!

Hopefully you are more likely to remember than I am to forget.

When charging, I plug-into the jump points in the engine bay and leave the hood up. If I don’t notice that, pull my permit, please

 

[tnkatoy]

Not quite... The car's system only monitors the starter battery. The auxiliary battery state of charge isn't monitored.

Cheers
Steve

Thank you for clarifying. That means the starter battery is losing 2.5a per day, or 2,500ma per day, which is still very high, especially when everything is turned off and disconnected. At that rate of discharge, the car can only sit for 3 weeks before draining below 50% (assuming it's at 100% to start with) and the car starts having a fit, ie, don't go on a long holiday .

It also means I don't know the state of charge of the second battery, however it does explain why some forum members have installed battery monitors for the second battery.

 

[bemax]

I got in the car this morning after it had sat parked for 2 days with fridge and two inductive pho chargers humming away.
About a Kilometre down the road I stopped so I could take a picture.
I had alarms going off

• Battery extremely low alarm
• Downhill assist not available
• Traction control not available
• TPMS not available

Within 5 minutes of driving at 100kmh it was up to 17% and then 10 minutes later up to 34%
After I drove into town and back all the alarms were gone and it was at 74% charged.
I only have bottles of water in the fridge so I think I will flick the PWR switch off in future if I know it is going to sit for more than just overnight.


View attachment 7885756

For my Snowmaster box I can change the "switch off" voltage. Does your fridge has a similar feature?

 

[bemax]

Thank you for clarifying. That means the starter battery is losing 2.5a per day, or 2,500ma per day, which is still very high, especially when everything is turned off and disconnected. At that rate of discharge, the car can only sit for 3 weeks before draining below 50% (assuming it's at 100% to start with) and the car starts having a fit, ie, don't go on a long holiday .

It also means I don't know the state of charge of the second battery, however it does explain why some forum members have installed battery monitors for the second battery.

From my experience the voltage does not drop that fast every time. There has to be something that sometimes doesn´t switch of while consuming some As.
The second battery does recharge the main battery every ten seconds (or so) till the voltage drops below a certain level. At least in my car it does so.
I installed a guard with bluetooth function on both batteries to understand the way they work.
(similar to this one https://www.amazon.de/Autobatteriet...obesitzer/dp/B0CKVVPWCC/?tag=globalgrena0b-20)
It covers the last 30 days and you can read it out with the phone.

 

[DaveB]

For my Snowmaster box I can change the "switch off" voltage. Does your fridge has a similar feature?

Yes
I currently have it set for 9V but there are options for 11.5 or 12

 

[Mike Morrison]

This won’t solve the cause but is a possible solution

 

[RYAustralia]

When I first got mine battery was around 80-84%. Never really got much more than 92% even after a long drive. Then I trickle charged it for a week or two in the garage - was at 100%. And ever since then it’s usually sitting 95-99% almost all the time. When I left it in the airport car park for 3 weeks, I came back to 92%.

When charging in my garage, I normally feed the charger cables along the rubber seals on the side of the bonnet to exit out the end nearest the windscreen, there seems to be enough space for the cables at that end to not be crushed, and then I shut the bonnet fully and leave it on charge.

Been a year and never had a problem with battery drain ever since it got fully charged.