I have something thats draining my battery, can someone give me an idiots guide how to find it.?

Question

Had Battery and Alternator checked by pros all is good please help. Peugoet 306 W reg. bham uk.

Answer 1

A wild guess, does that car have a light in the boot, under the bonnet or in a glove box?

On a vanity mirror on the sun visor? (my Fiat has that)

Answer 2

you don't say how fast the battery is draining. Most recent cars, probably including "W" have so much electronics that stay live all the time (Immobiliser, alarm, central locking, remote plip sensor, engine management &c.) that they will flat in around a month.  Firstly you need to get some sort of idea as to how much current is being drawn. If it goes flat in say 2 days then you are looking for around 1 amp, equivalent to a couple of interior light bulbs. What you can do is to get a small 12v bulb connected to a pair of leads and connect this across each of the fuseholders in turn (remove the fuse first). When the bulb lights you have found a circuit that is drawing current. If possible leave the engine fuses till last as they are probably live anyway.

The simple answer from Knight... is a good starting point

Answer 3

If your battery is going flat overnight, something is taking about 5 amps an hour from the battery, this is equivalent to a headlight being on, the most likely suspect is a faulty alternator, try pulling the plug out of it overnight and see if the battery is flat the next morning, if it's OK you've found your fault, if it's going flat over a few days you need to look for something with less drain on the system, a clip on amp-meter attached to the battery lead will also indicate the amount of drain on the battery. also try disconnection the battery, if it still louses power the battery is properly U/S, check this with a discharge test.

Answer 4

Remove the battery negative cable and connect an ammeter between the two.

The reading will tell you how much the drain is, in A.

In this setup,open the fuse box and start removing fuses, one at a time, keeping an eye on the ammeter; when you get the right one, the drain will drop sharply.

See what services are under that fuse and check them - one of them has likely a malfunction such as a stuck switch.

Answer 5

The most likely fault is alternator , other than that finding a small negative drain off can be lengthy and expensive

Answer 6

check and see if your glove box light is staying on all the time.  Also you could check and make sure your interior lights are going off after you get out and shut the doors.  Hope this helps but the glove box light has been my enemy more than once.  Also don't forget about the Trunk light or under the hood light.  A way to test them is set you video phone on take video and set it in there or if you don't have a vid phone you can try and take out each bulb individualy and trial and error.