New car day... the end of the Saga...

[weeksy]

Weeksy just a heads up, with that head unit be aware they draw a fair bit of battery power. So if you’re at a track day with the radio on all day you can flatten your battery to the point the van won’t start.

Yeah was him here...

[Count Steer]

On my car the unit stays on for a set period after turning the engine off...so you can faff with the GPS or listen to the radio without the engine running. It does go off when you remove the key though. As it's the only new electrical addition it's got to be a suspect I'd think. Other possibilities include indicator stalk left 'on' which on some cars leaves parking lights on.

(I did have a GPS wired on a bike specifically to stay on until physically switched off and that would drain the battery if Ieft on (but I always removed it from the cradle if the bike was left overnight so never had any problems).

[weeksy]

Messaged my auto electrician guy

"I might know what that is, I'll shout you tomorrow mate"

Hmmm cryptic and interesting lol.

[crust]

That was the issue with the Mondeo ICE. The bluetooth stayed on after the ignition was turned off, killed a battery and nearly the second before I found the cause.

There must be a setting for how long it stays on after switch off. Check with your man.

[Noggin]

I have to admit that the title of this thread, well, the "end of the Saga" bit, did make me laugh

It's a vehicle - will there ever be an end of the saga with a Weeksy vehicle?!!

[Mr. Dazzle]

It's not even a car....

[weeksy]

the V5 disagrees...

But anyway.

Once i'd lobbed a bit of charge in it last night it was sitting at 12.0v on the terminals..

Today is 11.5v on them.... So yeah it appears something is draining it... so waiting for the friendly auto-electric tech mate to call and see what he says now. Meanwhile i'll throw a charger on it for the morning in case i need to take over to him.

[weeksy]

Speaking to the Tech he reckons it's this

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265815652834 ... SwU7Bi7Ye2

Mercedes Vito W639 Fuse Box Sam Control Unit



He says these seem to develop a fault where they don't shut down correctly and leave a drain on the battery.

Apparently not a crazy hard job to do and not insanely expensive...

However.... GRRRRRR that is throwing in a level of complexity to my current world lol.

[KungFooBob]

I've no idea if the trader you bought it from charged it up before you turned up to view, but I imagine it sat on his forecourt for a while with no problems. I'd suggest there's every possibility that it's related to something you've done to the vehicle since collection.

Of course, you bought it from a trader so you've got 3 months warranty, make him sort it if you think it's a fault with the van itself.

[weeksy]

I've no idea if the trader you bought it from charged it up before you turned up to view, but I imagine it sat on his forecourt for a while with no problems. I'd suggest there's every possibility that it's related to something you've done to the vehicle since collection.

Of course, you bought it from a trader so you've got 3 months warranty, make him sort it if you think it's a fault with the van itself.

They only had it 3 days before i bought it.... I do get what you're saying

[KungFooBob]

It could also be just a shagged battery.

There's always going to be some parasitic drain, from the immobiliser and the radio (so it doesn't lose your station settings when you turn it off).

I had a car that would start fine... until you left the boot open for 5 minutes. The boot light would drain just enough in that time to prevent a restart. New battery fixed it.

BTW, if you do need a new battery, Bosch ones are pretty cheap in Costco.

[weeksy]

It could also be just a shagged battery.

There's always going to be some parasitic drain, from the immobiliser and the radio (so it doesn't lose your station settings when you turn it off).

I had a car that would start fine... until you left the boot open for 5 minutes. The boot light would drain just enough in that time to prevent a restart. New battery fixed it.

BTW, if you do need a new battery, Bosch ones are pretty cheap in Costco.

As first port of call i've raised a call with breakdown company to come check the battery for health. I'm sure i could take somewhwre for that, but may as well get them out for it as i'm WFH.

[Yorick]

Undo the battery terminal after charging and see if it drops overnight.

[weeksy]

Undo the battery terminal after charging and see if it drops overnight.

yeah that's another port of call of course... but was too late to try that last night.... It's on the cards tonight though depending on what happens when the battery is tested.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Might want to check it doesn't have an immobiliser which will get grumpy with no battery for a long time.

[weeksy]

Might want to check it doesn't have an immobiliser which will get grumpy with no battery for a long time.

Only if it's a factory fitted one, it doesn't have any 'other' button types, but i don't know if the key itself is an immobiliser, i'd suspect it is. But not a lot i can do about that bit...

The recovery guys are booked and scheduled for coming over to sort the battery check etc.

[Big Red]

My money is on a faulty battery, closely followed by the install of the head unit.
Dealer you bought from may have only had a few days, but could have been sitting at a bigger dealer he buys from and they had it sitting in there pound longer until they cleared out their trade ins.

[weeksy]

My money is on a faulty battery, closely followed by the install of the head unit.
Dealer you bought from may have only had a few days, but could have been sitting at a bigger dealer he buys from and they had it sitting in there pound longer until they cleared out their trade ins.

I've known the auto-tech for many many years and i really do trust him, but of course it's not completely impossible.....

Lets see what the battery check reveals first and then we'll move onto step 2 which is either replacing it with a new one... or whipping the head unit out and leaving with him at his workshop
If it's a battery i can shoot to Halfords and get a new one ASAP and get it in.

[weeksy]

Well he turned up... i told him all the figures which he obviously understood.

"oh i don't have a battery tester with me, i was just told to come and jump it... "

Which wasn't a hell of a lot of use to me.

So i've booked it into Halfords Auto Center tomorrow as they do free battery health checks.

[weeksy]

OK, so the battery is disconnected and i'll check throughout the day, currently showing 12.5v on the terminals.