RE:Charging Problems

[Euan Houston <tfbeeth@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I had a similar problem on a Ford a while back, it turned out that there was a
short circuit in in the earth circuit and the battery was draining itself
through that.

When not being charged the battery will show around 11v under with the engine
idling and no accessories on a good alternator should show around a 13v charge
on the battery.

The best way I found to check if there is a problem with the earth circuit is
to connect your mulitmeter to the +ve terminal and a piece of bare metal of
preferrably the bodywork and measure the current.  It turned out to be the
central locking on my Ford, and the easiest way to track it down is to remove
and replace the fuses one by one until you notice a drop in the current, of
course there is no guarantee this will actually track the problem down as it
may be a circuit that is not protected by a fuse!!

Hope this helps.

Euan Houston
euan@domain.elided
E32 730iSE (With a problem with his slush box!)

>I have a '97 M3 coupe and am having problems keeping a charge on my battery. 
>I replaced the alternator about a year ago and the battery is brand new.  I 
>had the alternator checked out today and it checked out fine.  I'm not sure 
>what could be draining the battery.  When the car is running with nothing on, 
>the voltmeter is reading at about 11 volts.  Once I start turning on some 
>accessories, the volts start to go down.  Is there anything I am 
>over-looking?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
>
>Paul
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