Flat battery

[Justy]

Hi Guys,
Is it normal to have a flat battery after two weeks of inactivity in the summer months? The battery is full spec for the car and two months old. Even discharged itself with an Optimate 4 connected to it. No obvious signs of any electrical drainage apart from the immobiliser LED.

I have taken to switching off the battery when the car is inactive in my garage for longer than a week with the boot left open and she fires up as expected after I close the contact. I can live with this method. Just wondering if there are any obvious known faults.

 

[2b1ask1]

Oh yes; It will almost certainly be a knackered battery on the Navtrac unit, even if you do not have it activated it will still be taking power to charge it's battery, when this battery dies it just keeps trying to charge it at the expense of your main battery. A very well known issue. Phone Navtrack and they will visit and replace the secondary battery or remove the Navtrac for you FOC.

 

[CatmanV2]

Shouldn't do with a *working* optimate on it though.

I'd suggest it's not (working) that is

C

 

[mjheathcote]

Something a miss for sure.
Even with a defective tracker battery the optimate should still be putting sufficient in than draining out.
A simple test is to put a multimeter from the battery earth terminal to the ground of the car in ammeter mode, isolate the car battery, and measure the amps being drawn from the battery with in theory, everything 'at rest'.

 

[Justy]

Something a miss for sure.
Even with a defective tracker battery the optimate should still be putting sufficient in than draining out.
A simple test is to put a multimeter from the battery earth terminal to the ground of the car in ammeter mode, isolate the car battery, and measure the amps being drawn from the battery with in theory, everything 'at rest'.

My thoughts exactly. The Optimate works ok as it charges the battery within 12 hours when isolated. So there is a fairly heavy demand on the system to consume the Optimate's output ampage along with a fully charged battery.
Will try the above test when I can find my Fluke multimeter.
Thanks to you all gents.

 

[Caldy999]

I have a similar problem but I wonder if the previous owner had tried this fix - just what is that loose connector that presumably should be attached to the negative battery post?

 

[CatmanV2]

That looks like something added on after the car was built.

C

 

[redsonnylee]

What does the end look like, it's very similar to this on my ctek charger.