Hey guys, I wonder if you could help me out with a problem I'm trying to fix.
The battery in my 52 reg Mini One has been going flat a lot quicker than i reckon it should (after a week or so without use), and I'm trying to work out why.
I've had 2 new batteries in as many years, and the most recent one is like 6 months old. A fair amount of this time it was sitting unused while I moved house a lot. I still only use the car for a couple of short journeys every week.
I bought a multimeter in order to see if the car is draining it. I fully charged the battery (it went to about 12.8v), then disconnected it and connected the multimeter between the negative connector and battery post.
For the first 5 mins or so the car seems to draw 500mA or so, which then goes down to 180mA. At about the 20 minute mark this goes down to 120mA. After about 40 minutes this goes down to 20mA, although this flickers briefly up to 120mA again about every 30 seconds.
Does this sound normal? Could this very brief (less than a second) draw of 120mA be causing my battery to drain quicker than it should?
I took out every (!) fuse one by one to try to stop this happening, but none made a difference :|
any ideas?
*edit* PS The car does seem to be charging the battery when it's on - the voltage across it with the engine running is 13.8v or so.
The battery in my 52 reg Mini One has been going flat a lot quicker than i reckon it should (after a week or so without use), and I'm trying to work out why.
I've had 2 new batteries in as many years, and the most recent one is like 6 months old. A fair amount of this time it was sitting unused while I moved house a lot. I still only use the car for a couple of short journeys every week.
I bought a multimeter in order to see if the car is draining it. I fully charged the battery (it went to about 12.8v), then disconnected it and connected the multimeter between the negative connector and battery post.
For the first 5 mins or so the car seems to draw 500mA or so, which then goes down to 180mA. At about the 20 minute mark this goes down to 120mA. After about 40 minutes this goes down to 20mA, although this flickers briefly up to 120mA again about every 30 seconds.
Does this sound normal? Could this very brief (less than a second) draw of 120mA be causing my battery to drain quicker than it should?
I took out every (!) fuse one by one to try to stop this happening, but none made a difference :|
any ideas?
*edit* PS The car does seem to be charging the battery when it's on - the voltage across it with the engine running is 13.8v or so.