I'm sure a lot of you have had this happen. This morning the battery was too low to start the engine. Battery voltage was around ten volts. And this was after a sit of only about two days. After a short charge got it up to 12.5 volts and went for a short drive. Every thing appears normal. Obviously something didn't go to sleep mode. This has happened once before, but it cleared itself.

With the thought in mind that it might not cure itself I would like to hear from any of you guys that have had a sleep mode problem and what you found to correct it.

I appreciate your help.

EZDriver

95 X300 (XJ6)

 

Try disconnecting the positive terminal and placing a volt meter one end on the cable the other to the battery. Using the mA scale you should get maybe 10 to 30 mA if the meter reads full amps then something is open. Now you will need to pull each fuse till you find the one that is coursing the drain..

Hope this helps

 

Thanks Simprof,

I tried that and got zero. Probably because I still had the map lights on and did not know it. That much draw must be blocked by the meter. That night I went out and saw the map lights on. Somebody was messing with them is why the batter ran down. Sure glad that is all it was.

Do you know if this car has an automatic head light turn off? I know mine does not do that which surprises me

A friend of mine had a 2000 and the shop never did find the problem. They had to put a batter manual switch in to keep the batter from running down. That would be no fun.

Thanks again.

EZDriver 2000 XK8 1995 XJ6

 

Hi Driver no having the dome light on would show around 9/10th of an amp on the meter not zero the 9/10ths would run a battery down in a few days.

Not sure how you are using your meter to get zero reading, the black stays in the com port but you need to move the red to either the fused mA(white port usually) or the unfused Amp port usually yellow.


Yes if I turn the engine off whilst the lights are on the stay on for a short time and then go off..

Hope this helps

 

the meter is just a small multimeter. I set it on DC. It has a red and black wire coming from it. I disconnect the positive terminal on the battery and touch the red wire to the battery and the other to the connector that I just disconnected. The meter is then in series with the battery circuit. But it read zero even on a very low sensitivity.

EZdriver

 

Sounds like you found it, but for future reference, you need a meter that has a DC Current (Amp) setting, and then connect it in series like you did and measure the current draw.

Careful. Most Meters, if they do have DC Current setting, would be only around 10A max. If you have a drain over 10A, you could fry the meter, or the leads. Most trickle current drains will not be in the large 10A range, but you should be aware of the limits of the meter.