Ok folks, maybe I have done too much thread reading in the few days since I joined this forum. Are there any success stories? Anybody without electrical gremlins? Anyone who has not done the HG or drive shaft? I'm starting to regret my purchase

Got my D2 the week before Christmas. Coil failed 12/23 and I let my neighborhood mechanic replace it rather than waiting until the following week to get the part. Since the battery was very old, I bought a new 75 month bat at NTB on 12/26. Went on a long hunting trip the next day and all has been fine for just over 1K miles. Today while running for odd and end parts, out of the blue the battery went dead in the Sears parking lot. Called my mechanic and he said jump it cause it sounded like a battery. Sure enough was. Got a jump and drove to NTB where they said I just got a dud. Confirmed the alternator is charging and replaced with a new bat. But what are the odds? I can't help but think that some mystery in the Disco caused that battery to fail.

 

Not to worry, there are bad outta da box for everything, including batteries. But if you have an unusual drain, you will continue to have dead battery issues. One way to see if there is a drain, without a sophisticated clamp on ammeter, is a test light. You hook light between battery terminal and (+) cable, like a fuse, and if there is much of a drain the bulb will light. If so, you can unplug real fuses until light goes out to narrow it down. You can also use a regular meter and check your voltage after turning off the truck, and the next day before cranking. Do this with the head lights on. If volts are a great deal different, like a whole volt (say went from 13.6 to 12.1, etc.) you may well have a stray drain. There have been some problems with the SLABS module not letting ABS pump go to sleep...

 

Welcome to Rover ownership.
In the future, with anything on your truck, be a lot more specific. In this case, it was a battery or so they said. What is the charging system currently charging at? Most part stores will check it for free, should be between 13.6 and 14.4 volts. What CCA rating is your new battery?

 

One thing I be determined with rovers is you need a good solid battery. I installed a diehard platinum which is a rebadged odyssey. I had it tested at Advanced the other day and it tested at 1225 cca. System under no load was 14.2v and under full electrical load was 13.9v. I was happy too see the alternator and battery were still in good shape.

 

Thanks for all the responses. I bought a multimeter tonight and checked the new battery when I parked so I can see if there is a change in the morning.

Also, just curious, what should the normal draw (amps) be when the car is shut off, if any? (Does that red blinking light on the nav system have any effect?) I'll run the tester in-line tomorrow and see if I have some battery drain going on.

 

Should not be amps. Would need to be way below one amp. Other D2 owners would need to comment, my D1 is all different electronics. You have some of the ECU, BCU (alarm), wireless receiver (always on alert to receive a command for a new code to display, sent by the dealer - lol) , the SLABS, nav, radio memory, and plenty of other little things.

 

OK Buzz and Texarican: You are lucky to have caught me on a night of liquid bread (beer) indulging and not caring to have to reset my radio code. On opening the hood, after parked for several hours, I got the usual the faint ticking noise from the ABS modulator. Unplugged the Neg cable and measured the drain: I have .015 amp.

Now to check my email and enter the radio code.

Cheers!

Edit: ...and change the HVAC from C* to F*... The other month, when sober at work, I connected a jump box to battery cables to avoid having to do this when I changed the battery.

 

bring it to advance auto if you have one in your area, they do a free charging system test which includes a leak test if they use the wheel out machine. autozone does it to, but usually only with the "cheese grater" style load tester that doesnt do anything for leak.

 

Uh oh, I'm showing 0.40 amps, assuming I'm using the multimeter correctly. I plugged the leads into the correct positions as in the directions and shorted between the positive battery terminal and disconnected battery cable.

Battery voltage when parked last night was 12.78 and this morning it is 12.6. Alternator is putting out 14.4.

Now how do I figure out what is causing that drain?

 

It is time for you to down load a free copy of the Rave CD, shop manual, so you can read up on issues as they show up. Link at the bottom of my signature section.