Hello Folks,

Happy New Year.

Where do I start. My 2004 Discovery TD5 does not like to sit for more than 3 weeks before the battery dies.

Now it’s a brand new battery fitted.

Used once a week or every fortnight for at least 100 mile run.

Now is that enough for a battery of that size or is it not being used enough ?

The only thing I have plugged in is a parrot Bluetooth kit which is hard wired in.

A few people have said it could also be a parasitic draw.

Not very mechanically minded and I refuse to pay the hourly rate.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

One "common" cause of a parasitic draw occurs if the truck originally had air springs in the rear that were converted to coils without the setting in the SLABS computer being changed from air to coils. That happened with my truck years ago. It's a very simple task to plug in a diagnostic tool capable of checking and changing the setting, but a tool like a Nanocom or Hawkeye is needed. Because you say your truck is a Td5 I presume you are not in the U.S. In the U.S. a lot of shops use a diagnostic tool called Autologic. If a shop near you has an Autologic with the correct software they could check and change the setting in a few minutes.

If those options are not available you could also use a trickle charger to keep the battery topped up. I drive my '99 infrequently, so that's what I use. My truck is garage-kept, so this is easy. If your truck is kept outside there are solar powered trickle chargers, but I don't have information about them or about how well they work.

 

Thanks for your comments. My truck is currently on air bags. Based in the UK

 

Put it on a trickle charger, no matter what you do 3 weeks of sitting will draw down the battery, there is lot of low draw on these. The bluetooth may be making it worse.
A decent trickle charger will run about 40 pounds

 

Thanks for your reply Richard. I’m going to disconnect the parrot Bluetooth to see if that causes it also.

Cant think of anything else apart from the Alarm / Immobiliser that could be drawing the drainage.

 

This is the trickle charger I've used for a little over a year. I understand this one is made to plug into a 110v U.S. electrical outlet, but I expect there is something similar available for the U.K.