First, thanks to everyone in this community. 99% of the time I can solve my problem by reading existing threads - or at least make it to the dealer feeling informed. Not this time.

Last weekend, my 2003 DII left my wife sit in the 103 degree heat. Lights and radio worked, but not enough juice to turn over. I realize the battery puts out less power in extreme hot and cold, but I was shocked it failed to start. I was out of town and she was stranded at a park with the baby and the dog. (A women pulled into the same parking lot and actually declined to give my wife a jump because she had a "new car." I had cables in the truck and my wife was going to do the dirty work. It was basically an emergency considering the heat, and this person walked away with their lawn chair. )

Anyway, the facts:

Battery was replaced 6 months ago due to a bad cell.

I charged to full charge and took the rover to advance auto for testing.

Batt voltage 12.99 with 731 CCA at 88F (rated for 700)

Starter test, pulled 10.92 V

At 2000 rpm the Alternator put out 13.66 no load, 13.5 loaded with the lights and fan.

Came home and read all threads. Unplugged all chargers, turned off interior light and let it sit.

When I put an ampmeter inline on the postive or negative and connect it with the 10 amp range it starts out reading about 1 full Amp, and over a period of about 6-8 second trickles down to a steady .03 or .04, which is, I think around the spec of 35 mA. I do not know if it's normal to start out higher and trickle down like this.

(I wish I could read more accurately, but my cheap meter's next setting is 200 mA, and and the initial amp locks it out before it trickles down.)

Checked all the fuses with mulitmeter. The only thing pulling juice on the mA meter is the clock, radio, memory fuse which pull 8.5 mA.

Moving on to other suspects. I pulled the negative wire to the underhood box and put ampeter in line to isolate the box. This was pulling the same juice, starting 1 Amp, quickly dropping to a steady .04 (40 mA). I pulled every relay and fuse, one by one, and nothing dropped it down significantly. On the ABS and 2 battery fuses I managed to get it to fluctuate to .03-.04, but nothing that seemed like the bulk of the load.

Apologies for the long description. Just wanted to lay out all the facts, in case you guys have suggestions. Thanks so much.

 

Those number sound about right to me. It does pull more juice at first after shut down and then it drops down. There was a thread that a posted on about this problem this past winter sometime with some actual numbers that you might be able to find. Does the battery voltage drop far if it's been sitting for a while?

 

I'm having the same exact problem as you right now. Had all of my stuff tested too.

I read somewhere on one of the land rover sites that if your key fob battery is low, it's possible that it only initializes part of the security system when you lock it, leaving the ECU running at a constant. I'm not sure if it's true or not, so I figure I'm going to lock my rover with the key for a couple days instead of using the remote and see if i still gets battery drain. I figure that's the easiest, and cheapest step, so i'll eliminate that first.
Also read somewhere about the ABS running after the vehicle has turned off. This is my first vehicle with ABS/TCS/HDC so I'm still doing research to see if there's any remedies to fix something like that, or to even test to make sure that's what's causing the problem.

 

While Advance's automatic tester may feel the 13.66 is OK, that might be just a little on the weak side, I would like closer to 14 - 14.1. But, that said, everything else you have done is good. Hopefully you do not have an intermittent drain (skinned wire, etc.), or something turning on later (one post a while back had sub woofer amp in rear door powering up for unknown reason). Clean connections on battery and every high current connection (large bolt on alternator, parts of fuse box). Some build up of corrosion can rob you of some charging voltage at regular amps, and just keep high current things like starter from running. With a volt meter you can read across connectors and sometime spot higher voltage drop from "dirty" connector.

If you don't get it fixed you may be sleeping in the Rover or the dog house.

 

back in the old days you could put a test light between the cable end and the battery treminal, if it lit you had a draw. Now you have your clock and radio memory which you know draw, so remove those fuses. If the test light still lights you still have a draw pull one fuse at a time until the light goes out. when the lite goes out then you will know what curciut is drawing when the truck is shut off. you should be able to track it from there. But as i stated that was the old days there could quite possibly be a reason it no longer works today, but i do see why it wouldn't.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. This is the first I gave the battery a full charge. I think I will take the suggestion to see how much it is or is not draining. I suppose if I get a voltmeter for a base reading now that it is fully charged, I can check it over a few days to see if it is dropping and by how much. It sounds like from what everyone is saying that the key-off current drain is in speck, and the initial jump and settling is normal.

I guess the alt output is on the low-side of acceptable. Maybe a bunch of short trip and heat could kill the battery?

RE the Key fobs. Are our batteries replaceable? If so I might do that just to rule it out. The possibility that it is intermittent is terrifying, but something killed it.

Thanks again.

 

notes for using a testlight.
Any circuit that is computer controlled, never, ever ever use a test light. You will destroy that circuit or parts of it.
And i have to agrre with savannah. 13.6 is low. are u sure she didnt leave something on by accident? letss try to eliminate the extremely possible first?

 

If the battery voltage does not drop over the next fuse days, I would probably replace or check the battery cables, especially to the starter. It wasn't on a Rover, but I went through the run around of having power to everything but no start. I replaced the starter only to realise that the cable ends had just enough corrosion in them, even though I couldn't see it, so that the starter was getting voltage but not enough current and it wouldn't start.

 

Had the same issue, it kinda resolved it self oddly enough.

 

DGI 07

I think you misinterepted the purpose of the test light, you are not using it to send power thru the curcuit you are only using as a device to monitor a draw on that curcuit. The light is going in line between the battery cable end and the battery terminal, so you are not sending any power into the curcuit only monitoring if there is a draw or not. It's a pretty simple test that has been use for more years than I can remember. So unless you have it connected to the positive treminal and you are using the test light to send power into the curciut, you can not damage anything that I know of.