Are you sure it's .5 mA? That's very small, half of one thousandth of an amp- it would take 2000 hours to drain 1 AH from your battery and your battery has (should have) a capacity of at least 40 AH. This will not drain a battery in days. It's probably the alarm system and/or remote central locking sensor anyway.

Removing fuses while monitoring battery draw will quickly narrow it down, but I don't think this is the problem.

Presume the battery has been tested?

 

Hi Thanks for your thoughts, the .5ma was a figure garage told me maybe I've got that wrong he's got a very strong Welsh accent, I'll maybe get him to look at your suggestions he's totally mystified by it all.

 

Take it somewhere else.........

 

more like 5a drain rather than 5ma. the standard current draw from a locked parked vehicle is anywhere up to 100ma, if you have current draw it is easy to find, just keep removing fuses until the test meter shows it to be gone.

 

Hi thanks for your thoughts fOster the trouble is there's very little current draw showing, but battery still goes flat in 2 -3 days, it'ssecondnew battery that's been tried on the car & tests fine, I wish I still had my Mk 2 Cortina much easier to service etc

 

Hi thanks for your thoughts fOster the trouble is there's very little current draw showing, but battery still goes flat in 2 -3 days, it'ssecondnew battery that's been tried on the car & tests fine, I wish I still had my Mk 2 Cortina much easier to service etc

If we accept these two statements as correct then there are only two possibilities I can see:

1) the battery was nearly flat in the first place (charging problem)

2) the battery is faulty.

I can think of no other way to make both of these statements true. A sound and properly charged battery cannot go flat in a couple of days with even 100mA steady drain.

So.....

a)Are they true? Is your man measuring the current properly? Can he measure the current drawn by (say) the sidelights and does this give an appropriate reading?

Or....

b)there is a current draw which occurs under circumstances other than the test scenario.

 

just to be clear, you need a multi meter with amp measurement on it. you need the car to be locked as per normal but with the bonnet up (access to the battery) if the car has a bonnet switch you need to disable it. loosen the pos battery terminal, clip one lead of the meter to the pos terminal lead securely, the other lead hold it vertical on to the pos battery post, then slowly lift the battery terminal so that it slides up surrounding the test lead and so breaking the connection with the battery terminal, the ammeter will now show "all" current being drawn from the battery, you must be careful not to break the electrical connection between vehicle and battery, the ammeter will keep the electrical connection as long as you are careful.

 

It could be an (intermittent?) short in the wires running into the tailgate or doors

I had weird electrical things happening with a Mercedes estate a few years ago and totally failed to find out why so I took it to an auto electrician. After six hours testing he found it by chance when he opened the tail gate to look at the rear lights and his test equipment, connected under the dash board, went off. The wires from the car body into the tailgate flex and rub together every time you open and close it and some had worn though the insulation causing occasional current leakage.

 

I know it's long time ago but I never got round to posting what was wrong in the end.it appears the alternator was fault although it was showing good reading in the garage it somehow lost performance on the road they put new one on & touch wood problem solved, hope this might help anyone with same problem.

 

it appears the alternator was fault although it was showing good reading in the garage it somehow lost performance on the road they put new one on & touch wood problem solved

Thank you 'carsoliver' for coming back with that issue, now resolved.

I'm bound to say that a good auto-electrician would have discovered that fault rather quicker than the chap at the garage you visited but it doesn't matter now. I hope your car is continuing to provide good service and your faith in KIA vehicles hasn't been shattered by that occurrence.

 

I would add my thanks as well.


I also agree with Indalo - chasing a teeny tiny insignificant battery drain was a false trail and a competent electrician would identify the bad alternator. Don't go back there again.

 

I had same problem, first I made a temporary fix by fitting an isolator to the negative terminal to disconnect the battery while away then I swopped the main power relay for a new one, costs a tenner so worth trying and problem solved, check main relay box under the bonnet and the main one is black and at centre rear of the box, old one wasnt always resetting properly but if unplugged and refitted the power drain disappeared