00 1.1 - Citroen Saxo battery draining

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Sun 21 Feb 2010 19:59
00 1.1 - Citroen Saxo battery draining - ratster
I hope this helps someone cause it has driven me batty.
My daughter has a W reg Saxo and recently the steering went stiff, I had a new power steering relay fitted which solved the problem short term. The other night her battery had gone flat and so she got a bump start and came home, the following morning the battery was dead flat and so I took it off and charged it, thinking she had left her lights or the stereo on for longer than she should (you know what young girls are like)
Any way the battery drained again within a few hours and so I bought a new battery, that too drained overnight and was so flat no lights came on even on the panel. I consulted several forums and came to an educated guess at the alternator and so I fitted a brand new one, I had recharged the battery and took it for a test drive, I then noticed the power steering was not working again and the next morning the battery was dead flat again. I now suspected the power steering pump and found a second hand one at the scrappies. I left the pump disconnected overnight but the battery still drained. I was now getting a bit upset and so scratching my bonnet decided I would remove all the fuses to see if that would give me a clue, I removed every fuse on the car, both accessories and engine fuses but the drain was still happening. I put a meter inline and the drain was around 20 amps. I removed the power cable on the starter motor but still the same. I then got a clamp meter and put it on each wire from the battery and the wire going to the engine fusebox was showing the drain. Even with all the fuses removed it was still showing a drain of around 20 amps. Directly under the fuses are some small connectors and one by one I unplugged them until hey presto the drain stopped. The car would turn over but not start until the plug was back in but then the drain continued. I unpugged each engine connector in turn to try and locate the other end of the wires on this connector but no difference. I was just about to go for the dreaded ignition switch when I noticed a relay under the ECU. I struggled but eventually managed to unplug it and buzzed the wires to confirm they were the ones I was looking for and they were. I then buzzed the relay and found the normally open contacts were actually welded together and were buzzing when they should not have been. This was allowing current through and causing the drain. I replaced the relay and the problem is solved. It has taken me two days of standing in the rain and the cold to suss this, so if this post helps anyone from suffering like I have then I am a happy man.

Derek

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 22/02/2010 at 00:59

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Sun 21 Feb 2010 22:24
1.1 w reg - Citroen Saxo battery draining - Peter.N.
Good bit of detective work that. You would have thought that anything drawing 20 amps for any length of time would have produced smoke if not flames, that's 240 watts!
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Mon 22 Feb 2010 08:10
1.1 w reg - Citroen Saxo battery draining - jc2
What was the circuit normally fed by that relay?
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Mon 22 Feb 2010 08:44
1.1 w reg - Citroen Saxo battery draining - ratster
Not sure yet as it was almost dark when we found it. Will try and find out today if it ever stops raining. I have just been out to start the car and everything is fine now.
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Tue 23 Nov 2010 21:52
1.1 w reg - Citroen Saxo battery draining - thetoilet

hi mate this is great work and thank you. my brother in law has a saxo with the same issue so i suspect this same relay... don't suppose u wrote the part number down you had to replace it with? and was it an expensive relay to replace or was it a tenner jobbo?

sorry for a dumb question, but when you say "buzzed" what do you mean? did you put power direct through and bypass the relay or something?

i never did really get the hang of how relays work, i generally just replace one if i think it might be at fault... I have a multi-meter but all i use it for is checking the current voltage as i do not know what all the other symbols are for LOL

thank you again

Dan.

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