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      11-20-2013, 09:21 AM   #1
JayAr-E90
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battery surface charge

regards my project car - seat Ibiza mk3,


after a long period of time my car doesn't start and needs a jump start. Ive noticed that the mileage and clock stays on. Ive done a battery test and it states 'surface charge' which usually means some is killing the battery. When I done the voltage test, the volts were quite normal which I guess something is killing the battery very slowly... Ive disconnected the aftermarket amp and 6x9 by removing the fuse, still have this issue...

please help!?

thanks in advance
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      11-20-2013, 10:35 AM   #2
ctuna
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If you are still on the original factory battery

If you are still on the original factory battery
an its an 06 you are overdue for a new one.
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      11-21-2013, 02:09 AM   #3
JayAr-E90
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No its a 2000 seat ibiza as stated above buddy.. New battery
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      11-21-2013, 02:26 AM   #4
alexwhittemore
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JayAr-E90 View Post
No its a 2000 seat ibiza as stated above buddy.. New battery
You're asking a BMW forum about a Spanish car that 75% of the members will never even have heard of? Maybe I'm a bit daft, but I feel like a SEAT forum may be a bit more enlightening. I didn't even know SEAT was an auto manufacturer until 5 minutes ago when I typed this quote word for word into google.

Anyway, in general, the BMW has a cutout such that even if there's a parasitic drain, anything integrated PROPERLY into the electrical system (behind one of the labeled 'terminals' 15, 30g, 30g_f, but NOT wired directly to the battery) will get shut off at such a time that there's only one or two cranks of power left in the battery. Most cars don't have anything like that.

As far as the voltage test goes, even a battery with very little charge left over can read nominal voltage when it's under no load. It could be the case that, with very light load (like when you test), you see a nominal voltage, but under cranking load, there's not nearly enough power there. This would be pretty consistent with a slow parasitic drain. The real thing would be to measure current out of the battery under the same condition. Just don't go and do anything that'd draw lots of power, like activate the headlights or something, which would overload your current meter and blow its fuse.

EDIT: of course, even if you do measure a current draw when the car is off, I wouldn't know what to make of it since I have no idea what current a SEAT ibiza is supposed to draw at what points in time. On the other hand, I can tell you that after half an hour, a BMW should be drawing something around 40mA.
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      11-21-2013, 11:27 AM   #5
OC40
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I hear Ibiza throws some wicked parties...
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