im in the process of trying to find a parasitic drain on my 1.8ts which means i have to recharge the battery every so often, my question is:
how long does the battery have to be disconnected before i have to do an ecu reset, ive had to do it twice now and remember reading on here about the early ecu's having alimited memory, will having to reset it a few times hurt the ecu. thanks in advance, just a finish note, the drain seems to have been coming from a jvc headunit installed a couple of weeks ago, jvc out original back in.
ok have new battery and car just spins over, have tried the reset but nothing, the transponder is working ok, and the car isnt on jacks or anything, any clues guy's
Does the 'code' light go off?
Mebee try pressing the fuel trip under the passenger seat?
Have you had any work done that could have dislodged an earth?
i have taken the earth tab directly under the battery tray off and cleaned it up, ive tried reseting the fuel cut off, only other bit's ive done are, removed jvc head unit, removed boot light bulb as well as the glove box light bulb!! no other bits have been disturbed. only other abnormal thing thats happened in the last couple of weeks was the alarm going off whilst car was parked in the drive, for no apparent reason. i dont believe i have any probs with the rev counter, as it is lit and works ok and i dont have the 'bulb' light on when driving.
finally, the code light does go off as normal, have even tried my spare key, to no avail.
I assume fuel & sparking is present?Mebee a sensor at fault then - start a thread in the South East section asking if anyone could plug Alfadiag / FiatECUScan in for you to check for fault codes?
When the MAF failed on my V6 (twice now) the car will not start, disconnecting the MAF will allow the engine to start but with default settings - might be worth a try
in sheer desperation i took my battery off my wrangler and when fitted to the alfa, she started straight away!!!!
put the 'new' battery on the wrangler, would just about spin over. looks like the new battery isnt man enough, will take it back and get a heavy duty one, what sort of spec would i be looking for in a 'heavy duty' battery for my 1.8ts.
thanks for all your help.
I have a 60 or 65 amps dry cell battery, it does the trick although keeping the car idle for 10-15 days = I need to put my back into it and push it out the drive way
Did you also have the bulb out indicator on in the rev counter before you removed the bulb ?
If so it probably means that the bulb out circuit has blown and you either need to do some careful soldering on your rev counter to replace the blown IC or you need a "new" rev counter.
Check the rear side lights are not on when switched off. They will not be on very bright but enough to drain your battery over a period. The bulb failure sensor is built into the rev counter and is prone to failling. When this fails a tell tail sign is a dim rear light on either side. You may struggle to see it but if it is on then the current draw can flatten a battery. The cure is a new rev counter or servicable 2nd hand item. A quick check is take the bulb out over night and the drain will cease. Hope this helps.
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