the dreaded draining battery

[extraball]

Seems my 2003 147 2L manual twin spark suffers the battery drain issue. I have owned it for a few weeks, and found the battery died. No biggie, you expect small stuff like that from private sales. But this week it drained the new battery I installed. The old battery was prob ok! Charging the new battery now (after buying a charger), and will check for lights staying on, or radio coming on when I leave it in the driveway (although there is a CD in the radio). One thing was that, one parker globe (halogen) wasnt present, so I installed a new one last week. It's possible that the globe was left out on purpose, being the cause of the issue. Had planned to take her for a good drive today (havent drove it in 6 days), but I lucky I was able to drive my daughters 1996 Hyundai Excel..........whoopie! No doubt I will ask you guys for help, if I can't  trace this fault on my own.

[Craig_m67]

Is one of your brake lights remaining very dimly lit at night?

If so it could be your tacho, which amongst other things also has the control circuits for failed globes.
Its a reasonably well known issue, when it carks it a brake light stays dimly lit draining the battery to flat.

[colcol]

Sneak out at midnight to see if the radio is on, they have been known to switch on and drain the battery, i would be looking at the tachometer, the circuit to tell you that there is a globe blown goes haywire and drains it, and the courtesy lights can also stay on, check the boot compartment, by looking through the ski hatch in the back seat, Colin.

[extraball]

Thanks guys. Charged the battery, installed it, and found the glovebox globe holder to be pretty toasty. You wouldnt think a glovebox light would get enough use to leave the bulb holder really browned, and brittle. Removed the globe, and see what happens. The boot light seems faulty, you have to actuated it with a fair bit of force to light the globe, but the globe holder was like new, no burnt areas, but I disconnected it anyway. Going to check to see if the radio comes on, I was surprised that it can be turned-on, and off with the ignition keys out. I will check for other globes tonite.......failing this, I could install a battery isolator switch (those cheapish green screw handle jobs), but that's giving-in I guess!

[Neil Choi]

If you install that green battery isolator and kill the power to the car, say, overnight, your Alfa radio will be locked out due to the security code which you will need to re-enter.  I presume you will have that 4 digit code ie a card in your handbook.  Unless you have another type of radio unit, then ignore what I have said, most people ignore me anyway.

Neil

[extraball]

If you install that green battery isolator and kill the power to the car, say, overnight, your Alfa radio will be locked out due to the security code which you will need to re-enter.  I presume you will have that 4 digit code ie a card in your handbook.  Unless you have another type of radio unit, then ignore what I have said, most people ignore me anyway.

Neil

I had the battery out of the car for prob 16hrs for charging, and the radio didn't lock, it even retained my stations. However the clock, and date reset. Maybe the radio has a back-up battery? It's the standard alfa radio/cd, and yep I have the code

[colcol]

If the globes in the boot and glovebox are overheated, then you have a bad connection, instead of using conventional globes, you could try LED's [Light Emmiting Diodes], that put out more light with less heat, i usually buy them off ebay.
The radio may have it own back up battery at the back, the 147's and 156's factory radio's lock you out when the battery is disconnected, it is an anti theft feature, the other anti theft feature about the radio's is that they are not that flash and would only be stolen by an easily impressed thief.
Whatever you do don't fit a battery isolator, as they cause more problems than they solve, they don't have much load carrying capacity and the 2 plates are forever burning and getting dirty and not letting the current through, but are good for a sprint/race car as they don't have to carry much load, and its good to be able to disconnect the battery quickly, Colin.

[extraball]

checked a few times in the cold of last nite, no lights coming on, and the radio wasn't on either. One thing I did do differently yesterday, was to turn the radio off before I took the keys out of the ignition. Fingers crossed anyway! Took her for a quick drive today, and the frustrations of the battery were forgotten

[extraball]

Found a probable cause for the battery drain. The car has an isimple ipod connector installed, and I have been unable to make it work, despite being able to select cd changer on the radio. So I took a look under the dash, and found the gear associated with the isimple. There is a box, and a flat housing with wires going to it, and front it (hardwired), and it is also fused. This thingy was very hot, so hot that you could only hold it for a few seconds. I dare say this unit powers/charges your ipod, but I hadnt had an ipod connected to it for prob an hour or so. I pulled the 3amp fuse out, and it cooled with 15mins. I suspect the unit has been wired so it has constant power, where-as it prob shouldave had switched power from the ignition. I also suspect that the unit is faulty, as it wont work on a gen 1 or gen 3 ipod that I was able to test it with. Here's hoping this the cause of the battery drain anyway! I found a few links via google, where people have experienced similar issues with the isimple.

[extraball]

update, the cause of draining battery was indeed the faulty ipod converter.

[Cool Jesus]

Damn those backyard wann be auto electricians and mechanics. I'm still finding' "she'll be right" modifications on my 147 
My favourite to date is to simply twist the wires together and then tape them up, along with having the wires all mixed up between speaker +ve and -ve and ACC and B+ connections, as I found with the stereo wiring on the Wrangler... ergghhhh