Battery drain hell........What the blithering heck?

[poshbuggers]

After a few weeks of electrical hell I am crying out for help. Its no good - I am officially lost

We started having starting problems with the Syncro, so the battery was replaced. Then one night we went out somewhere and returned to find it as flat as a fart. I initially blamed it on having left the lights on but it became obvious that wasn't the cause at all.

An RAC chappie came out and said it was probably a bad earth, jumped it and got me home. The battery was holding what was given to it, but that wasn't much.

I charged the battery and then replaced the alternator, for a few days its started fine and even after multiple stops.

I went out this morning and the truck has been fine, but later today was sluggish to go. Tonight its totally flat again.

The rate of battery discharge is disturbing and despite checking alternator connections, battery earths and all I can't find the problem.

Do I give in and call an auto electrician? I'm at my wits end with it.

[Mocki]

if this was me, the first thing i woulod do is take the battery off, and charge it with a mains charger, then check the voltage, then leave it 24hrs and check the voltage again........sounds like a duff cell to me
be sure the battery is good

once you have done this, get a bulb, and bit of wires, and disconnect the neg connection, insert the bulb inbetween the neg of the battery and the neg of the van, and see whats leaking.
the brighter the bulb lights the bigger the drain....... pull the fuses one by one till it stops glowing....... if you have all the fuses out and its still glowing, disconnect the alternator, and so on, disconnecting everything till you find ehats causing it...

[poshbuggers]

Thanks Steve, a very easy commonsense approach to fault finding.

Its not the stereo - I removed it ages ago because I thought that was the problem and there aren't any auxiliary electrics on it really so it must be a factory related part.

[Simon Baxter]

Ammeter, and someone who knows how to use it.
Measure drain, pull fuses one by one until it goes away.
Trace fault with wiring diagram on that circuit.
90% sure it will be human interfearance.
The T3 has a good electrical system that tends to only fail when someone has been dicking with it.

[poshbuggers]

Thats highly likely

The wires behind the dash have been untouched since I bought it as I don't fancy messing with them.

Even the dashpod lights have been left off when a bulb swap didn't fix them.

I'll try checking each fuse but after that its going to be an auto electrician - too many minor issues for an amateur like me to mess with.