Flat battery thanks to immobilizer...again

[silverbullet]

Anyone else have experience of this? The bus is fitted with a toad A606 alarm/immob. and despite having a Maplin 15w solar panel across the terminals, the thing drains the battery if it's left standing for more than a couple of weeks.
The solar's putting out 17-18v, but it is inside the van, on the dash. Suggestions?
Back on the trickle charger. Again.
PS no leisure batt fitted

[Martin]

yes remove the immobilizer an fit a dog
they dont use any power

[eatcustard]

yes remove the immobilizer an fit a dog
they dont use any power

Problem is the need Poo walks

back to the question

Are you sure its the Immobiliser?
If it is there could be a bad connection shorting it out?

[DiscoDave]

fit a non powered immobiliser! job done! your solar panel will work fine on the dash unless it's covered by a load of rubbish.

[Ian Hulley]

the thing drains the battery if it's left standing for more than a couple of weeks.

Use it ?

[silverbullet]

I thankyou, I thankyou...
Should have known better than to ask you lot, given the weather conditions. You're all going stir crazy...
Yes of course I should be using it but the vile offspring have eaten/are wearing/playing with all the funds so the van is on a SORN to save a bit before going off for some dent & scab removal. Hopefully this month...
I had been told that immobilizers eat the battery and need running weekly. Now I know. The Toad does do a good job though and keeps insurers happy.
Will persevere with the increasingly unreliable vorsprung. At least it's quattro. Where's the snow?

[tonytech]

First job is to get a multimeter on Amps range and check what current is being drawn and by what.
It may be that something else is drawing current from your battery too.
Some of the modern stereos will flatten a battery because they are not ment to be wired for use when parked up.
Secondly what condition is your battery in? What size is it? Is your alternator charging it propperly when the van is running. a three year old battery wont hold charge well espesially in this cold snap.
If your imobiliser is drawing more than 50mA then it will be drawing enough to flatten the battery to a "difficult to start" condition after two weeks or so.

Is your Solar charger connected correctly? Voltage is not important (the chargers I've used give a pulse of charge rather than a steady value) , current is the interesting value (an analogue meter is better for this)

T

[silverbullet]

Thanks Tony
Battery is the correct one for a T3, 90Ah I think. Bought this summer from Halfords, more's the pity, but it was hobson's choice. The stereo is quite new and does need to be switched off fully (not just standby) before popping the front off, as it is wired direct to the battery along with the power amp etc. I found out the hard way last time...
The alternator is new after the old one became suspect (boiled battery while out driving), but now I suspect that it was the old battery going west.
Will check amp output of solar panel with an old avometer here at work.
Many thanks!
Ian

[CovKid]

Unless its a big solar panel, the trickle charger ones don't stand a chance of keeping up with even the tiniest thing consuming power - thats what I found. As stated above, a bog standard plastic key type immobilser is a much better idea. Just hide it well or at least interrupt something in the engine bay crucial to running. On a petrol engine, simply removing the rotor arm is no bad idea. On a deisel, perhaps interrupt the pump or feed to glow plug circuit.

[dazzzer1]

...well......it is an immobilizer........................

[silverbullet]

Unless its a big solar panel, the trickle charger ones don't stand a chance of keeping up with even the tiniest thing consuming power - thats what I found. As stated above, a bog standard plastic key type immobilser is a much better idea. Just hide it well or at least interrupt something in the engine bay crucial to running. On a petrol engine, simply removing the rotor arm is no bad idea. On a deisel, perhaps interrupt the pump or feed to glow plug circuit.

I'll give the bliddy thing to our kid for her Toyo HiAce camper. It's stuck on the drive too...
The Toad was well installed - I haven't found the module yet! I'll leave well alone and get a proper solar panel £££

[Damien]

at leaast its doing its job even the man with the keys can't drive it away.

[Bilbo Blue]

Mine runs the battery flat too after about 3 weeks.
Thats only happened once as i use it all year round.
Wired my radio into the leisure battery so no worries if we want to listen to tunes all night long and the battery runs out.

[chriscburgess]

I had the same problem with a Clifford. Tried every thing but nothing solved it. in the end i fitted a battery isolator switch which disconnects the earth lead from the battery. Provided i allow the immobilizer to arm it self prior to turning the switch it seems to work. i.e the battery stays charged and the immobilizer returns to its last state when power is reconnected.

[MaddyJ]

Ok, being a total newbie at this, we started Dudley today (T25 petrol 2.1) and guess what not enough juice to start him, bless. So now begs the question, which is the leisure battery and which is the battery that needs some tlc as there are two batteries, one under each seat. I assume that the leisure is the one under the passenger seat. But knowing me I'm totally wrong lol We only got him in October so looking forward to getting him out and about and have a few things planned already.....assuming we can get him going again.
....and the MOT is due next week so we need to get him started before them...yikes