Club 80-90 Forums

Sorry folks....
My brother thinks he has a problem.....
Autohomes Karisma 1.9dg 1988-89....

he keeps moaning that his starter battery keeps going flat and that he thinks something is draining it....
I did the light bulb test (one end to the batt neg and the other to the neg lead.
Now when doing this the bulb flashed but did not stay on.
When I removed the cig/radio/int light fuse this stopped.
does the flash mean theres a problem or should the bulb stay on, if so I know its something to do with the cig lighter circuit....
cheers....

the bulb only lights when drain is happening........

therefore, if it flashes, someothing is draining for the time the bulb flashes
(Hold on, someone will ask you if it was a indecator bulb you were using!!!)

right, now, then, does the wireless have a flashing led? is it a blue toof one?

am i barking up the wrong tree?

Mocki wrote: (Hold on, someone will ask you if it was a indecator bulb you were using!!!)



am i barking up the wrong tree?

jed

I have the same problem, pretty sure its the radio draining mine. at the moment ive got one of those solar trickle chargers pluged in to counteract it untill i sort it properly.

(Hold on, someone will ask you if it was a indecator bulb you were using!!!)

what a "idiot" I never thought of that I just picked one out of his Euro bulb kit...

Rob,
I would say there is a fault on the circuit you removed the fuse from. The bulb only flashes once because the fault is quite small (high resistance), that is why the battery has a slow drain. If the bulb stayed on the fault would be large (low resistance) and the battery would drain much quicker. If the bulb did not light then probably no fault. Try to split the circuit down in the same way that you have to pinpoint the fault. I have not meant to patronize or confuse you but I don't know what your electrical knowledge is. Hope it helps and best of luck.

when i disconnect my battery to charge it, it makes a beep like an alarm, but i dont appear to have one. odd that init, I cant find one and i'm wondering if this could be drining my battery... just a thought

Tony-Jane wrote:Rob,
I would say there is a fault on the circuit you removed the fuse from. The bulb only flashes once because the fault is quite small (high resistance), that is why the battery has a slow drain. If the bulb stayed on the fault would be large (low resistance) and the battery would drain much quicker. If the bulb did not light then probably no fault. Try to split the circuit down in the same way that you have to pinpoint the fault. I have not meant to patronize or confuse you but I don't know what your electrical knowledge is. Hope it helps and best of luck.

Tony-Jane,

thanks for that beginners guide.....I certainly didn't know that was why the bulb flashed - I would have expected a continous glow.

when i disconnect my battery to charge it, it makes a beep like an alarm, but i dont appear to have one. odd that init, I cant find one and i'm wondering if this could be drining my battery... just a thought

Jed thought he didn't have an alarm........until he found it....

has he got his radio wired in so you can use it with the ignition off ?

I'm sure Ive heard that can drain them sometimes on new radios.

jed

lhd

where did you get the bulb holder from? I loooked at my loacal maplin in Preston for one and all they had was a black one that took a screw bulb and they had no 12v E14 bulbs for it.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Tab ... &doy=19m12

I just soldered one wire to the bulb and held the other one on.....