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Battery dying constantly Espace IV 3.5 v6

6K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  RY4N 
#1 ·
Having read up a few different opinions and many requests for help, it always turned out that no one posted what the solution actually turns out to be unless there is one somewhere that I missed.

Anyhow, if I lock my car, my battery dies, it seemed to last a few days or sometimes die over one night. Hence I found leaving it unlocked over night seemed to do the trick alas it turned out the same thing happens, it dies. However, lately after an easy booster cables start every time, it dies within hours now.

I am thinking it may well be the battery given what seems to be degradation over time. I have read it can be something to do with heaters for cold starts but my mechanic friend says he hasn't heard of them on petrol engines. I have also read about alternators having bad contacts at various points around the mech leading to a short that kills the battery.

I have also read about removing fuses one by one and testing the current usage. My mechanic friend will help me when I can get hold of him from his busy schedule.

Like many I can't afford to visit Renault, even for them to actually fix it in one go so I am hoping to pin point the most likely and maybe if I can, find if I can rule out anything for sure, before throwing money away.

Possibles so far

Battery
Alternator
Cold heaters (if they even exist)
A possible short elsewhere

Thanks in advance and I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas.
 
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#3 ·
you need a high current load test, not a wussy multimeter test.
RAC, AA will check it for free (if your a member)
they usually advise to remove the battery from the car and stand well back in case the battery explodes.

problem with batteries is they can fail at any time, all depends on how they have been treated and who actually made it, you can still get lots of knock off fake clones of big brands, with rubbish long term quality.
though i have tended to go for cheap n cheerful ones off ebay @£55 'ish and not had any issues.
(much better than the ones from the orange branded bicycle shop!)
 
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#4 · (Edited)
Hi guys, I promised I would come back when the problem is solved. I ended up struggling to get someone to check it and was going through cash flow issues then the wife had a bright idea of moaning about the car not being on the road and we are paying billions of pounds (you would think) for insurance and tax etc so I went hunting for a battery. Found one with a EuroCarParts for £38 and spotted a discount xmas code so got it for about £32, turns out to be the exact same battery I have. I ran it for a few days without locking the car and it was fine so decided to lock the car, still fine. A week later I am happy to say the new battery has solved the problem. The battery has a 3 year warranty and literally is the cheapest one I could find, with free delivery which was a bonus. One happy bunny in this regard. Now if I can sort my keycard out I will be fully happy with my espace again.


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#6 ·
You need to do what's called a parasitic drain test. Instructions on youtube. E.g. Eric The Car Guy

Favourite is glovebox lamp or boot light lamp not turning off.
 
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#7 ·
Thanks for that, I watched the vid and it explained exactly what to do so I will make roads to that. fingers crossed it is something minor because financial plans atm don't allow for any big spends fixing the car. I shall report back. :cool:
 
#8 ·
I have the same problem on my 2003 3.0DCI, I pulled all the fuses and the one drawing the current was the 60 AMP fuse in the engine bay fuse box that supplies the 'consumer unit' which is basically the module in the car that supplies all the internal stuff. reading a few previous threads it seems that this can fail and not shut down after a time period so remains live and drains the battery, as a new unit costs hundreds of pounds my solution for the moment is that if the car will be left for more than a couple of days I pull the fuse!
Check this fuse first, blue 60 Amp in the top left of the engine bay fuse box, third one along from left if i remember right.
 
#9 ·
Hi guys, finally back again. Mechanic sat here with me as I write this, watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1gijj03_0

How To Perform a Parasitic Draw Test - EricTheCarGuy

In short he measures a 3.39 drain on the battery with the meter in series on the negative. My drain was just 0.67. I kept watch, my mechanic took out fuses inside the espace and a couple of them caused a drop to 0.56 and 0.41. The interior fuse caused a drop to 0.17

We also found one of the positive straps on the battery wasn't positioned well and a continuity test failed to occur. Disconnected the leads and reconnected them squarely and the continuity worked.

Now Eric has done this video (above) on a Honda or something with a VTEC engine, which of course isn't an espace, won't have the same usage while the espace is in sleep mode. But how different, I don't know.

I am gonna leave it all as is now for a week or two and see what happens and then report back, whether good or bad news.

I must say at this point, going through this test has highlighted how it all works to me and shows how to do it, makes sense and so on so thanks for the help, it is much appreciated.

As long as you can get multimeter that can measure ampage, put it in series on the negative of the battery, you can check this all out and see which fuse line goes through you battery drain. bleeping good advice, I'd say.

If you find this is something you need to do, either consult a mechanic or do it yourself BUT do watch the video linked above because it explains how to do it in depth and shows you some concerns like not opening doors and such, while the meter is connected.

Cheers guys, speak soon.
 
#10 ·
Really been slacking on this but gonna be on it this week fingers crossed. My mechanic friend is very hard to grab hold of but I have seen him tonight and we are gonna try and fathom out this battery drain. The fuse we took out to stop the battery drain was for I thought the interior lights which it is, but I didn't realise for much time, it is also for the sunroof but also more importantly, the horn.

Any thoughts anyone ? I really wish I had my own multimetre.
 
#14 ·
Andrew, I no longer have a Renault but I loved my 3.5 v6 espace.

Anyhow, to fix a battery drain means tracing a short circuit. To do this initially, you have to put a multimeter reading voltage between the negative strap and the negative post on the battery. Then you have to pull each fuse out until you see the voltage drop back to a much lower number. Forgive me but it was a good while ago we did this, with the help of my friend a mechanic. I think it was the voltage... lemme get a video for you showing you exactly what to do to trace the battery drain to which particular circuit...

To get an idea this is the video I followed, my mechanic confirmed this is how it is done :



When you find the correct fuse then you can go on to narrow down the problem further. I never managed to do it but eventually found it was being caused by the expansion tank which was cracked and leaking little bits of water on top of the fuse box (genius placement from renault there) which was causing a short. I never did narrow it down more than that because I sorted the expansion tank out and everything dried up.

Further tracing can be a pain in the ass but methodical checking and disconnecting of whatever is possible, connected via that fuses particular circuit will prove what the problem is.

TADA : for all those searching how to fix a battery drain, sure there are so many different things that can go wrong but this very post shows you how to start and go on to solve it. :nerd:
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the replies.
I know how to do the tests. I just wanted to know what was causing the problem in this case.
When you do a search on here for a particular problem and read all the correspondence just to find at the end there is no final post it becomes very irritating.
I don't like to put up new posts if someone has already solved the same issue.
Thanks for the update though. Water ingress in the fuse box does appear to be an issue with some cars.
Think I'm going to have to start a new post for my issue later.
Have some more tests to do first.:driving:
 
#16 ·
Tell me about it Andrew. I had the same feeling hence why I replied to this for you and others to know the next move. Hope you can get it sorted bud. Let us know how you get on.

Now back to driving a ford st170 until I can save up for an ST2. I've always been a ford man but the espace was high end with a jap engine and I loved it as did the kids.
 
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