| Recently I have found that the battery on my '5 dies after only 3 or 4 days without being run. If the car is taken out every other day everything is fine otherwise I have to keep taking the battery out for a top up. I leave the car in the garage without the alarm on, I have measured the "dark" current to be 0.2 amps, this must be the clock ticking away. Has anyone else measured the dark current on their car ? do I have excessive drain ? or is the battery knackered and not able to hold the charge ? The voltage after a run out is 13.5 Volts. Anyone with any ideas or previous experience of this ? (1/00) |
| 200mA is high for dark current but I'm still surprised it's flattening the battery so quickly. ISTR 80mA is a more typical figure, but I'm not impressed with the power requirements of many alarms and immobilisers. Sloppy IMHO. It's likely your battery is on its way out. Either replace it or DRIVE MORE!!! (1/00) |
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Specified Dark Current is 20mA (0.020A) ie 1/10 of what you have measured yours to be. This could easily drain a battery not in the first flush of youth in 3-4 days, or even a new battery in 5-6 days. Have you added an accessory? A lights-left-on buzzer for example (we had a discussion about this some months ago)? Alarms drain current without being armed. Have you actually disconnected it? (Disconnect the earth - it may be draining through the arming indicators (lights or indicators or 'bleeper') Otherwise try removing fuses one by one from the auxiliary fuse box (by your legs) until you find one that makes a difference. (1/00) |
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Sounds like the battery is shagged to me. I can leave my 5 for much longer (did 10 days last year in Jan or Feb) started first click as usual :) Maybe I am just lucky although the car is now about to have its 4th birthday on Jan 1st/2nd or something (havn't bought it anything yet either :( but am considering a front / back lip spoiler - must speak to Jay). I guess that my battery is 4 years old now and so I would guess coming to the end of its life, still starts first click even when car looks more like a pile of snow ! The only thing I noticed is that the battery has a breather pipe which would point to it being a lead acid not a gel but has been like this since I had it from Jan 98 and I dont reckon it would have needed a change before then, so is it original with lead acid for a uk '96 ? The cover for the battery fits with no problems either. (1/00) |
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With problems on my car for excessive dark current .. I measured 40mA = 0.040A .. so that 1/4 Amp you have is your problem .. pull fuses until it disappears and then trace the source/drain. '94 Miata Factory Mazda manual states 20mA maximum Dark current, my alarm takes about 20-25mA. (1/00) |
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I managed to flatten the large over sized lead acid battery (type 005) with 6 weeks in the garage with alarm on. I spent this Saturday investigating the 'dark' current (i.e. power loss when standing idle with nothing on). The Mazda manual says 20 mA maximum;, I got 7 mA after disabling the alarm. When I put the whole alarm on (i.e. including self powered/charged siren) I got 36 mA with 47 mA pulses every 20 seconds unarmed or 38mA+56mA pulse armed...when I removed the self powered siren it came back to 30 mA with 48 mA pulses armed and 28mA/46mA unarmed. So with charged self powered siren and armed it would be reduce to 30mA/41mA when the self power siren is charged ... according to alarm specs; ... which are (from dealers book when unknowing assistant helped me!) Clifford 50X alarm with central locking, remote headlights & boot + turbo timer. CPU = 15mA , Prox Sensor 10-14 mA, Glass detector 2-3 mA, Siren Battery 2-3 mA charged & 8 mA uncharged, LED 10-15 mA ... with whole system normally giving 20 mA .. The lights on minder conversion from seat belt buzzer takes 0mA without a diode. Battery is type 005 in motor factor standard listings; AC Delco Freedom sealed battery 21-55 (see bottom of posting for fitting) 55 Amp hour and 270 Amp load test So the battery is 55 Amp hours .. at an average of 32 mA say..= 55/0.032 = 1718 hours ..71 days... I know this is the wrong way as Amp hours are dependant on rate etc.. OK .. so say 46 mA when the siren is flat ... 50 days.. but this battery lasted maybe 42 days... so the latter looks nearer the thing .. and I suppose I set the alarm off maybe 3 times from fiddling near the roof... .. and to get back to the rest of you .. the Standard Mazda battery is 32 Amp hours .. so would last 42% less time .. so 42 days becomes 24 days... however pull the alarm out of the circuit and you are back to 7 mA ...round up to 10 mA ... Mazda battery lasts 133 days or over 4 months as supplied in Japan.. I will now go back to my alarm installer and see what he has to say (turbo timer also died after pulling fuse ... quality kit this Clifford stuff!) Moral of the story ... drive the car every 12 days if fitted with aftermarket alarm .. on longer than 25 min trips... with 3,000 rpm plus engine speeds ... as if you could resist :-) here follows my standard stuff Original battery is a gel battery - you cannot get these in UK
so you have some options; Moss battery = 90 GBP .. need to fit leads back to front (new one the correct way around on the way) .. Westco battery - it's actually Glass Fibre Mat Technology - (GFM is better than Gel - less wet!). Mazda gel battery .. from dealers but you need to wait for them to come from Belgium (parts warehouse); No B61R-18-520C about 75 GBP Standard but sealed battery - see below I fitted a sealed wet battery (AC Delco) ... which is listed for the MX5 ... 005 is listed code..... I have then had to make up a new top bar, extend the threaded side piece by 12 mm, redrill the L shaped part that the thread bar hooks into, and remove the tray and side brace etc.My old battery was being drained by my alarm so I wanted the bigger capacity. The carpet battery cover just about fits but it has a slight tilt ... Eunos ones are totally felt carpet not the rigid glass-fibre UK type...which I have to fit at some point (grey carpet is so much more practical than scabby pure black!). Watch out that you have the insulation patch still on the inside of the rear wing as this stops a loose battery denting the side of your car ... don't ask how I know (but then I do not have that car anymore... and hence I have a spare battery fitting kit if I ever revert to small batteries). Regarding the originator .. you need to know the battery capacity in amp hours (like 32 Ah) .. this will tell you which is the larger capacity; not sure on the two you mention .. the biggest will be the something like a Bosch version of the AC Delco I have fitted .. just ask for amp hours and compare .. and then tell us! (1/00) |
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Regarding the lights on minder conversion from seat belt buzzer takes 0mA without a diode. It must have a diode built in - quite possible - Mazda scatter them around pretty liberally (as I do!) (1/00) |
| My garage is full of underused motorcycles busy flattening their batteries over the winter. I am in the process of rigging up a 0.5amp motorcycle charger. (About £8 from Trago Mills motor accessories or most motorbike shops) with a simple plug in timer. Connect the charger to a cigarette lighter plug and connect up when garaged. Set the charger to come on for 15-30 mins each day at breakfast time. Charging warms the battery which helps voltage. Remember to unplug before driving off! (1/00) |