Hey all, umm my eb is realy pissing me off now for ages it has had a electrical prob but now it's worse.It goes like this, The car looses it's charge over time when not running for some reason, but beacuase i've been driving my brothers VP around (PLZ don't shoot me i know it's a POS) i got in it this morning and it needed to be cranked 3 times, so when i got home i got the multi-metre cranking and got 12.4 volts from the bat when off and 14.7 at high idle, cheaked the alternater leads and look like brand new. Any ideas cos im stumped .

time for a new battery or something is being left on

Well i put a new radio head unit in last week

is that when it started f**k up? also are you running an amp and sub??

No it just made it worse, and no i've got no sub i'ts all stock

my guess would be a dodgy install or the battery. how long have u had the battery for?

wtf does this have to do with interior modification??

moved to 6 cyl workshop...

Sorry my bad, did'nt know exakly where to post man.
umm the battery is about 6 months old and i put the new stereo in my self and it works perfect

C'mon Troy tell me one person that has the battery on the outside of their car!

Use a multimeter to test current draw when the car is off. First off try at the battery, but DON'T crank the car while the multimeter is connected in series. You will have a little current draw, because of smart lock.

Sorry mate, it was confirmed i have no smart lock cos i got a series 1 fairmont not a series 2

your alternator should always output 13.8volts...

undo the fusible links that run to the alternator and check for continuity... if they are not blown then the regulator in the alternator is stuffed... The only time you'll find a voltage drop is when you have the headlights on (large load)...

If you don't have 13.8 V when idling with not major load devices on... 1 of 2 things... the alternator isn't connected, or the reg in it is stuffed... take it to an auto electrician and ask but i'm pretty sure this is the deal...

now as to why its going flat... usually requires a larger load than the clock and smartlock to go flat in a few days... make sure you boot and interior lights are going out... when you wired in your headunit you hooked up the trigger wire off the ign and it turns off when the key is off? other than that its really check individual circuits... you want something like this for ease:

http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID ... rm=KEYWORD

Or you can pull the fuse and use your probes... now always remember the voltage setting is a high resistance meter coil (around the 10Mohms for a digital meter) and goes across a power source... and an ammeter is an extremely LOW resistance coil meter... if you connect it across a power source you will kill the meter or blow the fuse (if its fused)... and ammeter goes inline with a circuit (series) my tafe buddies blow so many expensive HRC fuses in multi-meters all the time coz they never pay attention... so pulling an interior fuse and pluging both leads in across the fuse hooks it in series... maybe sure the lead is in the mA socket on the meter and your on the DC Amps scale... Anything of a couple hundred mA I would not worry about (it would be around a 56A/hr battery I imagine) but if your seeing 1A or more in a circuit I be pulling wire schematics out of a manual and finding where it could be...

alternatively the battery has collapsed as mention above and you need a replacement (although should last longer than 6 months...

good luck with it...