battery drainig, hard starting and blue smoke

[lincooln]

Hi all,

my mums Pajero, 94 2.8T LWB, has a problem our old gen 1 got a while ago now. It seems to keep draining the battery overnight so is almost flat to flat in the morning. Last time with our gen 1 when my dad had it he took it to an auto sparky who just converted it to singal battery! Not really the best. So Would like to keep twin on this. what do people think it may be?

we have just had the crankcase seal replaced, gearbox wasn't taken out, but was wondering if a lead was connected wrong when being put back together, but the starting battery seems to only go to the starter, so not sure. It is a sealed unit battery and it always says its charged...

i a kinda lost.

also we had the glow plugs replaced a couple months back and it fixed it not starting but within a few weeks it was back to not starting, haven't got round to taking it back as have been busy. I dont know if it still is the plugs or could it be the injectors? I know the pump was rebuilt a couple of years ago now I think.

Now it has got a little blue smoke and I am pretty sure that is the rings as the engine has done 280,000+Km. any other ideas though?

I know its a lot to read but any help would be appreciated.

Cheers
Lincoln

[andrew007]

hi m8, had same thing with mitzy work van,same engine to.was glow plug timer.they were staying on.
cheers andy

[Landynut]

hmmm... sucky problem to try and diagnose... take out ALL the fuses, charge it up and see if its still flat in the morning (provided it hasnt killed the batteries already), then put them back in 1 by 1 until you figure out which circuit is draining it.... could be something as simple as a headlight switch, good lucky !

[pjb]

hmmm... sucky problem to try and diagnose... take out ALL the fuses, charge it up and see if its still flat in the morning (provided it hasnt killed the batteries already), then put them back in 1 by 1 until you figure out which circuit is draining it.... could be something as simple as a headlight switch, good lucky !

Further to this - if you've got a decent multimeter (gonna need at least 10A): poke the meter leads into each fuse socket to see how much current each circuit is pulling. Should all be zeroish.

[Landynut]

hmmm... sucky problem to try and diagnose... take out ALL the fuses, charge it up and see if its still flat in the morning (provided it hasnt killed the batteries already), then put them back in 1 by 1 until you figure out which circuit is draining it.... could be something as simple as a headlight switch, good lucky !

Further to this - if you've got a decent multimeter (gonna need at least 10A): poke the meter leads into each fuse socket to see how much current each circuit is pulling. Should all be zeroish.

bloody good point, I didnt think of that :p

its probably just a short somewhere.. often a wire gets crushed or broken, or melted.. all switches have a finite life-span too, and can start shorting out towards the end.....

[lincooln]

cool, I have a multimeter so I will check the circuits. if that fails will check the glowplug timer.

will keep you posted as to what it turns out to be

[skid]

cool, I have a multimeter so I will check the circuits. if that fails will check the glowplug timer.

will keep you posted as to what it turns out to be

take negative lead off battery and put multi meter between that and the terminal

should be pulling hopefully less than .02 amps
if its pulling over .035 amps then you an issue

do it to one battery at a time

if theres no drain, then charge batteries fully and disconnect everything off them and check again in morning, sometimes if they are poked they will easily fall over in 24 hours at least then you will know if its the battery or not

[Landynut]

couple of years ago I had an issue with the glowplug timer in my van.... took it out, threw it against the fence, kicked it around for awhile then put it back in... worked fine again, and still goes sweet as now

[lincooln]

cool, I have a multimeter so I will check the circuits. if that fails will check the glowplug timer.

will keep you posted as to what it turns out to be

take negative lead off battery and put multi meter between that and the terminal

should be pulling hopefully less than .02 amps
if its pulling over .035 amps then you an issue

do it to one battery at a time

if theres no drain, then charge batteries fully and disconnect everything off them and check again in morning, sometimes if they are poked they will easily fall over in 24 hours at least then you will know if its the battery or not

I will give it a try when it gets home them,

wait... speak of the devil..

[sibainmud]

Jez son, you didn't say anything yesterday, I have an electronic battery tester in the car. Plus I have not had an electical problem I can't solve. Boats rely heavily on batteries and have truck loads of things being powered of several battery banks at the same time. Half my job is shyt like this.
You know where to find me
Cheers,

[lincooln]

oh yea, I forgot to mention that. wasn't really thinking about it aye. i will give you a bell when I am back from up north on Tuesday or something.

cheers man

[lincooln]

Simon came over yesterday and we pretty much concluded that both the batteries are farked. Not really good timing.

hopefully that will sort the starting issues out too.