The Dispatch | Expert | Scudo Hub

I had trouble with my battery going flat. I would come home on a Saturday from work, leave the van unused on Sunday, come Monday morning it would need a jumper pack to get it going. Battery was 2 years old, so not ancient.

I tried to claim on Halfords 3 year warranty, thinking the battery must have deteriorated - but when they tested it, they had a "Good Battery" result on their CCA tester. [Was able to provide 520 CCA out of an original 640 CCA].

Anyway, I thought I would have a look to see what sort of drain was on the battery with it sat - key out.
There was a 200mA draw which is quite high in my opinion for a constant 24/7 parasitic.
Reading on the internet, general opinion is that an older car should only have a draw of max 50mA when sitting with the key out. Newer cars of course have more systems, that will draw a little bit more.

So I started pulling fuses and it didn't take long to see that it was my ultra cheap car stereo that was drawing that amperage. Despite it being switched off, I think it hunts for Bluetooth connection or something like that even while it is off.

I left the fuse out and no more trouble with flat battery on Mondays.
Current draw is now 20mA to 30mA.

Just something to be aware of.

Because money is tighter than two coats of paint (thanks to cost of living crisis), I am going to put a switch on the + wire and fit it to the dash next to the radio. That way I can just isolate it at the end of the day, and keep using my cheap radio. 

Hope this helps someone else, because despite being simple to do - I just didn't consider it and automatically blamed the battery.

Vaz2121 - I wonder how many from the forum have diabled their EGR systems.

I read a post by GRIFFIN explaining the very simple procedure of blanking the two vacuum pipes, so very easy to do.

Would be keen to know of long term experiences, as I would like to do mine having seen how much oily soot is in my intake.
I had no time to clean and remove during the last work I did as I needed to use the van for work, but the memory of all that sooty oil does haunt me a little   

Casper: Thanks for that info - I didn't think mine had a DMF being the 1.9 DW8.
Judders as you take the clutch up though on a cold engine, but I just put that down to a thrust bearing or something.
It's not severe enough to warrant removing the box or anything.

Mine was terrible at starting in the morning.
Was so bad that one morning I thought the head gasket had gone, as there felt to be no compression.

New battery and glow plugs have now made it better by far.
Will start on the second attempt now which is a lot better.

Starts well during the day - it was just the morning that gave trouble.

I do wander if the EGR bypass might help it start a little better?

I suspect some air ingress in my case - could this be the case too on yours?
I will fit a non return valve to mine to see if it helps.

Also I had considered a sluggish / tired starter motor - but don't need the expense or have the time at the moment.

Absolutely Kenbw2! It was only held on by one hair!

For anyone interested - I repaired it in under half an hour using a kit from eurocarparts.
https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/aa-throt … -545776443

Only cost £3. Came with the wire rope, and three retainer things.
At that price thinking it may be wise to have one in the glovebox.

Only slight issue I had was that the bulb / knob / nub whatever you call it at the end of the wire was a little smaller than the original and the wire itself is of a smaller diameter (only slightly) so it was a little looser in the holder at the pedal than I would have liked. I sorted this out by putting heat shrink over the end and shrinking it with a lighter to make it a bit fatter which allowed me to wedge it in with a little more confidence. I don't think it's going anywhere.

Am happy to report that for the first time in a long time, the van started on the first turn of the key!
So, although it still needs to crank for a couple of seconds - it's a massive improvement over the 5 or 10 minutes of work it used to be.

I have noticed slight bubbling in the fuel line, so there must be sucking in going on somewhere.
Still - am very pleased with the starting this morning.

Interestingly though I tested all the glowplugs that I removed and found them all to glow from the tip correctly.
One was a little slower than the rest.

I don't know - I have never applied power to a brand new one so I can't really say whether what looked OK to me, would look OK to someone who has seen a new plug glow.

I had this on mine.

Down by the wheel arches where those scuttle drains under the windscreen end up, I stuck a wet and dry vacuum.
You might need to open the pipes up a little as mine were sortof folded over and collapsed a little on themselves.

Let that suck for a while - you will hear it sucking at the scuttle. Do the same on the other side.
I got a load of mud and gunk out of my ones.

I had water coming out into the footwells - but once I did that, nothing.

** Edit - Looks like Pete and I have had the exact same experience and solution.

Oh the joys..... 2 out of 4 of my glow plugs are proper seized.
Managed to get one out - the next two were easy to undo but stuck on the shafts, got them out though.
This last one is the mother of all nightmares.
It's barely turning a thousandth of a turn each time - then back a bit - then more... using a 1/4 ratchet to try to limit my strength.
Tempted at this stage to say "what will be, will be" and go for a bigger ratchet just to speed up the torture.   

Honestly have no idea how garages quote for this kind of work... this is going to take all day and even then might end up in disaster.     

Thanks Kenbw2,

I was starting to get a horrible feeling that the engine may need to be dropped or something daft.

I haven't taken the coolant bottle out just shoved it to one side, so I'll do that in the morning and see how we get on.

Big relief to know that it is possible without too much dismantling.

It got dark and my frustration levels reached the point where it's safer to stop and ask than continue.

Glad I found this forum.

Thanks for taking the time to help me.