Cold season, the car remains spending the night on the street, all this adversely affects the battery, its technical condition. What can be done to prevent the battery self-discharge.

Check current leakage by car

• Step 1

Run the engine with a fully charged battery. Make sure the radio and lighting are turned off. Disconnect the phone charger, GPS navigator and portable PC. Close the door or press the top light switch. Remove the key from the ignition lock. Using the jumper, connect the negative battery terminal with the clip to prevent the data from deleting data from the system memory and activate the anti-theft code (if it is used to protect the radio).

• Step 2.

Now you can consistently connect the ammeter to the terminal and clamp. If you disconnect the first jumper, the current consumption from the battery will appear on the ammeter. 610 MA, which we see in the photo, it is too much.

• Step 3.

Is there a global lighting in your car? It may not be turned off. Open the glove cover and check the bulb temperature, but be careful not to burn your fingers. There is also a chance of a failure to disable the lighting of the luggage compartment when it is closed. To check it, you will have to get into the luggage compartment and ask the person to whom you trust, close you inside. Or just touch the ceiling to check its temperature (but the first way, agree, will bring you more pleasure).

• Step 4.

By reducing the list of possible power consumers per contour, it is necessary to use a test cable that is connected to the fuse block to connect an ammeter to the contour. Sequentially disconnect or disconnect the devices that have a load on the contour to identify the cause of the problem.

Signaling devices

Unoriginal signaling devices are not known for their ability to discharge a good, fully charged battery. If there are such devices on them, attention should be paid first.

Keep in mind that there may be more connections to the electrical system of the car, and some non-original equipment installers can even resort to the use of non-standard splicing methods. In this case, you should simply go along the wiring of the signaling device to determine the point of its connection. The more expensive alarm device, the less problems arise with it, although it may be due to the fact that more qualified and highly paid specialists are engaged in installing such devices.

Stereo system

Original stereos, as a rule, do not create any problems. What can not be said about non-original systems that are characterized by massive ribbed enclosures and wires thick into the finger, which require connectivity directly to the battery. Having powered into account the electrical system of the car, they go into standby mode and activate their work only by a signal coming from the main audio system of the car. In standby mode, such systems consume only 1 or 3 mA.

If the system does not switch to standby mode or the two-position switch on the amplifier is not installed correctly, it can consume up to several hundred milliampers, without producing neither a single sound, not to mention the playback of music.

Remote keys

Most modern cars are equipped with remote keys. They are incredibly convenient to use, because everything you need to do is approach the car with blocked door locks, keeping such a key in your pocket or bag. When approaching the door of the car there will be an automatic locking of locks. Without removing the key from the pocket, set up on the seat, press the starter button and go to your business.

Do you know how it works? The car is equipped with a radio receiver that performs a constant signaling of the signal submitted by the remote key at a certain frequency. When the signal is detected by a radio receiver of the corresponding frequency, it checks whether the detected key is registered in the car system. This can lead to an increase in electricity consumption for 1-2 minutes required by the signal to feed the signal to unlock door locks for the owner of the car. Such a problem may occur if a few weeks leave a parked car without a case. Imagine a "confusion" of a car system parked near the elevator doors on a lively multi-level parking. Responding to all signals of remote keys of other cars, the system constantly resides in readiness mode, each time a discharge battery. As a result, the full discharge of the battery.

This problem is complicated in the case of hybrid models, such as Toyota Prius. The key receiving device is 12V, like most other auxiliary devices. What is especially important, 12 in the battery provides the work of the main control unit responsible for the operation of other systems, including the door locks. However, the PRIUS starter runs from 280 in the traction battery, but so that something happened, the main control unit should always be powered. Since 12 in the Prius battery is not intended to start the engine, it has a very small capacity - 38 amps-hours. If a battery with a capacity of 64 amps-hours of a nonregibrid car is enough for several weeks of the system of identifying a remote key, then the PRIUS battery under the same conditions will be discharged in a few days.

Summary: Parking Prius longer than one night, do not forget to disable (using an electronic dashboard) a remote key detection system. The disconnection procedure is also provided in many other models. See a specific car operation manual.