andygo Posted December 5, 2017 Report Share Posted December 5, 2017 I have previously been able to leave my 987.1 boxster for over 2 weeks without issue. After using the car for 30 mins to give it a bit of a run out as its not used at the mo, I parked it up as normal in the drive. About once a week I start it up to give it a warm through. After not using it for 8 days thought I'd give it a treat and put the trickle charger on. Car was dead as a dodo, had to resort to pulling the wheelarch liner off to manually open the front boot. Battery voltage was about 2.5 volts. Connected the trickle/maintenance charger up overnight and it was still flat the next morning, showing 3.5v. I disconnected the battery and left it for 24 hours, at which point the battery was showing 12.6v. Reconnected the battery and immediately the voltmeter counted down to 11.8 and still dropping. Next morning the battery was showing 3v! Something is clearly taking a lot of juice, any ideas? I've looked under the car and can't see any electricity leaking onto the drive, so I'm stumped! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T24RES Posted December 5, 2017 Report Share Posted December 5, 2017 Sounds more like cells gone in the battery, any load however small kills it. How old is the battery? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat haggis Posted December 5, 2017 Report Share Posted December 5, 2017 I have just replaced my battery also. Dead cell killed it. New battery fitted and all is well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted December 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2017 But with the battery disconnected it charges up just fine, only when its connected does it instantly drop voltage. Battery is 2/12 years old. The other odd thing is alarm sounding when i disconnect battery. Its never done that before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headless Posted December 5, 2017 Report Share Posted December 5, 2017 just had the same thing, left a week and only just had enough to open the front boot, the cold always finds out a car battery, did'nt bugger about, bought a new one, problem solved, £120 from Halfords with a 5 year guarantee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobbie Posted December 5, 2017 Report Share Posted December 5, 2017 Have you got a multimeter to measure the current when the ignition is off? I'd expect a few hundred milliamperes. Given that the battery should have a capacity of around 80 amp hours, to discharge overnight would require a drain of 5-10 amps to flatten a healthy battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T24RES Posted December 5, 2017 Report Share Posted December 5, 2017 Instant voltage drop = new battery. alarm sounding is normal if you disconnect the battery without the ignition in P1, thinks it's under attack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entdgc Posted December 5, 2017 Report Share Posted December 5, 2017 Another thought... My car apparently has a original dealer fitted tracker. It was not active when I bought the car and I have not got around to investigating what is presumably a subscription service. But the tracker is still active and draining some power (probably not much so I doubt this is your issue). As a slight highjack of your thread is there an easy way of disabling the tracker - pulling a fuse for example? Thanks Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted December 6, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2017 Problem has got worse now- Cant get in the car at all! I eventually got the car started, everything working fine, volts up to 14 as the alternator kicked in. Turned the engine off, still had voltage drain. I disconnected the battery to give it a really good charge overnight when I noticed passenger window had dropped about 8 inches. I reconnected the battery to wind window up but couldn't unlock the car with either of my 2 fobs or with key. Manged to pull both interior doorhandles with stick and a hook taped on and battery connected but no joy. Even pressed the unlock button on the dash- no good. Interior lights are illuminated, but cant get access to put key in. Even popped the roof, but could only move it back a couple of inches. Bit stumped now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T24RES Posted December 6, 2017 Report Share Posted December 6, 2017 Battery, battery, battery. At least have it drop tested, if it loses its charge instantly it's cells have broken down. Or borrow a battery, attach it to the car and see if that fixes all the other BATTERY related issues that you are having. If you are local, happy to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted December 6, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2017 1 hour ago, T24RES said: Battery, battery, battery. At least have it drop tested, if it loses its charge instantly it's cells have broken down. Or borrow a battery, attach it to the car and see if that fixes all the other BATTERY related issues that you are having. If you are local, happy to help. That’s very kind of you to offer to help, thanks. I’m in Milton Keynes so not practical really which is a shame. Seems funny that car stared just fine last night and 10 minutes later couldn’t unlock it. Volts still reading 12+ . Just hope that alarm module and alternator diode aren’t pooped. Ill get battery drop tested to rule it out once my AA trickle charger/battery maintainer does its stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat haggis Posted December 6, 2017 Report Share Posted December 6, 2017 A failing battery can throw up lots of strange problems I had engine light pms tc and more all come up on me I nearly shyate myself with all the reported problems wile still having power but not starting ? I love pled into the problems all at once and filing or damaged battery can cause problems like this and more Spare battery in my defender 2 new a few weeks ago one for winch other for defender. Winch battery in Porsche and. It starts again and all problems disappear thank fek. Now new battery deliverd and in boxster and all is well winch battery back in defender. Get a new battery mate. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted December 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2017 Cant do a lot until saturday, but I suspect you are spot on. I''ll take it to be tested then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted December 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 Took the battery to Halfords who exchanged without question as it was 'unstable'. I upgraded to a beefier Yuasa with 5 yr guarantee for an extra tenner as a goodwill gesture. Zoomed home, popped the battery in...... No difference. Hazards flash, interior lights on, but doors and boot don't unlock. Have had to disconnect my new and beefy battery to save the hazards etc discharge it. My favourite Porsche indie, Fearnsport at Silverstone couldn't think of anything other than the battery when I called in. Properly stumped now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat haggis Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 Check your fuses mate carefully they may look ok I did one at z time and changed a few that looked not perfect. ThEn my car came to life. Is the air on and heater blower working along with heated seats and stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrKW59 Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 If the battery is good then next is check under passenger seat for water ingress. This gives really odd symptoms; window dropping, spoiler errors etc. Hopefully not but needs to be checked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulQ Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 As mentioned above, the first thing you need to do is put a meter in series with the battery, and measure the "dark current" If this is high then you have a problem and will need to start pulling fuses one at a time until this drops, so you can find out what circuit is causing the excess current draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobbie Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 12 minutes ago, DrKW59 said: If the battery is good then next is check under passenger seat for water ingress. This gives really odd symptoms; window dropping, spoiler errors etc. Hopefully not but needs to be checked. I thought maybe that, but I think they moved the alarm ECU on the 987 and put the Body Control Module under the seat. Not sure when they did that, so could still be an issue. Certainly worth checking for damp carpets. Other possible issue which gives lots of strange effects is an earthing problem somewhere. Have you tried opening the door with the key rather than remote? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted December 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 Carpets have always been dry, something i periodically check. Using the key doesnt work, similarly using the interior handles doesnt work. I suspect the ecu has got jumbled up and needs the key in the ignition to reset. Fat Haggis & Paul - my issue is I cant get into the cars cockpit, doors are deadlocked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikefocke Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 One thing I see is that you started the car but drove for a distance infrequently. That is very bad for a battery especially if it turns on the HVAC and audio. 1. Get a battery maintainer if you are going to leave the car for a week or more. Maintainer, not trickle charger or simple charger. A maintainer has smarts that allows it to turn itself off when the battery is fully charged and only check intermittently if it should wake up and resume charging. It won't cook your battery. 2 Sort out the location tracker and see where it is connected. Pull the fuses one at a time and measure the amps being consumed after an hour. The trackers are a common UK source of battery drain. Disconnect it. 3 Look for the alarm control module and inspect it (remove the seat or at least loosen it and slide it forward. Consider a case for it that will keep out water. 4. Inspect all the rear drains. 5 Check the charging voltage at 1K and 3k RPM. Simple VOM will do it. This link will give you some insights even though it is 986 and US oriented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobbie Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 This link explains the 986 alarm system and possible ways to re-sync the key. May work on the 987, worth a try, certainly an interesting read. http://www.jmgporsche.co.uk/index.php/menu-articles/articles-maintenance/item/234-996-986-alarm-primer Might be a specific 987 method out there if you google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted December 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 Hmm, but I can’t get into the car, that’s the main problem chaps.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrKW59 Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 This is a bit confusing. If you can’t get in the cab at all, how did you pop the roof and press the unlock button? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted December 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 As I mentioned in my first post, the passenger window had dropped about 6or 7 inches, allowing judicious poking\tweaking with a broom handle, just tried the sequencing of lock-in/unlocking as advised in a recent link....nope didn’t work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 28 minutes ago, DrKW59 said: This is a bit confusing. If you can’t get in the cab at all, how did you pop the roof and press the unlock button? +1 and try the interior handles,No doubt pressing and holding the unlock on key fob to open the windows has been tried already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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