UK Mazda 3 Sport battery draining.

Our 2002 MX-5 used to get a flat battery if not driven regularly. Fixed
by getting a battery conditioner.

Our 2004 3 Sport suffers from a flat battery unless it gets regular long
journeys. Does not seem to be a problem if we turn the alarm off.

Last week the car was used for about 10 3mile trips over Monday to
Friday. Not used over the weekend when we used our 2007 MX-5 coupé:-)

Today Monday the 3 turned over about twice with the dials and dashboard
lights going berserk.
Just over 2 hours on a 0.6amp and it started with no problem.

Anyone any ideas?
Battery had it? Any ideas on how to test?
Alarm drain excessive?
Any other drain ideas? Only extra on the car is a multi CD player dealer
fitted when new.
Is there a regulator that cuts the power when the voltage drops? Seems
to go from virtually dead battery to OK to start the car with very
little charging indeed.

We had the same problem about 6 months ago which seemed to disappear if
we always turned the alarm off. 10 days parked at the airport was no
problem.

Started using the alarm again when back window shattered in suspicious
circumstances.

TIA for any ideas.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
Invisible Man <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Today Monday the 3 turned over about twice with the dials and dashboard
> lights going berserk.

Typical symptom of low voltage.

> Battery had it?

After four years of service, the battery would be my first suspect--not
dead yet, but no longer able to take and hold a good charge. Dunno about
in the UK, but here any shop that sells batteries would be able to test
it in five minutes, for free.

--
Lanny Chambers
St. Louis, MO
'94C

I feel dumb for asking, but is the Mazda 3 Sport a Miata??? If so, I
would never trust leaving a Miata at an airport, especially with an
alarm and any other current draining devices. I just starting using a
battery charger/maintainer, cause I got tired of hearing the battery
slowing down during these colder winter months. Apparently Miatas are
tough on their toy batteries>>LOL.

Lanny> To properly test the battery with a current draining test set,
does the battery need to be removed/disconnected from the car???

(E-Mail Removed) (S K) wrote:

> To properly test the battery with a current draining test set,
> does the battery need to be removed/disconnected from the car???

No but there are a few (very few) that can't test in the car, some
parts houses come to mind, they need the battery removed and brought
into the store.




--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://improve-usenet.org

In article <2043-47BA3AA0-(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) (S K) wrote:

> I feel dumb for asking, but is the Mazda 3 Sport a Miata?

No. It's a Mazda3. They have lead-acid batteries of normal size.

--
Lanny Chambers
St. Louis, MO
'94C

On Feb 18, 10:02 pm, Lanny Chambers <la...@hummingbirds.net> wrote:
> In article <2043-47BA3AA0-1...@storefull-3136.bay.webtv.net>,
> shka...@hotmail.com (S K) wrote:
>
> > I feel dumb for asking, but is the Mazda 3 Sport a Miata?
>
> No. It's a Mazda3. They have lead-acid batteries of normal size.
>
> --
> Lanny Chambers
> St. Louis, MO
> '94C

So with a normal size battery, unless the battery is defective or old,
I can not imagine them having the same situation as the Miatas have,
and me with my charger/maintainer out there in the garage keeping me
and my Miata's battery happy :-).