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I have had problems with my 2012 Nissan Note (the boxy model). The battery would be flat after a couple of days, even when driving occasionally. After leaving the car parked and locked for 20min, there was a 1Amp drain on the battery

I think I have traced this to the trunk, which was not properly locking the door (mechanism was blocked). Is this a plausible cause or should I look for other faults?

After this fix, the drain is down to 0.1 Amp. Does anyone know what the nominal level is for this model?

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    What process did you use to measure the battery drain? Many modern cars keep a lot of extra stuff on for 10-20 minutes after you shut it off.
    – GdD
    Feb 8, 2019 at 11:55
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    I don't know the answer, but 0.1A is a lot. That would still completely flatten your battery in 2 or 3 weeks. But make sure you didn't do something silly like measuring the drain with a door open and an interior light on! (Everybody makes that sort of mistake once in their lives...) Note, some cars have a light in the bonnet (hood) when that is open :)
    – alephzero
    Feb 8, 2019 at 11:59
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    After recharging the battery to full, I hooked it up with an ammeter between battery and cable. All closed and locked, I saw the current go down from 1A in the first minute to 0.3A for a bit and then settle to 0.1A after. And yeah, 0.1A seems high, hence the question!
    – Nic
    Feb 8, 2019 at 12:17
  • Hi Nic and welcome. Can you define "battery would be flat"? Do you mean it won't start the car (A bad cell could do that) Have you ever measured the drain current in the past (for reference)? What amp scale on the meter are you using to get 0.1A? (A lower amp scale like 200mA will yield more resolution)
    – mike65535
    Feb 8, 2019 at 14:05
  • Hi, I had originally suspected a bad cell, so the battery is brand new. After not using the car for a week, the battery was completely drained, zero voltage! I have nursed it back up to the point where I could charge it and it holds the charge. I have checked with a lower range and it’s about 120mA of drain after being locked for a bit. Unfortunately, I have never measured it (no problems in the past) so I have no comparison!
    – Nic
    Feb 8, 2019 at 14:25

1 Answer 1

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As a guide, a car should draw no more than 0.05A but this is after a resting stage of at least 20mins due to modules needing to switch down. Check you don’t have things plugged into aux/cig lighter sockets even if they are ignition switched as modern cars sometimes leave these switched on for several minutes after the ignitions turned off and can keep the module, powering them, switched on.

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