gazza1971

wrx 03 battery losing its charge if the car has been stood for 4 to 5 days had it checked and been advised its the alternater only running at 11 amps is this right as i jumped started the car on saturday did 25 mile and parked the car back in the garage until today and it started straight away .so it must of put some charge in the battery so why is the battery going flat . it has a tracker and a clifford alarm on it .dont want to change the alternater to get the same thing happen again.

Spoiler

Time of year I guess....

I just replaced the battery on my MY02 WRX, same as you.

If the battery is not holding the charge it's not your alternater. Get yourself down to Halfords, they have a high Calcium one for £50 or so....

The alternater ideally needs to plough back into the battery 12v but sounds to me like you need a new battery. The age of your car sounds about right to me, all the imprezas I've owned have needed a battery after 3-5 years....

Need more charge on cold morning to get the beast going, that's why it's failing you now....

Hope this helped...

Scott

Scutch

lol, 4 or 5 days? Lucky you. My P1 wont start if I leave it for more than a day!! Really need to get it sorted to be honest, its a pain and embarrassing having my missus jump start it with leads on her Evo 6!!

Yamarashi

An easy and quick check to see if your alternator is working enough (if you dont have a voltage meter) to put a charge in your battery is to put your headlights on and watch if they get slightly brighter when you rev the engine. If they do .... then the alternator is probably ok.

gazza1971

will go and try that and will let you no thanks for all the quick replys .ps new battery in the morning.

gazza1971

ps is 11 amps about right ?

Sub Ra

With your lights on would expect 30amps plus!

nickyrhodes

Hi,

mine used to do this aswell, it only got used at weekends. I thought it was the battery/alternator but it wasn't. Even with a new battery it would go flat regularly and then the new battery died (got one free hehe). Its only been ok since i've been using it every 1-2 days. I think it must be the combination of alarm, immobiliser, tracker and stereo just draining the power quickly....

In the end i bought one of those maintenance chargers from Halfrauds, 30 quid well spent, just leave it on when your not using the car (if its garaged or you can shield the charger from the rain).

PS if you connect a digital multimeter to the battery when its off you should see 11-12v, when you start the car it should jump to around 14.4v and that 99% means the alternator is ok.

Marky9074

Probably a combination of the tracker and less than 100% battery. The tracker does not go into 'standby' mode quick enough, and needs a board replaced (common problem). The 'smart' alternator does not charge the battery and eventually it gets flat.....

I had this from new, and was flat within a week. Once the board was changed in the tracker it was fine....

Marky9074

Should be about 40mA drain on the battery when engine is off and alarm set etc. If it is more then probably the tracker bringing down the battery....