Is the ammeter set correctly? 0.5A may be ok ideally 0.3-0.2A 5A is quite a lot One day your life will flash before your eyes......................................make sure yours is worth watching!

A significant battery drain thro the alternator would be well within the 5A range of an ammeter. I would expect the drain to be in the mA range.

OK Thanks. I have milliamp ranges but the highest setting (when you switch the red plug to a new socket) is 5A as opposed to 10A on Ibartsimp's meter.  .
Experience is the only genuine knowledge, but as time passes, I have forgotten more than I can remember
Volvo V70 P2 2006 2.4 Petrol 170bhp Estate SE
MG Midget Mk1 1962

Previous: L322 Range Rover TDV8 3.6 2008; L322 Range Rover TD6 3.0 2002; P38A Range Rover V8 1999

was going to do, but now I'm locked out of the car me very
http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic15916.html

back to the topic, I havent been able to do the tests but will tomorrow.
Can we conclude anyway that I have a serious battery drain. In the process I had bought a new battery but I guess it wasn't the issue...

It does appear you do have a serious battery drain.
As previously, check for posible alternator drain first.
If that is not the cause of the current drain it will be a case of checking each circuit on the car until you find it.

When you get back in the car one thing you could check, are the battery terminals fully tight?

So I managed to get inside the car, had it wired to my defender's battery for 15 minutes, then unplugged the defender, connected the ohmmeter between these two guys inside the green dots.

Result: nada, nothing, 0.00 on the meter, be it set to 10A or 200m

EDIT: oops just realised (after I went testing my other battery) that the hold button of my meter was pushed will test again tomorrow.

Click image to enlarge

Battery (thought was faulty) now fully charged & delivers 13v. Am I right in thinking it's ok?
If so I'm gonna swap. Do I really need to go through this procedure?
http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/post67804.html#67804

No you don't need to go through that procedure.
Just connect the cable back onto the jump stud.
Start the engine and turn the steering wheel fully lock to lock both ways.
After charging a battery will tend to read a high voltage due to surface charge.
The battery voltage will drop to about 12.6V during the day.
It shouldn't drop below about 12.5V to be useful.
It's difficult to get an accurate measurement without a permanently installed voltmeter readable outside the car as each time a door is opened it wakes up the car and the voltage drops due to all the ecu's switching on.
You will just have to wait and see if the battery now drains again.

Hi, here are the (bad) news:
- The battery while not plugged to the care was at 12.8
- Connected to the car, it's now at 12.3 (but I had doors opened & tutti cuanti) so I suppose I have to close all but I just remebered, getting back to the computer...

And the ohmmeter detected 0.

The really bad news is that the car doesn't start at all, barrel doesn't unlock
What can I do?

I' assume you found no drain to earth through the alternator?
If so you either have a faulty battery or a significant drain through a circuit or circuits on the car.
I would recharge the battery and then remove fuses 49, 34, 64 and 22.
These will isolate the Final Stage Resistor on the ac, the radio/satnav and the telephone.
I'd be inclined to think one of these circuits will be the source of the main current drain.

nicedayforit wrote:

I' assume you found no drain to earth through the alternator?

I put the ohmmeter with each end on each part highlighted in green. That's the only test I did. How do I test the drain you talk about?

Click image to enlarge

nicedayforit wrote:

If so you either have a faulty battery or a significant drain through a circuit or circuits on the car.

nicedayforit wrote:

I would recharge the battery and then remove fuses 49, 34, 64 and 22.
These will isolate the Final Stage Resistor on the ac, the radio/satnav and the telephone.
I'd be inclined to think one of these circuits will be the source of the main current drain.

I assume you had your multimeter set to 10A when you tested between the points marked with green circles and the reading was "0".

The fuses are in the box behind the glove box on right hand drive car, don't know about left hand drive.
Fuse 64 isn't marked but is the large red 50A fuse at the right hand side of the fuse box.

Correct. My bigger issue now is that the car won't start at all.
And yes the fuses are in the glove box.

Probably battery flat again.
Have you checked the battery terminals are tight?
Also, although you have a new battery I would get it's condition checked.
You have a significant current drain somewhere which could be internally in the battery.