Car battery flat after alarm install?

[Z064life]

Hi All,

I got an alarm installed on my car, and two days later, I am getting low voltage warnings. The car has a tracker, dashcam (not yet configured on power settings) and the alarm itself.

The battery is getting replaced and the car hasn't been driven in a few weeks (dashcam and alarm installed 11 days ago). AA are coming on Monday to change the battery, can they do a test to see if any component (i.e. any of the above) are especially draining the battery?


Alarm is a Pandora system
Car is an R35 GT-R (with a notoriously small battery!)

[DaveGib]

Ask him to check the drain for you once he’s fitted the new battery. As long as it doesn’t take hours to fully shut down he should be able to tell what sort of drain your getting. On a roadside test anything below 0.2A the AA class as acceptable.

[broncoupe]

Get these faults all the time to sort
Is it a cat5 or Cat6 Tracker how often is your car driven and for how long

[broncoupe]

Get these faults all the time to sort
Is it a cat5 or Cat6 Tracker how often is your car driven and for how long

[Z064life]

Alarm is Tracker Cat 5 Plus. Have an F800 Pro front and rear dashcam, hardwired. I will be taking out the power feed completely to disable the dashcam. I will then ask AA to do the drain test.

TBF, car hasn't been driven much due to personal priorities coming up and the like, not even started the engine.

Can the drain test work out what is causing the drain or would that be by process of elimination?

[DaveGib]

Process of elimination. Basically amp clamp around the earth lead from the battery and monitor the readings till hes happy the vehicle has shut down then see what your left with. Will give you an idea if the vehicle has a constant drain and how substantial it is.

[Dash-Cam Man]

Z064life said:

Alarm is Tracker Cat 5 Plus. Have an F800 Pro front and rear dashcam, hardwired. I will be taking out the power feed completely to disable the dashcam. I will then ask AA to do the drain test.

TBF, car hasn't been driven much due to personal priorities coming up and the like, not even started the engine.

Can the drain test work out what is causing the drain or would that be by process of elimination?

I think it's just coincidence that the alarm was installed more recently and caused the battery issues. It will almost certainly be the dash camera dragging down the resting voltage of the vehicle, and then the recent tracker just toppling that resting voltage passed the threshold that the car's system informs you. You get the same thing in BMW's when the resting voltage drops below 12.1V (+/- 0.1V).

If you connect to the Thinkware F800, via the new Thinkware dedicated app for the F800 (be careful not to download the Thinkware app which is for the F770), go into recording settings and change the voltage cut off to 12.4V. This will mean you probably have minutes, if an hour or so in parking mode once your vehicle is off, however it won't affect your vehicles battery as significantly as it currently is.

The problem is caused by Japanese cars having a notoriously small battery. Paired with the fact you don't drive it a lot, means the amps being consumed by the devices while the vehicle is off, may exceed the amps put back into the battery from the alternator running (i.e. you driving the car). Cold weather, and ticking over a large engine on cold crank in a R35 on a small 400-500amp battery won't help either. Yellow top batteries are usually favoured by Jap performance car enthusiasts. Alternatively, get yourself a CTEK trickle charger for your new battery, to stop the same problems occuring.

Thanks, Jay

Edited by Dash-Cam Man on Tuesday 20th March 11:41