Battery drain

[tracymort]

A silly question I expect but I was wondering could a CD stuck in the player of a car drain the battery?
Our Ford Galaxy battery went completely dead all of a sudden just after a CD got stuck in it. No lights were left on or anything.

[tracymort]

It's not been that cold here. today been rather mild and it still wouldn't work. Not a sausage, no lights let alone power to turn the engine.

[tracymort]

Sadly we escaped the lovely snow and it's been rather mild.
It's been colder before and worked fine.
The battery is about 6 months old. We have had recent car trouble though. Waterpump replaced and the tensioner and belt replaced twice in the past 2 months.

[cazzz1975]

check under the bonnet, there are some primary fuses, they may have gone, it wont be the cd that caused it, the stuck cd is the reaction to the lack of power to the vehicle.

[cazzz1975]

its a ford galaxy.

[tracymort]

1996
makes sense with the cd being stuck being a symptom rather than a cause. Never had that happen before.

[cazzz1975]

not clever....

Tracey go with the primary fuses, you can run a tester over the battery just to confim that it isnt flat, look in a haynes manual to find where the primary fuses are located under the bonnet..

the dodgy fuse should have the middle melted out, you would need to get new fuses from a ford dealer as they are not standard.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

a cd stuck in your player would not cause this problem,only if the player was permantly on,it sounds as if you have a drain on the battery somewhere,get it checked over or the battery replaced,if its only 6 months old,it should have a warrantee on it.

[tracymort]

Thanks for the replies. I thought it might be that the CD player was continuously trying to eject the disc and that might be the drain.
We can't work it out, think we need to find money for a mechanic somehow!
We charged the battery up, charger said it was fully charged, put it in the car, and all the dashboard and clock lit up for a minute. Now it's all dead again.

[cazzz1975]

bad earth to the chassis if it lit up.

Firstly, check that the battery still has kept its charge (it wont be the CD player), if it hasnt then the battery may be broken.

follow the earth lead back from the battery to the chassis(where it will be bolted on) remove it and clean with emery cloth until shiny, follow back again till you get to the engine and do same again, so both points are shiny.