Volvo EC15BXR Drains Battery after 2 hours work

[NAVDDD]

Volvo EC15BXR Drains Battery after 2 hours work. This is an ongoing issue that first started a while ago when I put the digger in a deep drainage ditch!

The digger has had many attempts at fixing with replacement parts added.
ECU, Starter motor, Battery, Alternator and Relays replaced. The fitter mechanic friend is stumped. We recently iolated the ECU and still the battery drained (yesterday). During the check through we saw the water temp light showing a low light in the ignition panel (my friend did something to stop that, maybe disconnect it). A relay, the left one, was warming up, we dont know why, switching the relays about resulted in the left one again warming up.

Basically anytime after an hour and the digger is switched off I run the risk of it not starting again. The Starter motor clicks but there isnt sufficient juice to turn it to start. If I get further in, running the digger at around 2.5 hours, the lights on the ignition are on but no power to turn the Starter and get going, no clicking from the Starter.

The digger is in good condition, it isn't hammered when I use it and starts well. I have it on a trickle charge to ensure there is juice to run. I have been stuck in awkward places and luckily I have got it started with jump leads or been within cable distance to leave to recharge the battery.

Any suggstions to resolve the battery draining would be greatly appreciated.

[Muz]

The starters commonly go bad on them, maybe its just that ? .. have you done a heavy discharge test on the battery to make sure its working correctly, or replaced it with a new one ? In my experience there isnt really anything that will cause the problem you describe, not to say you are wrong in your assumptions, theres a first for evrything, but Ive usually isolated the problem to be something more simple

[NAVDDD]

thank you

The starters commonly go bad on them, maybe its just that ? .. have you done a heavy discharge test on the battery to make sure its working correctly, or replaced it with a new one ? In my experience there isnt really anything that will cause the problem you describe, not to say you are wrong in your assumptions, theres a first for evrything, but Ive usually isolated the problem to be something more simple

Hi Muz, Thank you for your reply. Sadly it is "happening" and is inconveinient at times.
The Starter is a new replacement. The Battery is a new one with the older battery having been replaced because we thought it might be the cause. I agree we should isolate etc.

Still at a loss but will continue to look for a possible solution. I will get back to the post and read other posts on this great forum.

[Muz]

The Starter is a new replacement. The Battery is a new one with the older battery having been replaced because we thought it might be the cause.

Sorry I see you said that earlier, well it must be quite a draw of current if its doing it that fast .. something will be getting pretty warm somewhere, and there isnt much that constantly uses power except the fuel lift pump and the cut off solenoid which remains energised to allow the engine to run, so you'll be looking for things like a faulty relay or timer constantly powering the glow plugs for example, but that would melt the relay I guess its just a case of unplugging what you can .. maybe see if you can get hold of a clamp meter and see if you can pick up a draw somewhere

[NAVDDD]

Thank you

Sorry I see you said that earlier, well it must be quite a draw of current if its doing it that fast .. something will be getting pretty warm somewhere, and there isnt much that constantly uses power except the fuel lift pump and the cut off solenoid which remains energised to allow the engine to run, so you'll be looking for things like a faulty relay or timer constantly powering the glow plugs for example, but that would melt the relay I guess its just a case of unplugging what you can .. maybe see if you can get hold of a clamp meter and see if you can pick up a draw somewhere

Thank you Muz for your informative reply . I've passed on your thoughts of possible causes, thank you again. I'll get back to the post next week with an update as the digger is going "under the knife big time" to find what the heck is the causing the issue.

[NAVDDD]

Hi Muz and readers,
Yesterday the issue with my digger was looked at. The issue basically points to the alternator not charging the battery and the battery draining out while working. The alternator work fine (clearly something was not) and had been replaced previously so the investigation turned to looking at the wiring and testing. The red power wire from the alternator and to connections and onto battery was fine. The two wires out of the alternator were checked and seemed ok, even subsituting and circumventing was tried but didn't seem to work right ha ha as the battery still drained.

The dash battery light was noted to work and then not work and we didn't know why. Jiggling the cables behind the battery caused the light to come on & go off all when the ignition was on. OK we had a potential break in the cable, but where? The "break" was localised (jiggling again!) to a junction box of three cable joining near the ECU, the two blue and yellow. Pulling the join apart and then partially pushing in cause the connection to be made, the dash battery light would light up and a relay would click. Now here is where we likely made a mistake that has caused us hassle. The wires were cut and joined together using individual choc block connections. We had no battery light and no click of the relay! The yellow out of the ECU being the one that caused us hassle. If the two yellow wires touched, the connection was made, if placed in a connector (various were tried) or twisted or soldered together no connection took place. It appears the wires carry low ampage and the thickness of the wire cause hassle. At 9pm and 10 hours at this we stopped. I will look at the old connections and see what can be done.

I don't know whether the issue is resolved by what we found. I'll get back to the thread as soon as I know more.

[NAVDDD]

Hi,
Thought an update was necessary. Localising the issue has proved awkward. Once something is done the machine has to be run to see if the battery runs down, then recharged. We have the spotlight on and note if it starts to fade as an indication the battery is dropping off. Takes time ha ha. Ok the wiring issue mentioned in the previous post was sorted. It appears the relays click off the connection after 10 seconds as well as the joint connection being a pain. We also noted that there was no supply going through the ignition switch to charge the battery (hope that make sense). Basically the battery asn't getting a charging feed from the alternator that went via the switch as it is supposed to. Not having a proper service manual makes checking this out awkward.

OK, to see what happens, (we reckon we have a break in a wire somewhere) a wire was taken directly from the alternator (checked out, a supply was coming out of the alternator) and routed via the ignition switch to the battery (negative). It was an additional wire, the original remained in place etc. Before we could make all the connections the battery had to be movd out and we had a bit of a spark... blew the main maxi spade 50amp fuse. Everything stopped then.

Replacement 40am and 50 amp main fuses were ordered x10 each as spares ha ha, along with a replacement ignition switch. The latter is to be replacd as it is possibly dicky on the key. Heck it might even be the cause of all this hassle, one might speculate.

[NAVDDD]

https://www.plantandconstruction.co....ov-EC15-manual

Thank you v8druid

[NAVDDD]

HI readers,
Update. So far no success in resolving the issue. A specialist will take a look soon.
The base fault remains where the battery is draining and insufficient charge added while running. We tried doing a circumvention to ensure a recharge went from the Alternator to the battery via the switch. didn't work. The switch has been replaced, (it has a JCB switch seeing how expensive the volvo switch is) as the previous seemed sloppy.

We try something and run the digger, with the spot light on. About half and hour the digger conks. Insufficent power left in battery, light glows orangy and starter clicks but doesnt turn over. Batter put on fast charger and we think to try omething else.

We did find two bared wire in a loomed group between the radiator expansion bottle and the fuel tank.

The dash lights now all go off after a few seconds, none remain on when the key is turned to first position. Totally flumuxed on this. Various combos on the wireing still resulted in same light non show.

Right, off to get warm, blinking dank, dark and cold working in a covid 19 free windy building! If anyone has anything, even pics of the ignition switch wiring would help, please input.

[Muz]

HI readers,
Update. So far no success in resolving the issue. A specialist will take a look soon.
The base fault remains where the battery is draining and insufficient charge added while running. We tried doing a circumvention to ensure a recharge went from the Alternator to the battery via the switch. didn't work. The switch has been replaced, (it has a JCB switch seeing how expensive the volvo switch is) as the previous seemed sloppy.

We try something and run the digger, with the spot light on. About half and hour the digger conks. Insufficent power left in battery, light glows orangy and starter clicks but doesnt turn over. Batter put on fast charger and we think to try omething else.

We did find two bared wire in a loomed group between the radiator expansion bottle and the fuel tank.

The dash lights now all go off after a few seconds, none remain on when the key is turned to first position. Totally flumuxed on this. Various combos on the wireing still resulted in same light non show.

Right, off to get warm, blinking dank, dark and cold working in a covid 19 free windy building! If anyone has anything, even pics of the ignition switch wiring would help, please input.

Well Ive used the JCB switch too without problems except it has an extra stage/position on it which is unused. Its hard to believe something is draining a battery that fast, and you dont smell something or hear something ? .. it would have to be a significant short , or something getting really hot to do that ?

[NAVDDD]

Hi Muz,

thank you for your reply, knowing you too have used the JCB switch is good. We have only 4 wires to the switch, is that what you had/have? I ask this because the previous switch had been a lucas tractor type and the jcb certainly has more pin positions than the lucas. There is no burning smell or obvious shorting. We have blown a couple of 5amp fuse while messing with the switch and pulling stuff around!

I should add (yesterday) the heater plugs were checked to see if they were constantly on, there weren't.

Late evening yesterday I recalled the digger ran without the ECU, (it was a good while ago, the time I had to get a replacement). My friend couldn't remember we'd seen this happen. Today I took the ECU offline by detatching the 2 connectors (one of which I replaced and I mentioned above it had contact issues). The ECU has 6 wites and these connect to two white push fit connectors. Anyway the digger started up fine. I ran the digger with the single spot light it has on and she purred fine for 45 minutes until it conked out, digger just stops. Turning the ignition key and the panel light shone but it had nothing beyond that. The spotlight still glowed but it was less bright. I put the battery on charge.

Yesterday my tractor machanic friend noted the fast charger wasn't reading the battery as "empty", as a fully drained battery with the gauge down lowest, the gauge was in the middle. To me this appears that the battery has hit an ampage point and the digger's stop cuts in. Am I understnding that correctly?

Any input is welcome, any ideas or suggestion are useful.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

[Muz]

Taking the ECU out just means you'll have no auto shut down for high water temperature or low oil pressure, when it recives a ground from the sensors it cuts power to the shut off solenoid to kill the engine, what I discovered also if you read here (thread elsewhere) sometimes they suffer from a broken wire into the ecu which also causes the shut down randomly, but the digger runs fine without the ecu in place.

So are you saying the machine just shuts its self off randomly ?

[NAVDDD]

Taking the ECU out just means you'll have no auto shut down for high water temperature or low oil pressure, when it recives a ground from the sensors it cuts power to the shut off solenoid to kill the engine, what I discovered also if you read here (thread elsewhere) sometimes they suffer from a broken wire into the ecu which also causes the shut down randomly, but the digger runs fine without the ecu in place.

Thank you Muz, I understand. The old ECU I previously replaced had a broken blue wire just on the edge of the molding and caused the problem you referred to. Thank you for the additional information on what the ECU is used for.

So are you saying the machine just shuts its self off randomly ?

No, the digger does not randomly stop. The digger drains the battery and she stops. I timed it again yesterday to 50minutes run time and the battery has nothing left to restart or run the digger,ignition key turned and no juice to even make the starter click. It was around the 45min mark previously , the difference of 5 minutes could be me just starting the digger with the spot light on and the latter me not putting the spot light on immediately. Both these timings were done with the ECU disconnected.

A quick check of the not working (no glass or bulb) beacon light revealed a bared blue wire. Old beacon has been removed, wiring sorted.

I will report any further findings

Thank you for this great forum. I've been reading through posts looking for any snippet that might give a solution.

[NAVDDD]

Hi,
After a lot of protracted trying out, where one thing followed yet another battery recharge, I thought I'd narrowed down the issue only for the battery to run flat again on a test run. One test I made was to run a jump cable from the alternator (red cable position) directly to the battery and attempted to measure the charge. I wasn't sure my reader was up to the task or getting the right results.

Today my friend with his fast charger came to assist. Between us we thought the Alternator was the cause of the issue (This part had been replaced about 2 years ago!). Proving the issue was the alternator was what was achieved today. While the engine ran, the reader showed a gradual decline in the battery's output.

The battery cable (B = red cable) was removed from the alternator and both the R & L cables were detatched. Engine was restarted, the reader's red pin was put onto the B = red cable position and the black pin to a suitable ground (GND). The result showed little more than a minor fraction of background output , not sufficient to charge the battery.

During the hunt today and previously we had to watch out for misleading info where the battery gave a reverse reading ha ha.

I'm really disappointed that the issue is with the alternator, as the item had been replaced. The question I have to ask myself is whether tha Alternator was faulty. At least I/we know how to test the new alternator to check it is working.

Install Alternator>Do not connect any wiring>Start Engine>Put reader red pin onto B position>Put reader black onto a suitable bare metal ground and read the output on the reader.

Ok, So we think we have proved it is the Alternator. Next I have to buy one, fit and test to check it is outputting.

Thank you Muz for giving answers and for setting up this website , Thank you V8druid for the manual, really helpful.

[NAVDDD]

Today the new Alternator was fitted. Battery still gets drained and conks the engine. I despair, totally flumuxed. Not in a happy place, been trying to see what and why for the last 7.5 hours!