What is on fuse 1 altogether?

[richie]

Good Evening To All,

I have fitted a leisure battery to my car and have patched various fuses in the fuse box to it. Having got it all up and running I thought I would measure the current drawn from the battery for various things being switched on to help determine how long the set up would last for different things left on in use whilst camping.

Now then...... connecting a meter in the battery return lead to measure current flow I cannot get the flow of juice to zero. I have disconnected the radio completely by unplugging it, have no clock fitted, have no alarm fitted , these being the only two other things I would think would be powered whilst the vehicle is left unnatended if I had them, but still have some very small current flowing, it is only milliamps and should not really cause a problem but I'm wondering what it is. Is it likely to be the central locking radio receiver and control unit? That is the only other thing i can think of, or is it on a different circuit due to its importance for security? Help gratefully received just to put my mind at rest.....I dont like being beaten electrically.

Thanks Richie

[daveblueozzie]

your post says what is on fuse 1, are you asking what fuse 1 powers ?, if so its the interior lights.

[madmile]

Hi Rich
It could be the green light by the ignition switch if you are testing the draw with either of the front doors not fully closed.
I was testing mine yesterday due to a dodgy rubbish japanese CD player that was drawing 0.3 Amps even when switched off . The green light draws just under 0.1 Amp, but I hadnt realised the passenger door was on the first click.
New CD player sorted it out .
If its just milliamps I wouldnt worry about it, but I do get concerned when its over .05 Amp and try to solve it.
Have you got anything like parking sensors or auto headlights as these ae often wired to the no 1 / no 8 fuse circuit which between them seen to control indicators, mirrors, ABS as well as the things you are trying to patch such as radio, lights, 12v sockets etc.

[sparkymik]

Has the radio got a permenent supply for memory hold up it could be that?

Sparky

[missfixit70]

Not if he's unplugged it

[sparkymik]

Yeah I saw that but there are two supplies to some radios both are fused

Sparky

[Romney_YW]

If you've got the Bongo Wiring diagrams, look on page 20 (turbo diesel, or following pages if you've got one of the other variants) to find the overall "master" wiring diagram which will help you trace the different circuits all connected to the same fuse. If I recall correctly, fuse 1 has the cabin lights (including the one in the AFT), 12V feed to the central locking switch in the driver's door, permanent 12V supplies to both the radio and the climate control unit (if you have one) and something to do with the infamous Bongo Bleeper unit.

There's now some notes at the end of the "Current Affairs" fact sheet describing the modifications which I made to my Bongo - basically I wanted the lights on the leisure battery and everything else left as originally wired.

If you peel back enough of the sticky insulation on the wiring loom leading away from the fusebox, you'll find a crimped connection with about 5 blue/red wires in it. If you cut out this crimp, it's not too difficult to identify the lighting circuits (2 wires if I recall correctly??). Recrimp all the others as originally wired and move the lighting to the lesiure circuit - I put mine on fuse 8 with the mirrors and cigar lighters which I've also re-wired to the leisure circuit, along with the electric blinds, so I don't have to turn on the ignition to find out how bad the weather is first thing in the morning!

Hope this helps

Finally a note of caution: the fuse numbering in the fusebox factsheet is different from the numbering used in the wiring diagrams. It's quite easy to get confused if you're not careful .......

Edited to read "cigar lighters"

[richie]

Well thanks to all for the food for thought....

I do like the idea of spliting the wires behind the fusebox that Romney_YW came up with, if I find any trouble with it all I might give that a go, seems to be holding up ok at the moment, so think I will leave well alone as MMile says a few milliamps wont hurt - in fact the same draw must have been coming off the main battery before I patched the fusebox and it caused no problem then with battery run down so should obviously cause less problems off the second battery. I just like to understand electrically what is going on, and was not expecting any discharge with the radio etc disconnected, hence my question to the enlightened few.........
Thanks Again
Richie