Hi, I'm new to the forum and have only owned my Grand Voyager for a few days!! Delighted with the vehicle so far, but had a mishap today with a drained battery!!

Any help from owners who have had this problem, would be greatly appreciated. My brother also owns a Voyager and told me not to worry as he also had this problem shortly after buying his car!

There are clearly ways of managing the vehicle in order to stop the battery being drained, and just wondered if anyone had more useful tips other than disabling the interior lights or changing to LED's?

 

Please read my numerous postings on this problem. Basically the permanent load on the battery is too high, sometimes called the parasitic load. The battery ends up with a short life, and yours is probably badly sulphated. The situation is due to low-usage of the vehicle, and the design which can't accommodate this.
If possible, keep the battery on float-charge of 13.8volt regulated all the time. This will gradually de-sulphate it over many months. The float-charger may be plugged into the LEFT-HAND cigar-lighter socket.The current drain on the float-charger when the battery has recovered from the sulphation is in the region of 10 to 20mA. (0.02amp. max).
This will help.

Leedsman.

 

Leedsman has a lesson to learn here regarding batteries and it would be worth your while reading up on his threads. When the battery goes downhill on these cars, it causes odd things to happen like dancing speedo gauge or not starting, to mention only 2 examples. The only example I can give is like what happened to you and your friend after just buying one. Battery went flat first night after drive back with it from Birmingham. I wondered why the interior lights took so long to go out until I found the dimmer switch was almost on full. I turn it off after every journey now and somehow battery stays charged. Strange thing...

 

The OP should note this same problem (for the same reasons) has been noted on other makes of vehicle, notably BMW and Mercedes, and around the same year of manufacture. Mercedes now have two batteries, as does the Chrysler 300, and Chrysler has developed also a gradual shut-down of permanent load by means of software as the battery voltage falls. I don't know how BMW solved the problem, no doubt you can research it.
I have two batteries on my own Grand Voyager CRD, one having a master switch on the +ve post, and I keep them on permanent float-charge as it's convenient at my house. The engine always cranks enthusiastically no matter the external temp., giving instant starts.

Leedsman.

Leedsman.

 

- see his other post