Battery drains in an hour... - anyone else had this?

Had a similar problem recently - after taking it for an MOT and the garage carrying out some repairs to the wiring (brake lights and tow bar), the battery drained away with the Jimny just parked on the driveway. I disconnected one of the cables that went to the battery terminal that I didn't recognise and it seems OK now.

Dear all

Thank you all very much for the detailed replies

Given me a lot of ideas to play around with this weekend

Will let you know what I find out

Thanks

A

Try load testing the battery. This checks the amperage of the battery which is the driving force of it. The voltage indication can be misleading as to the state of charge. If you need to have somebody else check it get the car running and take it to any place that sells batteries and ask them to test it for you. They will use a meter that allows a load across the battery which will show how the plates are inside the battery. They will have to stop the engine to do it though. You can buy the hand held testers and they are not too dear.
ebay item # 122651639406 is an example of it.

Anselm wrote: Hello,

I have a soft top O2 Jimny with a Bosch S4 battery...

Never ever had any problems starting, even at -10C, lovely sunny day on Saturday, took Jimny out... great...

Came to start it an hour later.., not enough power to turn over.. dead slow........

I had almost exactly this not long ago with my Junior. It was simply a problem with the alternator belt not tight enough to grip enough to charge.