Originally Posted by
AlCapone
Whoa....many thanks zip439. Your reply has sent me in a new direction. My XF spends most of its life locked in my garage, so I leave the car doors unlocked, with the battery disconnected. I can't remember the last time that I actually locked the car - several years!!! Anyway, I just went to the car, key in hand. Now, the battery IS connected, so I tried locking the car with the remote. Nada! The turn signals flashed 3 times but the car didn't lock. Pressed UNLOCK - got a single flash of the turn signals. I assume this is correct? But the central locking did not operate. Then, the penny dropped - I had removed fuse 9 to reduce parasitic drain. Popped that fuse back in and the central locking worked fine. Not "chirping" though - probably 'cos I removed the alarm siren? I checked under the tray in the trunk (aka "boot") and dry as a bone - no surprise there since my car has not seen rain for about 6 years....It's a coupe - maybe that's why it's dry - and I've washed it only once since I bought it! :-)
Use my paper "Finding Battery Drain v3" and pay attention to the instructions about waiting long enough after doing ANYTHING for modules to reset.
SImply pulling a fuse and looking at the meter will lead you astray - there are timers involved, when you change the state of a fuse, a timer may reset and you will see a lot of current for up to three minutes, then it will settle down. Meter readings in that first three minutes can often lead to astray.
What this means is, if you DO NOT follow my instructions, you will waste your time chasing ghosts - this is why 99.999% of people trying to find excessive battery drain fail to fix anything.
READ my instructions and do what I tell you if you want to fix this.
Also, once you find the fuse that is carrying the current, you will probably want to look at the wiring chapter of the service manual, there are MANY ITEMS fed by some fuses that are not listed on the fuse box cover or in the charts in the owner's manual.