Looking for some help diagnosing a problem. I have an 87 GN. Whenever the car sits for about a week, the battery drains. When I start the car, and remove the pos battery terminal, the car continues to run, which leads me to believe that the alternator is charging. The battery has been replaced.
I had my mechanic troubleshoot a few weeks ago, and he found that the interior light beneath the dash was remaining on, so he removed the bulb.
Maybe this is a new problem?
Any advise would be appreciated. Or, any recommentations for a mechanic in the Long Island, New York area that knows these cars?
Thanks.
Another note: Near the alternator, there is a cluster of wire with 2 grey wires ( one with a green end and the other with a black end that are plugged into nothing. I don't see anyplace for these two wires to plug into. Is this normal?
Green connector = tach connector for an external tach
Black connector = test connector for the fuel pump (apply 12 volts to it and the pump will run).
DON'T plug them together!
For the battery drain, also check the underhood light and the trunk light.
.....and glove box light.
Brian
Could be just a battery going bad. One very common failure mode for aged or abused batteries is sediment build-up, with consequential shorting between one or more plates. This shorting action is of some high resistance value, so it may take days before the cells are drained.
HELP!
I am 99.9% sure that there are no light bulbs staying on when I leave this car. Tonight, I hooked a voltmeter to the battery, pulled every fuse, one at a time to see if that meter would fluctuate. (Not an easy task reaching some of those fuses!) Meter did not budge from 14 volts.
Any other idea for me? Could it be one of those relays starting the fan at random times? Is this a long shot?
Glenn
Well, the esteemed Mr. Hill is most likely correct in that this is common with batteries....sometimes when relatively new but more common after a couple of years.
Otherwise the delay relay has been known to go flaky and run the battery down..
I would load test the battery and see if it appears to be bad....then you can unplug the relay(s) and see what happens if the battery appears to be good...glove box light and the light in the trunk and under the hood are candidates as well. Does not take long for a light to run the battery down, tho.
I think Steve is right about the relays. Have you replaced any relays lately??? If you install the wrong relay, you can actually have the battery drain. I had the same problem when I replace my fuel pump relay. I drained two batterys before I figured out what was going on:-)
Any time I every drain a battery down with a small short, the battery is usually toast. You give the battery a dead cell when you drain it too low. I would hook up your battery, use an volt meter and measure the short. Then unplug a few relays until the short disappears.
Good Luck!
Since the problem started, I have replaced the battery, but this has not resolved the problem. 2 months ago I replaced the delay relay because the fan would come on and not shut off. Replacing the delay relay did solve that problem.
Next step - I am going to focus on the relays. When I looked at the 2 relays to the left of the delay relay, I noticed that the sealant around the wires is all hardened, making it tough to romove the part. Does anyone have a trick to desolving the old hard sealant. I am afraid that by prying it out with a screw driver, I am going to destroy the wire connections.
Thanks again to all....
Another question -
Where are the other relays that I should focus on?
(Other than the row of three on the inside fender)
Thanks.
I would figure out why the light was staying on under your dash board that the mechanic unplugged??? If there are any other electrical items in that same circuit, then I would say they are probably getting power 24-7 also (could be your drain). Find out what else is in that circuit.
Second, I would suggest that the fan delay relay you replaced is the problem. Make for sure that the fan delay relay you replaced is 100% to spec. I have seen relays that work fine and appear to be ok, however, they constantly drain a battery because they are the wrong spec for replacement.
If something just starts goes wrong on these cars electrically, a good place to start looking first is somewhere that you just replaced a part or installed something new.
Tim
87GN
96Cobra
This is something I wrote up a while ago - disregard if you have tried any of this...
In order to use a regular multimeter, you will have to put the meter in series with one of the battery cables, it doesn't matter which one, and have the multimeter set to measure amps. You will have to be careful though, because most meters will only do about 2 amps on the low scale, which is want you want to be on. The normal draw should only be less than 50 milliamps. If you have a larger draw, try the meter on the higher amp setting which can usually stand about 10 or 20 amps and it is fused in the meter, so you don't blow up the meter if you go over. The meter is not usually fused on the low scale though, so if you have it on the 2 amp scale and open the door, say goodbye to you meter - the dome lights will draw way more than 2 amps. Also, you need to eliminate any initial spike of current when you hook the meter in series with the cables. To do this, once you have the cable off, hook a jumper wire between the cable and the battery, now hook up the multimeter the same, so now there are two paths for the current flow, then remove the jumper wire so that all of the current is going through the meter. One thing you can do also is leave the passenger window open and when the meter is all hooked up and reading the current, open the glove box by reaching in. This should cause the current draw to go up a few milliamps. You might also want to disconnect the ecm power wire to eliminate this as a current draw. Once the meter is all hooked up, you should start removing fuses to see which circuit is causing the excessive draw. I don't know how to do this without opening the door, but you will have to get creative, or pull the dome bulbs out first, but then you won't know if that is what is causing the draw. Another option to putting the meter in series is to get an inductive amp clamp for your meter. These are not very expensive, plus then you don't risk blowing up the meter or fuses in the meter. You can also move it to any wire that might be drawing power, so you could separate the problem between the three fuse link wires if you wanted to. The bad thing is they are not as accurate. You can make it more accurate by wraping a coil of wire around say 10 times, then hook each end up to the batt. and cable then multiply (or divide - I forget and it is late) the number you get to get the right answer. I hope that helps you, feel free to let me know if something needs to be clarified.
Mike Gloff
mgloff@hotmail.com