My car has a wierd electrical problem. has been with tony at epl for a while and i guess we cant find the source of the issue. there is a mysterious current draw that eventually drains the battery out. Does anyone know of any expert electrical shops in the NY area? Anyone have any similar experience like this or any advice whatsoever? Tony feel free to shed some light on what tests were done to the car.
thanks all

 

read this thread God luck...electrical problems can be a PIA.

 

I had the same problem with my 1st car, Mitsu 3000GT. Never figured it out but am 98% sure it was due to the sound system in the car some way or another. Was so bad that I had to just trade in the car.... and i couldnt shut it down when i went into the dealer for an appraisal. I had to keep it running until i got the new car I was buying haha. Good luck, electrical problems are definitely a pain in the a$$

 

noticed this in your sig:

Audio; Morel Supremo + Audison

more often than not this is the culprit! Good luck and let us know what they find

 

yea i disconnected the audio system a while ago just to rule that out. the only part of the audio system that is connected would be the head unit. aside for that the amp is disconnected at the battery terminal. tony please fill me on what tests that were done so we can figure out whats next to test. thanks all.

 

wross. did some reading on the link...
i guess scott had the same exact symptoms im suffering... this is his response when he figured out the problem:

"Problem solved.

It seems that the nut that holds the engine to chassis ground wire in place (located on the passenger side of the car near the valve cover) had come off...causing the ground wire to move on and off the chassis ground bolt. I replaced the nut, and now all is well. I just drove the car for 2 hours and voltage is consitently maintaining just under 14 volts while driving (like it should) and the car starts and runs great again.

Thanks for all the help, guys. That was a huge PITA. "

ill call tony up and see if the above was checked.... this is really frustrating...

 

My glovebox latch switch failed and caused the battery to constantly die in the car. It was not immediately obvious because the light couldn't be seen because the glovebox was closed.

I finally figured it out after hooking a meter up to the wires in the glovebox and then closing the door.....bingo!

Also check the pin switches for the hood and engine lid. They can do same thing.

Good luck,

Rob

 

1st, remove the negative battery cable, put a meter (measure in volts) in series between the negative battery cable and the negative battery terminal on the battery. It should show some kind of load. Remove 1 fuse at a time (put it back if it doesn't do anything) until the load goes away. you should have your culprit.
Mike

 

ttboost is 100% correct in how to troubleshoot most of this... However, Scott's solution would be harder to track, and a good place to possibly start with. I'd also completely disconnect the head unit, as I've had it be the problem in another application. The head unit just had a waferboard that cracked and would flex and cause all kinds of issues.

If Tony has a decent tester (I use a fluke with an audible tone generator as sometimes it's hard to see the meter face), you should be able to troubleshoot it fairly easy!

Happy Hunting... I'm in the middle of an 18 circuit painless wiring install into a track car and having to temporary test, confirm, then solder and shrinkwrap every single connection on this car... Talk about a pain...

Mike

 

We have tested VERY similar to how TTboost outlined. In fact we had access to TTboost's car as a "baseline" car during our testing. This was very useful.

This is not a common/simple draw issue and the only lead we have is that there is moisture in the comfort control unit under the drivers seat. This makes perfect sense, as the window have functioned on there own several times while the car has been in our possession.

 

I'm just speculating...

But if there is a circuit/function that turns on when it thinks someone has activated a door/switch/etc, and this triggers a 'power on' condition, it could be that during testing it is fine- no excessive currents- but a few times a night this spurious noise can 'turn on' the car (not start it, but activate some routine), then it times out and turns off- and that is draining the battery.

A bus-activated system can be much harder to troubleshoot that the old 'everything is attached to 12V' system.

(Just thinking out loud, my experience is not with P systems)

A

 

You guys have my sympathy. I once removed the dash in a Ford Mustang (1995 SVT package) to get to a piece of chafed wire to cut/solder/shrinkwrap. It was un-reachable with the dash in the car...

Wiring issues can make you nuts.

Mike