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Headlights started acting funny on my last two evening trips. After switching on, they did not flip up until 5-7 minutes of driving. Once up, they stood up fine. After getting back in the driveway, all seems fine. Switch off - goes down. Switch on, they come up fine. Seems like a "cold start" problem.
Could this be a motor issue? Mechanical stickiness? It is on the cool side - ~40 degree F outside.
A potential complicating factor has been that my battery has been low before the trip, both times, requiring a boost to start (I only take it out a few times per month). Could it be that the lights don't pop until there's enough amps generated by the alternator, or something like that? Sounds like a newb question. I guess it is!
Suggest that you put the battery on a battery "tender" or trickle charger when not driving the car. Low voltage can affect many of the systems of the car, especially the fuel injection, and related fuel issues. The alternator sounds like it is doing it's job. The headlights and the headlight motor has ground sites up near the front of the car on both sides..Cleaning these may help as these cars are 30 years old and corrosion plays a major part. This may help some as well..If an electrical circuit starts acting wonky, go to the grounds first.
Thanks, I did in fact purchase a battery charger/maintainer a couple of months ago, however not "Battery Tender" brand. it's a Schumacher, though it does have circuitry to automatically enter "maintain" mode after sensing that the battery is fully charged. After 48 hours in charge mode, however, it never entered "maintain" mode. The starter cranked just fine though, so I didn't worry much about that. I was going to leave it connected but due to the profile of the alligator connectors and the battery itself, I can't close the hood with the cables connected, and I need to keep the car covered in my garage or sawdust and random objects threaten the pristine finish. So I left it unmaintained. A week later it started up just fine.
However, due to travel I haven't done so in 2 weeks. This afternoon - dead again.
At this point I'm concerned that the battery may have discharged too many times. 3 times now on my watch - but I bought the vehicle in July. Maintenance records show the battery was new in May 2017, but I do not know what trauma it may have been subjected to by the previous owner.
The Schumacher charger has a mode to tell me if a battery is "bad". It isn't currently indicating that condition, but should I be concerned about it since it has discharged a few times now?
I'm going to check the ground wires on the headlight motor in a little while. thanks for that tip!
I would also be concerned about your battery going dead over two weeks time. Do you have an aftermarket stereo? If everything is working correctly, 944s do not have very much key off draw compared to a modern car. Your battery charger may be trying to overcome an excessive drain and that's why it never goes to the maintain mode. I have the same brand charger as you and it might take a week to bring up a battery that is completely dead. There are many sources available to find information to diagnose parasitic draw. You can do it with a digital meter or a test light. If you do not have a key off draw, your battery may have been completely discharged too many times. That can be tested too. Good luck.
Try a CTEK battery charger with maintenance mode that you can leave connected all winter. There are battery post attachments that will just reach to the windshield wiper on the passenger side that you can then easily connect to with their quick connect. Or there is an 8' extension available. I hard wired up all my cars with their quick post connect for easy charging.
The headlight relay is very inexpensive. Even a used one from Larts will do.
It's on the topside of the passenger side light motor of my 951.
You might need to go old school on checking the battery electrolyte with a hydrometer. The glass ones with a long float inside are great...IF you don't break the glass part. I have zero confidence with the cheapie ones with the little ***** inside. This will tell you how the battery is doing internally. If you have a charger with a "float" mode you can keep it on the charger and as the charge builds in the battery, the amount of amps going into the battery will decrease proportionally until it just goes into "trickle" mode. Car batteries don't like going "dead" too many times. They can't handle the deep cycling like a marine battery can. As far as the hood arrangement goes, just put a short piece of 2X4 under it to keep it propped open under the car cover. Just some thoughts...BTW..how is the water level in the battery? You can use tap water in them now, since they changed the composition of the lead back in the early 90's. Purists will still say distilled water, but either will do fine.
Thanks, I did in fact purchase a battery charger/maintainer a couple of months ago, however not "Battery Tender" brand. it's a Schumacher, though it does have circuitry to automatically enter "maintain" mode after sensing that the battery is fully charged. After 48 hours in charge mode, however, it never entered "maintain" mode. The starter cranked just fine though, so I didn't worry much about that. I was going to leave it connected but due to the profile of the alligator connectors and the battery itself, I can't close the hood with the cables connected, and I need to keep the car covered in my garage or sawdust and random objects threaten the pristine finish. So I left it unmaintained. A week later it started up just fine.
However, due to travel I haven't done so in 2 weeks. This afternoon - dead again.
There are a variety of 'battery tender' chargers sold by a bunch of different makers. Schumacher is one of the better ones.
How much charge (as in how many amps?) was the charger putting into the battery?
If it was 'trickle charging', it may well take a few days to top up the battery.
I have a 'Battery Doc' maintainer. It came with a pigtail that has ring terminals to attach to the battery and a plug that goes to the charger. No clips needed, nothing that sticks up.
How 'dead' was it? Cranked really slowly? Just the solenoid clicking? Nothing but relays?
Draining a battery down (unless it's a deep cycle) is not good for it, but it somewhat depends on the battery, and how 'dead' it was.
There are various ways to test how good a battery is (or isn't). Most shops and parts stores have the ability.
And unless the battery is in pretty bad shape, it should still be ok after 2 weeks. I would suspect a parasitic drain of some sort. There are a variety of ways to test for this. The easiest is to put an ammeter across the connection between the battery & the car.
A potential complicating factor has been that my battery has been low before the trip, both times, requiring a boost to start (I only take it out a few times per month). Could it be that the lights don't pop until there's enough amps generated by the alternator, or something like that? Sounds like a newb question. I guess it is!
Until recently I had two 924s's parked in the driveway. One of these experienced a dead battery after a couple of weeks of siting while the other didn't. It turns out that the fresh-air fan was always on in the culprit car. I didn't figure this out until I was under the hood in what can only be called a quiet day. (I think I was just looking at the engine for one reason or another.) My solution? This:
Yes if the lights are supposed to be up tap the relay and if that does not help, touch the manual **** on the motor. Be careful, the motor might run and the linkage could crush some fingers. If the motor unsticks and runs with a little poke on the **** it's either the rotary contactor is dirty or the motor is balky.
If the battery is charged and all is good with the charging system check the relay and you can take apart the motor and clean the contacts (rust). That was my problem in the past. But I recently had an under dash fire that I traced to the head lamp switch. The 30 year old wire is getting crusty.
Until recently I had two 924s's parked in the driveway. One of these experienced a dead battery after a couple of weeks of siting while the other didn't. It turns out that the fresh-air fan was always on in the culprit car. I didn't figure this out until I was under the hood in what can only be called a quiet day. (I think I was just looking at the engine for one reason or another.) My solution? This:
Until recently I had two 924s's parked in the driveway. One of these experienced a dead battery after a couple of weeks of siting while the other didn't. It turns out that the fresh-air fan was always on in the culprit car. I didn't figure this out until I was under the hood in what can only be called a quiet day. (I think I was just looking at the engine for one reason or another.) My solution? This:
Yes, this is exactly what I put on my Porsches. 924 and 944s. They can sit for months and turn this on and they start right up!
Those trickle chargers are a complete waste of time and money. 25 years driving these things and It took me about 5 Winters to figure this out.
12-01-2018, 05:45 PM
Headlights go up fine, after several minutes
