Charley B

Here are the pictures to go with the PM, Bill. I didn't know how else to get them to you.

thanx

IcemanG17

Charley
What am I looking at-for???

Charley B

I had PM'd Bill but I couldn't attach pictures so I put them on here for him to find. The first picture is looking down at the pass. side rotor cap. The coil wire was loose and burned thru, see 2nd picture. There is also a wire, that looks like it is wrapped in elect. tape, that the coil wire was arching to and I'm wondering if that could be responsible for the battery going dead. The 3rd pic is my volt meter, and I'm wondering which setting to use and what to look for if I test between the negative terminal and the negative cable.

Charley B

I replaced the coil wire with one from the GTS and the S4 runs great now.

I'm just trying to figure out why the battery goes dead with in an hour after a charge. I fully charged it last night, let it sit overnite and it still was holding 12.71 v this morning. Hooked it back up and it would barely turn over after an hour. Now at 12.14 volts.

BC

Alarm
Radio
Headlight motor
Door lock motor
Door chime
Rear hatch release motor

Anything with a switched relay or motor.

Charley B

Thanks Brendan, I'm trying to figure out how to attach and set the volt meter so I can start eliminating those suspects.

Imo000

It's notge the voltage but the ampre that you need to check. Is the battery good, will it hold a charge when dissconnected from the car?

Charley B

I fully charged it last nite (out of the car) and it was at 12.95, after 12 hours it was still at 12.71. Put it in the car and it fired right up and run fine. A few hours later, went to start, and it would barely turn over.

the flyin' scotsman

Is the wire thats wrapped with electrical tape live? key on? key off? Use your DVM set on DC voltage.

With everything off remove the negative batt cable and connect the DVM between the negative batt post and the disconnected neg batt cable. With DVM set to read amps (current) post what readings you have.

Charley B

Well in trying to get a reading I was able to determine the taped wire is a ground wire that is attached at the pass. front engine lift hook. I assume this eliminates it as a suspect for a battery drain.

Bill Ball

It looks like the coil wire was shorting to the poorly insulated coil ground wire! The ground wire shouldn't be routed there, but even so, if the coil wire cap is intact, it shouldn't short.

Not sure what's going on with your battery. The battery should be 12.7 volts after your finish charging it and let it sit detached for 6 hours.

If you want to check for parasitic drain, you'll need a different meter for amps, as Imoo mentioned. I can bring mine out some day this week.

Charley B

Yup. I just remembered that when I replaced the wires a few years ago I kept the coil wires, so I have a spare. I think the dist. end of the wire wasn't seated completely and it dropped down to the ground wire.

Bill Ball

Argh! You're very lucky nothing worse happened, such as a cat fire.

John Speake

The heated rear window relay can also often cause a battery drain.

Charley B

OK, I picked up a decent Multi-meter on the way home from work today.

With the meter set for DC and mA I meaured across the neg. battery terminal to the unattached neg. cable.

The reading is .32. I'm thinking that's about normal?