Bilal928S4

Wally,
I also moved the harness by the passenger side front shock tower. The fuse also says diagnosis etc. I see a port over there and that was the location where I had smelled something plastic burning?
Any thoughts in that area that I might look for? The wires do not look melted or punched, but that could be inside the outer covering.
Thanks
Bilal

WallyP

The diagnostic port is under the cover on the passenger door sill. If the odor was in the engine compartment, it could be in the red wires going from the jump start terminal thru the firewall to the top of the Central Electric Panel, or on the jump start terminal.

It might be helpful to realize that your problem could not be a "dead short to ground". That is, it could not be one of the wires being directly touching the chassis or body - it that happens, wires start melting instantly, with clouds of acrid smoke.

You had to have some short circuit thru at least some resistance, so that the current flow was low enough to prevent instant melting, but the resistance had to have been low enough to pass a heavy electrical current.

Bilal928S4

Agreed, but non of the wires melted and even the fuse of the culprit circuit did not blow.
Bilal

neilh

Agreed x 2, if the short went away when you pulled the fuse, I would agree it is downstream of teh fuse, but not enough to blow the fuse - a 7.5 A fuse on a circuit with a voltage around 13.5 needs a short less than about 2 ohms ( or about a 100w load) to blow it.
At this point, I would do as Merlin suggests - heat shrink all the connections on the light fixtures, and reinstall. I do this on any car I touch, because it is such a likely place to have a short.

Bilal928S4

I will do that, but the draw was significant that it killed one battery and the other battery you could see it being discharged while the meter was connected. It was draining by .01v per second.
Bilal

neilh

0.01v/sec, if a linear drain, will drain it down in under 20 minutes. That may be consistent with a 100 w draw. A car battery is not a deep cycle, unlike a boat battery, which can stand being drawn down very low every time it is used to start. Think about it, if you left your headlamps on ( about the same load) how long before the battery is so low it will not start the car?
But turn them off, and it will creep back up, and if new, will probably get back up high enough to at least make an attempt to start.

Maleficio

Dying/defective battery. My Redtop is seven years old now. It will take a charge, will crank the Trooper everyday, no problems, but don't start the Trooper for a month, and the battery will drop down to 7 volts, and will not crank the engine. It's dying a slow death.

Bilal928S4

Ok, so this weekend I started shrink wrapping all the connectors. I found that most of them were already done. Some of them were raw and needed to be done. When I took the rear hatch interior light out it just disintegrated. It also blew the 7.5 A fuse. I taped off the offending wire until I get a replacement light. Took the car for a drive all gauges work fine, but the gas gauge is showing empty, the light is on and the computer keeps reminding me to check the miles to empty. I went and filled up and it took 2 gallons. The gauge is showing empty and the light is on.
It's 90 S4. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks
Bilal

Bilal928S4

Any help with the fuel gauge showing empty with the light on and the computer showing no gas either, but the tank is full.

Mrmerlin

for the fuel gauge you can remove the connector at the tank sender,
look in the hatch floor for the access cover,
if the connectors are clean then drive the car till you have about 300 miles on it,
then remove the tank sender ,
you may be able to take the sender apart and clean the wires inside,
otherwise buy a new tank sender and O ring seal

Leon Speed

I had good luck cleaning the sender contacts (male and female) with some fine grit sanding paper.

Bilal928S4

Can somebody give me a quick overview on where the sender wires are run, so that I can check the places I have been lately and make sure I did not mess anything up while doing other stuff.
I will check the connections to the float in the trunk. Is there any connection in the battery box, because I removed the battery a couple of times. I also did the PSD reservoir replacement and flush.
Thanks
Bilal

Bilal928S4

I did some digging after I came home from work. This is what I found in the cavity above the fuel gas sender unit. The first picture is of the stuff I vacuumed out. The second picture is of the wiring that has been eaten or broken by some animal. The part I do not understand is that the car was working fine and has been in the garage for the last couple of weeks on jack stands while I was working on it and I did not see any rats, mice etc.
Anyway, is there a connector that I can unplug and just replace a piece of this wiring or is this part of the harness and I have to splice? How do I get to it to replace without having to take the gas tank out?
Thanks in advance.
Bilal

Bilal928S4

Would this also affect the tail light failure message I get when I turn the lights on? Also my rear wiper just stopped working or the short I was getting before?. Are these things related?
Bilal

Bilal928S4

Anybody know how the wiring to the sender is run? Is there a connector somewhere that can be unhooked and this broken piece of wiring replaced?
Thanks
Bilal