bobster964

I'm having problems with the electrics right now and trying to trace a current drain of .38 milliamps. I think is must be the Starter Motor Solenoid as its so high and I've been having intermittant problems of the starter clicking and not turning over. And also being noisey and slow when it does.
For example yesterday, at it's worst, it took 10 goes at turning the key before it spun the starter. This was after fitting a brand new battery because the old one went flat overnight. I didn't realise before buying the battery that it was this current drain which flattened it, i thought it was the condition of the battery.

Anyway, whilst pulling all the fuses individually to try to trace the fault, and getting no change to the reading, I then pulled each relay in turn and found a very corroded pin on relay 33. The lid says it's Term X. What does it control?

By the way feel free to advise on the battery drain if you don't think it's the starter. I have been getting continuous ABS warning light and sounder coming on and going off for a while now, do you think that may be linked?

Annoying thing is, if it is the starter it's only been on the car 7 months and the shop that sent it off for re-build won't want to give a refund, but will want to send it back for his manufacturer to look at. I don't see how I can get him to refund the money and leave me with the starter to trade in against one from a more reliable source.

For info the Alternator seems to be giving all the same readings as my Boxster so I think that is OK.

Any suggestions or information is welcome before I do one of the worst jobs so far and pull the bloody starter out AGAIN!

Bob.

jcu117

You may want to check the positive cable to the starter.

I had battery drain problem two years ago. Gone through similar troubleshooting steps as you are doing. Replaced multiple batteries and an alternator. It turned out that the shop that did the engine work did not secure the cable to the starter correctly. With the engine vibrations, the cable rubbed against the chassis and caused slight power drain at first and eventually shorted completely.

Good luckwith your repair.

bobster964

Thanks jcu117,
I'm in work now and being told by the clever guys that I was using their multimeter wrong and the drain I've quoted is probably wrong. However a drain there is and it's huge. You are confirming what I suspect that it's starter related so will be looking after work today. I'll look for cable damage first.
Thanks again.
Bob.

P.S Still don't know what Term X relay is for?

Computamedic

Bob,

From what I can see on the wiring diagram is seems that the Term X relay is operated by the ignition switch and provides the hot 12 volt supply to many items such as the oil cooler blower and a/c condenser relays and the rear wiper among other things. I think the "Term X" name relates to the terminal that it supplies through the Central Electric. Bear in mind that some of this is pure guess-work so don't be surprised if somebody comes up with more specific details.

Regards

Dave

springer3

+1. There are lots of wires in the chassis wiring diagram that end with "X", and that is switched +12 VDC.

How much is the drain? 38 mA is normal, and should not cause battery drain problems unless the car sits for weeks at a time. If drain is 380 mA, that is high and will drain the battery in less than a week. If it is 3.8 amps, the battery will drain in less than a day.

bobster964

Thanks Dave & Springer,

I'll get a new relay ordered, but I doubt this is connected to the drain problem.

I've just measured the drain properly and it's 15 amps! Obviously a dead short somewhere. I'll get the car jacked up and look around the starter. I'm assuming it should be easy to spot if it's a +ve cable grounding.

darth

Not likely a dead short if you've pulled all the fuses and no insulation is melting. I'd look at the unfused wires leading to devices which can have resistance when defective, like the alternator and it's diodes. If the wire going to starter was a dead short to ground it's capable of carrying a lot more than 15 amps and you'd likely have melted insulation.

Bill

klr10

15A at 12V is 180 Watts! that will be generating a fair amount of heat somewhere, sounds like the alternator diode pack or something similar.

bobster964

Update:

Pretty sure I've found the battery drain issue. The air trunking which runs from the heat exchanger to air intake had chafed into the smaller of the two battery cables (which I think goes up to the alternator). The wire within the trunking was exposed where it had worn the insulation away on the terminal and was grounding onto the heat exchanger at the other end. The contact hole in the terminal insulation was only about .5mm x 2mm and I missed it initially.

Not sure if that was connected with the starter solenoid issue of clicking and not cranking, but at least the drain issue should be sorted.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Bob.

darth

Most likely, I bet your starter issues will dissapear too, keep us appraised of the situation.

Bill

cmn

bobster - i just had the exact same problem (chafed wires causing drain) on mine. hope you figured it out with less dough spent than me ! (new battery, new starter, new alternator, ~8 hours of labor......) - this seems to be a fairly common issue. I was having strange solenoid/starter behavior before everything was replaced and the bad wire sorted as well.....

dfinnegan