Don Plumley

Many small victories and items off my punch list today. Discovered the ground was not connected (connector missing) to the clock, now I can set the time. But the day is not ending well:

Earlier today I noticed that the interior lights seemed dimmer -- I left the engine cover ajar, maybe that drained the battery a bit? So I hooked up my trickle charger - but instead of to the battery, through the cigarette lighter.

I just went to the garage to look at something, and heard a bizarre clicking noise from under the passenger seat. In a box near the centerline. Unplug the trickle charger. Put key in ignition - no lights, no nothing. But the clicking stopped. Take key out of ignition, clicking resumes....

So I've pulled the negative terminal from the battery. All is quiet.

Not sure if this is a clue - but there was a long trail of some sort of viscous shiny liquid on the pax floor mat - like a skinny snail walked through.

Anyone have any clues as to what is going on?

Thanks in advance,

Don

Caveman

I had the clicking noise when I had a knackered battery. If it's going to go its always when the weather gets cold. Not sure what the slimy trail is! Give your battery a decent charge, see if it holds it and if not throw it away and replace it. One time had the battery go on all three family cars in the space of a week!

Chhers,

David

Chuck A.

That little box is the locking module. It controls the door locks, alarm and interior lights. Mine went bad (as have others on this board).

It may be time to replace it, but I would charge my battery first and replace the battery in your key remote, before spending the money on a new unit...

Don Plumley

Thanks Chuck and David. I thought it might be the alarm box. I wonder if the trickle charger on the lighter adaptor had anything to do with it's potential demise.

The battery looks like a really cheap one. I was planning on an Optima upgrade - maybe just a little sooner than I planned...

My "trickle charger" is really a battery maintainer. Maybe I'll just pull the battery and take it to be tested.

Thanks again...and I'll post the results.

Caveman

Hi Don,

I would eliminate the battery as a cause by getting it checked. It's easy to get it checked. I don't know what an Optima is but a decent winter heavy duty Bosch works fine for me.

Cheers,

David

Robin 993DX

There might be another cause... Long shot but worth a try.

Not too long ago I had some weird electrical issues with my 993's door lock control module. It would actually smoke and burn out, after burning out two units I started to look for a short somewhere. Armed with a voltmeter and the factory schematic in hand I was pulling my hair out trying to find the short.

By luck I was able to find the short. Believe it or not it was from a bundle of wire that became brittle and shorted out in the front hood area.

Specifically the bundle of wire is located at the driver's side front hood hinge. I guess from the constant opening and closing of the front hood the bundle of wire became brittle and the insulation broke off, that which caused the short. I had to cut open the large protective tubing sleeve in order to see the shorted out wires. Apprently one of those wire is a constant positive that goes to the heater element on the windshile washer spray. So the short was feeding the door lock control module a constant positive, which was not protected by a fuse circuit.

By fixing the short I was able to get my door lock contrl module working again and preventing another box from being burnt out.

The symptoms prior to finding the short was very similiar to Don's experience. The dome light would not work properly and also there were some clicking sound, sounded like relays. Also if I turned the dome light to on position I would get ACC function without turning on the ignition key. The front hood light will also reamain even after I disconnected the hood switch. Just all sorts of weird symptoms.

In any case, it is working fine now.

JasonAndreas

Add me to the list of people with the "clicking noise". In my case it was just the relay on the alarm control unit, sometimes they start clicking like mad when the battery voltage drops too low. Once I recharged the battery I had no more issues. If you are worried you can always have the unit checked out with a Bosch hammer.

Chuck A.

FYI, when my unit went bad the Hammer couldn't detect there was a problem. The mechanic said it appeared that only "half" of the unit malfunctioned, therefore the Hammer was worthless in my case...

Don Plumley

Yea! It was just a low battery. I picked up a recharger/starter (nice one at Sears on sale) and when I came home, the clicking had resumed. Put the charger on, clicking went away. Then she started right up.

Sure is quiet with the cats back on though. I'll have to get a reader to make sure the codes are clear, then drive a bit to get the readiness indicators on, then smog time. Followed by take the cat back off time!

Thanks for the help!

Don

Caveman

Hi Don,

Glad to hear it. If the battery loses its charge quickly then chuck it as it is probably knackered!

Cheers,

David

autobonrun

Relays rated at 12volts may not be able to hold in when the voltage drops below 11vdc, especially once they get some age to them. At the minimum voltage threshold point the relay coil will pull-in then drop out continuously. The contacts opening and closing is the clicking noise you hear. In addition to a low battery, dirty or corroded connectors on the plus and minus pins can also create enough of a voltage loss to drop the input to the relay below it's minimum required level.

You can make sure the threshold point is as high as possible by cleaning the connectors in addition to the battery charge itself.