So I go to leave for work this morning and the Max has a dead battery (Exide battery less than 1 year old). Jumper cables were inaccesible (a whole different syory) so I called AAA. Took them a little over a hour but the kid who showed up was good, he had diagnostic equipment and a drain meter with him and he put them through their paces. Eventually he got the battery to take a charge but said that the drain was higher than it should be but the battery and charging system are in good shape. I let the car idle for a little while and drove to work with no problems

The exterior and interior lights turn themselves off automatically... what esle is there?

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Crappy battery? I dunno.

 

Do you have an aftermarket stereo, hardwired radar detector, etc. that may have some faulty wiring?

 

I do have an aftermarket HU (using an adapter to work with factory wiring/amps)and changer in the trunk, that is the only thing I have changed. Would everything still apear to work normally even if there was a short that is draining the battery when the car is off?

Thanks!

 

Could very well be. Might not be a complete short, like blowing a fuse, but some kind of miswired connection allowing for the loss.

Many years back I had an '88 5.0 Mustang with aftermarket head unit, two amps, etc. When I had some A/C issues under warranty, for some stupid reason the tech had to remove some of the power wires to the audio equipment and then put it back together...but ran the power lines for the amp to the control/fuse for the A/C fan. Everything worked fine, A/C blew, stereo ran, thing is, if I left the fan on any setting other than off when I got out of the car, the amp kept draining. Took several attempts at checking the battery, etc. to figure this one out.

 

Seat heaters? I left mine on for more than 24 hrs and it drained the battery.

 

Haven't had that problem on my AE.

 

It's written in manual to turn them off with the engine. I don't know...

 

True, guess I have been lucky the few times I or my passenger has forgotten.

 

bad alternator maybe. it isnt charging the battery

 

I do have the heated seats but they were not on. I did read the same thing in the users manual about not leaving them on though...

I pulled out the rear seat to check on the changer wire and that looks good. I pulled the center of the dash apart to chech on the HU wires and they all looked good also.

One thing I did notice when I was sitting in the car with everything off, keys out of the ignition and doors locked I could here what sounded like a relay switching under the passenger side dash area, it would cycle every 20 or so seconds... any ideas??? Anyone else have this noise?

 

the only thing i think is under the dash on the passenger side is the transmission control module
dont know why that would be drawing power

 

I had it ON for whole winter and no problem.....

 

Humm, i thought the TCM was in the center console (sp?)... I am leaving the car for the night, hopefully things will work in the morning.

I did notice that the high beams were switched on but the control is in the auto position so that shouldn't matter right???

 

Thats a relay clicking. Do you have an aftermarket alarm? Did you buy the car used, because i work in the install bay at CC and i have gotten 2 cars who came in for alarms and had one in there. As far as the high beams, our cars are set up so no matter what you do, the lights go off before you leave the car. Write back and let me know about the alarm thing though. Everytime the relay is clicking that woudl be the recycle of the siren. Though it should shut off after a couple of cycles.


brandon

 

I did by the car used from a dealer, they never mentioned any other alarm, they probably wouldn't know anyway. How can I be sure that is what I am actually hearing???

Thanks!

 

Well I let the car sit for about 24 hours without starting it. When I tried this evening it was completely dead, no dash lights or anything... I mentioned before about the relay clicking sound I was hearing under the passenger dash when everything was off, key out of ignition. Any help here, if it has an aftermarket alarm where would I go to look for it?

Thanks!

 

email sent.



brandon

 

Brandon - Check your inbox!


I jumped the car and gave the battery a charge. Next disconnected the negative terminal and connected my multimeter between it and the battery to check for draw. The relay click absolutely is the culprit. My multimeter goes from .4 to 90 back to .4 in cycles that change exactly when the relay clicks. Now I just need to locate the problem under the dash!!!

 

Solved my problem!

It was a unique situation, don't know if it will help anyone else. Found my problem was linked to fuseable link i which feeds power windows, power locks, sunroof, remotes, power seats, and immobilizer system. I spent hours last night going through the A33 ESM to see what possible problems could exist, none of the systems looked to have a relay under the passenger side dash. Got in the car this morning and started playing with everything connected to the culprit fusable link... problem found! The passenger side power seat switch was sticking on. After further review someone had taken the switch button trim off and put it back on upside down causing the switch to stick in the back position. Flipped trim over and verified with multimeter that the problem was solved.

YAY

 

Good job troubleshooting the problem.