Hey everyone,

My mom's 95 GXE was sitting for 2 weeks since she was out of town. I went to take it for a drive (just to make sure everything was running ok) and the battery was dead. So, I took the battery out of my car, and then started hers, and was going to take out my battery and put her dead battery back in (to let the alternator charge it, her battery is only 2 years old). When I take out the battery cable the car stutters and dies.. isn't it suppose to stay on (unless the alternator is bad)

anyways, so I keep my battery in there, and when I drive it around, there are some weird electrical issues. First, the speedo/odometer background lights get really bright as I increase rpm. They'll get kinda dim at a stop light, and then get really bright as I accelerate..

The airbag light is also blinking..

The radio and AC were not working either. The 1-2-3-4 air blower-speed dial works, but I can't direct where I want the air to come from (only how was I want it to come out)

I checked the fuses and the "elec parts" fuse and "aircon" fuse blew. After I put a new fuse in the "elec/batt parts", the radio started working again. Everytime, I put in a new fuse in the "aircon", it blows when I turn the key to "ON" position.

I took the car to autozone for them to test the alternator when it's in the car. They said it's fine..(they make you turn on the lights and keep your car at 2500rpm..)

Thoughts? Thanks a lot guys..

 

Other people will step in to help you out with the rest of your electrical problems, but I can at least tell you that the car isn't supposed to stay on once you pull the battery. That trick works on some oldschool cars (I had an eighty-something buick that it actually worked on). I've read that doing this can actually harm the ECU and other electronic components of the car.

edit - after reading around on this some more, looks like damage to the ECU and even the alternator can happen very quickly if the battery is disconnected from the charging system. Hopefully this isn't what happened in your case :

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...AAlfQKF&show=7

Any idea if it was exhibiting any of these electrical problems before you swapped out the battery (the last time it was driven before it sat)?

 

It wasn't exhibiting any electrical problems before it sat other than:
1) Sometimes the radio would mysteriously stop working. Disconnecting the negative terminal for 5 seconds would make it work again.
2) The lights on the aircon unit (the ones above the buttons for directing the air; feet, face, defroster, etc.) were not working, but the aircon was working just fine.

 

It works on the A32 just fine

I've done it countless times on countless vehicles, never had a problem afterwards. Hell, I used to do it to jump my old '87 max with the batt from my '95.

Do you have a DVOM? If so, check to see what kind of voltage the alt is pushing at idle.

Auto climate or manual?

AIRCON fuse in the engine bay fuse box (http://pics.livejournal.com/boredmder/pic/000832qa/g23) or in the car (http://pics.livejournal.com/boredmder/pic/0008azfd/g23) ?

Here's the wiring diagram for the manual climate control, v the aircon fuse:

 

I have manual climate control , it's the fuse underneath the steering wheel. thanks for posting the diagram..

 

really? I did this on an altima (attempted the same thing that the OP was doing) and it stalled out right away. After that, I never tried it on my a32 because I also read that it can possibly harm things. So does this mean that the alternator on the altima is on its way out, or does it work on some vehicles and not on others? Great, now I'm worried. LOL! Don't want this to go O/T, just curious to learn a lil more about this. Shoot me a PM if you want

 

i would not try that, why not just get jumper cables? or a battery charger? I would also worry about crossing the streams when trying this! But to all his own.....

 

Just an update.. I got the airbag light to go off by resetting it (pushing the door button 7 times).

The AC stuff still doesnt work. The fuse in the engine bay is ok, the one under dash keeps blowing...

ideas?

thanks everyone

 

Check the air conditioner relay in relay box #1 by power steering reservior. Pull out the relay look at condition of relay and where it plugs in. Swap it with another relay of the same color for testing. Is it fuse #16 7.5 Amp that you keep blowing? Not Fuse 56 shown in diagram above?

 

If you don't find anything wrong with relay try removing it a see if fuse #16 still blows. This would indicate if I am on the right track.