92LuminaRS Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 I'm having this problem on my '90 Lumina. I've noticed that the battery will drain if the car isn't started up every other day. There is no mods to this car, it is pretty much completely stock - everything. It has a new rebult alternator and the battery is good becuase I swapped one of the batteries out from my '92 and it did drained it. If I drive the car every day or every other day it shows no problems, I actually just cought up with this problem lately beucase I haven't been using it much. What should I be looking for when diagnosing this problem? I'm seriously thinking about just taking it to a shop, I don't want to get involved with any electrical work! And it is the '90, not the '92 with the hi-amp alternator, this car is stock right down to the warped dash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 moved to general so you will get more responses.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SigEpCutlass Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 shouldn't this be in the powertrain section? do you have an OBD scanner? if not maybe you can rent one to see if it's throwing any codes. that would be my first suggestion with something electrical... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92LuminaRS Posted February 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 moved to general so you will get more responses.... Thank you! I thought I posted in the general section but I guess I was browsing the wrong section... Thank you for moving it though! shouldn't this be in the powertrain section? do you have an OBD scanner? if not maybe you can rent one to see if it's throwing any codes. that would be my first suggestion with something electrical... Yes, I have one of those scanners that flashes any trouble codes through the check engine light, it's not giving me any... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 What is most likely draining your battery? try this. Start pulling fuses, like the radio fuse and see if the problem disappears. leave a few non-essential fuses out for a few days and see if the problem goes away. from there stick them in one by one to see if you can isolate the bad circuit. Or could a trunk or hood light be left on? remove the bulbns temporaily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 I'm guessing hood light. I've had two Luminas with sticky internal switches that turn it on when you open the hood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prospeeder Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 I'm guessing hood light. I've had two Luminas with sticky internal switches that turn it on when you open the hood. sounds very logical, Glove box, trunk, hood, anything with lights could stay on and you not know it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveFromColorado Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 that used to happen all the time on my old Sunbird - ended up being the trunk light not turning itself off, you may want to check to make sure it turns off when the trunk lid is closed. The glove box light can do this too, cause an overnight drain, or a 2-day drain even - Or the under-hood light could cause it. Or - you've got a crappy battery that's about to totally take a dump on ya. --Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadz34 Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 It's obviously an electrical leak, or a dying battery as Dave mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92LuminaRS Posted February 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 I definately know it's an electrical leak, I just dont know where to start with tracking it down. I was thinking about pulling the fuses untill I found the one that has the drain, but that would take a couple of weeks and I dont want to hurt the battery by having it completely discharge and than recharge, etc... I've even tried hooking up more than one battery to the car, and low and behold it kills them both. Mabye a test light between the fuse prongs to see which one it lights up? I tried this with a multimeter and it burnt out the fuse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowboyBilly9Mile Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 I definately know it's an electrical leak, I just dont know where to start with tracking it down. I was thinking about pulling the fuses untill I found the one that has the drain, but that would take a couple of weeks and I dont want to hurt the battery by having it completely discharge and than recharge, etc... I've even tried hooking up more than one battery to the car, and low and behold it kills them both. Mabye a test light between the fuse prongs to see which one it lights up? I tried this with a multimeter and it burnt out the fuse You don't have to waste two weeks worth of valuable time to determine the source of the problem. First, I'll assume that you have a good battery as evidenced by a load test or by disconnecting it and determining that it holds a charge. Provided the battery is not the problem, you next proceed to hook up an ammeter between the battery and one of the battery cables. The ammeter should be part of any reasonably decent hand held multimeter; WalFart sells them for around $20. Note the current draw (ideally should be under 100mA and even that's a good draw). Now remove fuses, one by one, until you find the one that's causing an excessive draw. Realize that the ECM and the radio require a small current when the vehicle is off; unless there is by some odd chance that the draw on these is unusually excessive (and it's probably not). Once you have found the offending circuit, proceed to your schematic to determine what's on that circuit. You can remove components from that circuit in a methodical manner (this is where the schematic kicks in) to find the probelm. Don't forget to remove wiring at the alternator if removal of the fuses doesn't isolate the circuit with an excessive draw. My bet is that you have something like a relay that's cooked (high odds) or maybe a trunk light stuck on. *The fact that you blew the fuse on your ammeter may imply that you found the problem circuit; this depends on, perhaps, how you had your meter set (amperage to be read) and what current you put on it for that setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutlsp Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 pull the ctsy fuse my car a wire was pinched and grounding it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92LuminaRS Posted February 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 You know cowboy, that's a really good idea. I thought it might have been a bad relay also beucase I had a bad relay on one of my fans in my '92, and that killed the battery beucause it was feeding enough current to the fan that it wouldn't spin; but it would drain the battery. As soon as it warms up (It's currently a warm -18* today) I'm going to have to tinker and see where I get. @ cutlsp: I did in fact pull the fuse a while back because I thought I might have had a short in the cig lighter but the battery still drained... Thank you for the suggestion though, it's appreciated. I shall post the problem as soon as I trace the damn thing down, thank you to all that helped! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cutlass Posted February 11, 2006 Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 why not just get a battery saver circut? they cut off power when the car's off something along the lines of http://www.batterybrain.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88Regal Limited Posted February 11, 2006 Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 My hood light was stuck on when that happened to me. :shock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92LuminaRS Posted February 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 That battery cutoff looks cool but it dosn't look like it's side-post friendly. My hood light was stuck on when that happened to me. :shock: Hey I know your sig pic from AR! I knew that I kept seeing it somewhere but I could not figure out where from... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92LuminaRS Posted February 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 OK!!! So I went out and bought a brand new digital multimeter, a really nice one to solve this god damn problem... So I'm outside in the 14* weather that we are having right now testing this shit out. I had to jumpstart the car TWICE with both a booster pack AND my girlfriend's subaru the battery was so damn discharged! I let the car run @ 1,000RPM for 40 minutes and the battery was fully charged and I proceeded to start the testing. I tested the interior fuse box, and both fuse boxes under the hood, this is what I got. Interior Current Draws: Panel (5A) .02A draw Tail (20A) .02A draw Elec (15A) .03A draw Are those normal? There was only one draw in electrical center under the hood (the one above the computer). It was one of those bigass fuses (30A) and it was a .03A draw. A pic of the electrical center with the fuse circled below: So I disconnected the battery's negative terminal and connected the multimeter to the negative terminal and grounded it to the chassis. A 1.81A TOTAL DRAW!!! Where the hell is this other 1.71A coming from!?!?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveFromColorado Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 sounds like you've got a lamp stuck on, probably trunk. pull the bulb from the trunk and see if that cures the problem. --Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutlsp Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 was the hood light on at the time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92LuminaRS Posted February 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 I pulled the fuse for the lights becuase they would obviously draw a shitload of power and mess up the readings (they draw alot of amperage). So yes, everything was turned off and ther were no lights, chimers, buzzers anything on at all when I took the readings. Come on now guys, have some faith in me... I've owned a few Lumina's for about 4 years now; I just try to stay away from the electrical nightmare of these cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveFromColorado Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 stock or aftermarket radio? if it's aftermarket, try just unplugging it and seeing if that helps any ... sorry if my idea seemed like I was talkin' down to ya ... I'm fairly stumped for ideas - the relay one sounds about right (antilock brake relay maybe?) I'd try unpluggin' the radio first and see if tha cures anything ... if you've got an aftermarket amp/sub combo, pull the fuse for that too, and see if that does anythin' for ya. --Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92LuminaRS Posted February 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 Unfortuinately it's all stock, right down to the radio that dosnt have a tape player and half the speakers don't work I'm totally stumped too... there is another .81A just floating around somewhere that I cannot trace down. I would think all the relays are on fuses though also. I don't want to bring the car to the shop becuase I know that they'll rape me in repair fees. Nobody wants to deal with electrical shit. Hell, in my '92 it has this wierd problem where it melts all the electric door lock switches. I've replaced them all and it stil does it, and than eventually the fuse blows. I jsut take it as another loss... lol. But this, this is a PITA when I go out to start my car to go somewhere and the fucker dosn't start Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveFromColorado Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 what state do ya live in? I'm sure there's someone 'round that may be able to help ya. --Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudefyet Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 what state do ya live in? I'm sure there's someone 'round that may be able to help ya. --Dave. Definitely, a lot of us like making road trips to help out other members too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveFromColorado Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 I've offered my willingness to drive to help people before ... and now it's gonna be much easier, being as I've got a job that allows me to travel wherever the hell I want ... Oh wait, I'm between jobs ... same thing tho right? --Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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