toni1595 Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Hello fellow Subers. I've recently purchased a "slightly" used, 142K miles , 1992 Loyale. Of course it has several "little" problems. One of them I'm currently trying to scope out is that the battery is going dead. When I first checked out the car the guy that had it said it had a new battery so I was expecting a quick turnover....... It barely had enough power to make the dashlights work. After boosting it and getting it home I set up a ammeter between the negative cable and the negative post and it showed a draw of 3.55 amps. Quite a bit I would say. I pulled the fuses one by one and the only real difference that I saw was when I took the fuse with the clock on it. The draw went down to about 2.30 amps.......... The previous owner said that he had trouble with the automatic seatbelts so he disconnected the passenger side, after he got it back to the correct position. Other than that I don't know of anything else that is out of the ordinary. Any ideas?? Thanx, Toni. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 The draw went down to about 2.30 amps.... Good start checking all the fuses. Try the fusible links. Try un hooking the main alternator output wire. My 92 has the annoying power belts. I also have a set of the non power belts from a GL. That will solve the #$%^% power belts problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeshoup Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Check for shorts to ground. You may have something shorting itself to ground. And do like the guy before suggested, pull the fusible links one by one, doing the same thing (they're in the black box on the coolant reservoir) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Look for anything "not so factory" looking - aftermarket stereo and alarm wireing have caused me no end of problems with battery drain and random electrical issues. In my experience, previous owners are worse than years or mileage. GD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeron Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 you *have* checked the little parking light switch on top of the steering column, right? if thats turned on, then the battery will naturally drain..... i know, i know, but if its on, its hard to notice sometimes.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robm Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 A bad diode in the alternator will cause a persistent drain. That is why you should try disconnecting that cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 Good troubleshooting using the ammeter. It sounds like there is trouble in the clock circuit and somewhere else. Try removing the main alternator lead to see if that helps. Remember that lead is hot so it is best to remove the battery ground first before disconnecting it and keep it isolated from ground or anything else. Also remove the other leads to the alternator to see if that helps. Checking the fusible links should give you a starting path to the problem. The normal current draw with everything off should only be around 35 milliamps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toni1595 Posted July 8, 2006 Author Share Posted July 8, 2006 O.K. I've done some more checking and what I found may good or bad depending on how it is perceived. The first thing I found was that the key was left on while I was checking previously, OOPS! .......So I went ahead and hooked up again and I was back to the 2.30 amps again. Still would seem high to me. I pulled the bigger wire off of the alternator and it didn't make any difference. I tried to get the smaller wires off but I couldn't seem to budge them and I didn't want to break the plug. I then proceeded to take out the fusible links one by one and found that when I took the second one from the front of the car out, the draw went down to 1.50 amps. I haven't got a clue what that goes to. Just for the hell of it I set up the ammeter hookup on my road worthy 1992 Loyale and found it had a draw of 2.30 amps, what the heck is going on?? I've never had any problem with this car and it has an old (I've had the car for 6 years) Sears Diehard and even in the winter and with 205K miles, this car always takes right off. Maybe with this car sitting for a month, even a new battery could run down, I don't know. Where my user Subaru runs daily the current draw isn't a problem. Is it possible to run a brand new battery to a dead condition with a current draw of 2.30 amps in 1 month?? It appears so. Toni. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 Is it possible to run a brand new battery to a dead condition with a current draw of 2.30 amps in 1 month?? Toni. In answer to your question Toni, yes it is. As I stated before, a normal idle current should be around 35 milliamps, also stated as 0.035 amps. That is a lot less than 2.3 amps. If a car has more than 80 millamps of draw then a search for trouble needs to be made. Since the other car is working ok and your meter showed the same amount of current flow it would seem something is wrong with either the test gear or the test method. My first thought about this is there is something like a light turned on that shouldn't be while you are making the current test. Is there a light under the hood that turns on when the hood is up? If so, you need to disconnect it. Make sure nothing is on in the car when you do the test. If everything in the car is off and both cars show the same 2.3 amp current flow still then the trouble may be with the meter showing a false reading, or you are reading it incorrectly. Are you using a analog or digital meter? If you are using a analog meter you may be reading the multiplyier incorrectly. It sounds like you pulled the red fusible link and made the current drop about 8 tenths of a amp. Did you try pulling the rest of them? I think the red link supplies power to the lighting mainly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azsubaru Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 It's worth checking the battery first - it would be a shame if this was all because of a bad one. If you can recharge it, let it sit for a couple hours disconnected, then check the voltage, compare with this chart that I borrowed from some battery company: Open Circuit Approximate Battery Voltage State-of-charge 12.65+ 100% 12.45 75% 12.24 50% 12.06 25% 11.89 0% Anything under 75% charge indicates the battery should probably be replaced. This is a no-load test, so it's not 100% proof of a good battery, but is a good easy test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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