Dead Battery - Battery Drain? "Low Voltage"
09-21-2009, 09:24 PM
#1
Drifting
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Dead Battery - Battery Drain? "Low Voltage"
Before I dive into what's wrong with my car, I'd like to tell the complete story just in case if there are related issues--I'll keep it brief.
This car is my daily driver.
1 - My traction control, ABS, and active handling have been gone for the better part of a year. I just haven't gotten around to fixing it. I will eventually send it out to ABSFixer but can't afford having my car out of commission at the moment.
2 - I had a window leak problem where rain was entering the car. For a couple of weeks my passenger seat would make a clicking noise and would twitch like a sleeping dog every 15 seconds. The seat would physically twitch as if a ghost was gently tapping the seat controls. This problem "Fixed itself" once the car dried out. I have since fixed the leak.
3 - My horn went. And by went I mean the bladder popped making my horn blow without stopping. The only thing I could do to silence the damn thing was to pull the fuse and park it. I have not had it fixed yet.
For the past couple of weeks my car has started up a with a little reluctancy. It started out firing right up, then went to starting up with a sigh and then finally now it just clicked and gave up. A jump start bought me a lot of time--enough to run the car for the entire week.
HOWEVER once I got home on Friday night. I didn't drive the car all weekend and come monday morning, it wouldn't start. I had to put up with this kind of crap for 3 weeks. Jumping the car in the morning.
Today was the final straw. The car needed to be jumped this morning despite running the car all weekend. It sat for 15 hours and then was dead this morning. I jumped it and drove to work (~30min drive). Coming out of work the car was dead again. DIC reads "Low Voltage" and was around 13 volts.
I bought a NEW battery today with about 100 more cold starting power units and the car is running like a champ now.
However I'm concerned that I'm still not getting to 14 volts. I watched the dic readout fluctuate between 13.5 and 13.7. Should I be concerned? The OLD battery was an Interstate with 650 cold starting (amps?). It was dated 2006 and came with my car when it bought it used. It came with a 75 month warranty, however I'm outside of that period and wound up just buying a whole new battery with higher cold starting power in hopes of solving the problem once and for all.
I don't know how electronics work. Is it possible the car is feeding off the battery somewhere? Could the CPU for the ABS/TCS/AH be running the battery low? Does having the fuse pulled leave an 'open loop', running the battery down?
I want to find out what is eating my battery unless it was just time for it to go - which I find hard to believe.
Maybe I should unplug the power to my passenger seat?
At this point, if this NEW battery is going to start dying on me, I'm going to have to unhook one of the battery terminals EVERY TIME I GET IN AND OUT OF THE CAR.
HEEEEELLLLLP!!!!
This car is my daily driver.
1 - My traction control, ABS, and active handling have been gone for the better part of a year. I just haven't gotten around to fixing it. I will eventually send it out to ABSFixer but can't afford having my car out of commission at the moment.
2 - I had a window leak problem where rain was entering the car. For a couple of weeks my passenger seat would make a clicking noise and would twitch like a sleeping dog every 15 seconds. The seat would physically twitch as if a ghost was gently tapping the seat controls. This problem "Fixed itself" once the car dried out. I have since fixed the leak.
3 - My horn went. And by went I mean the bladder popped making my horn blow without stopping. The only thing I could do to silence the damn thing was to pull the fuse and park it. I have not had it fixed yet.
For the past couple of weeks my car has started up a with a little reluctancy. It started out firing right up, then went to starting up with a sigh and then finally now it just clicked and gave up. A jump start bought me a lot of time--enough to run the car for the entire week.
HOWEVER once I got home on Friday night. I didn't drive the car all weekend and come monday morning, it wouldn't start. I had to put up with this kind of crap for 3 weeks. Jumping the car in the morning.
Today was the final straw. The car needed to be jumped this morning despite running the car all weekend. It sat for 15 hours and then was dead this morning. I jumped it and drove to work (~30min drive). Coming out of work the car was dead again. DIC reads "Low Voltage" and was around 13 volts.
I bought a NEW battery today with about 100 more cold starting power units and the car is running like a champ now.
However I'm concerned that I'm still not getting to 14 volts. I watched the dic readout fluctuate between 13.5 and 13.7. Should I be concerned? The OLD battery was an Interstate with 650 cold starting (amps?). It was dated 2006 and came with my car when it bought it used. It came with a 75 month warranty, however I'm outside of that period and wound up just buying a whole new battery with higher cold starting power in hopes of solving the problem once and for all.
I don't know how electronics work. Is it possible the car is feeding off the battery somewhere? Could the CPU for the ABS/TCS/AH be running the battery low? Does having the fuse pulled leave an 'open loop', running the battery down?
I want to find out what is eating my battery unless it was just time for it to go - which I find hard to believe.
Maybe I should unplug the power to my passenger seat?
At this point, if this NEW battery is going to start dying on me, I'm going to have to unhook one of the battery terminals EVERY TIME I GET IN AND OUT OF THE CAR.
HEEEEELLLLLP!!!!
09-21-2009, 10:06 PM
#2
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CI 6,7,8,9,11 Vet
St. Jude Donor '08
What the DIC and IPC Volt meter display is NOT necessarily what the battery is seeing.
Invest in a good basic volt meter that reads AC/DC Volts, Ohms, and at least 10 Amps current. If you don't want to purchase one, borrow one.
- Read the engine running voltage at the BATTERY terminals and record that.
- Read the engine running voltage at the back of the Alternator on the BATT terminal (the one under the black rubber boot) and record that.
- Compare those voltages to the DIC and IPC Volt meter readings.
The only way that your going to know if your electrical system is leaching excessive current is to use your meter and do a current draw test. Heres a couple post that goes into that test:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...ery-again.html
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...on-long-6.html
Look at post page# 590
If your seat is moving by its self, or did at one time,,its hosed up and part of the issue. PERIOD You need to address what's causing or caused that issue. water in the passengers foot well is death for the BCM and fuse box. You will have corrosion in the fuse box and on the back of the BCM circuit board.
If your carpet and or the jute underlayment is wet or even damp, you really need to remove the carpet and properly dry it out.
BC
Invest in a good basic volt meter that reads AC/DC Volts, Ohms, and at least 10 Amps current. If you don't want to purchase one, borrow one.
- Read the engine running voltage at the BATTERY terminals and record that.
- Read the engine running voltage at the back of the Alternator on the BATT terminal (the one under the black rubber boot) and record that.
- Compare those voltages to the DIC and IPC Volt meter readings.
The only way that your going to know if your electrical system is leaching excessive current is to use your meter and do a current draw test. Heres a couple post that goes into that test:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...ery-again.html
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...on-long-6.html
Look at post page# 590
If your seat is moving by its self, or did at one time,,its hosed up and part of the issue. PERIOD You need to address what's causing or caused that issue. water in the passengers foot well is death for the BCM and fuse box. You will have corrosion in the fuse box and on the back of the BCM circuit board.
If your carpet and or the jute underlayment is wet or even damp, you really need to remove the carpet and properly dry it out.
BC
09-21-2009, 11:23 PM
#3
Drifting
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Member Since: Apr 2007
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Awesome thanks so much Bill! I'll have to get cracking on that. The floor is dry and has been for some time. The seat no longer clicks or moves on its own since it dried out, however it doesn't sit well with me that it did at one time. The seat still works as it should.
