Hope you can help, I have a 90 vert, 6 speed, Bose, electronic air conditioning control. Went to start the car up after sitting a month, the bat was dead, so jumped with a portable jumper. When the jumper was installed I could hear a relay clicking under the pass instrument panel. The car started with no problems when I noticed that the electronic climate control was blank. Upon further investigation that while the radio was on, the was nothing coming out, also the courtesy lights were not working. Found the the courtesy light 15 amp fuse was blown. A review of the wiring diagram indicates that all these systems feed through this fuse. I have removed the courtesy relay, thinking that hat was the clicking, but the sort remains. Where do I begin to trace this out. This is what I get for letting it sit, when I use this car every day it gives me no problems, but when it sits the grmlins get in and cause problems.

Thanks for looking

 

As a general comment, when a C4 battery gets really low, clicking sounds will start happening, usually over on the passenger side. Forget which one.

I'd just replace the fuse, charge up the battery, and see what happens.

If you have a good voltmeter, perform a parasitic draw test.

dlmeyers 90 coupe zf6 3speed shocks

 

I have typed this more than 100 times, here goes again!
Lead acid batteries do not like sitting for long periods (4+ wks) doing nothing. Car batteries self discharge up to 1% each day even disconnected and while they discharge, lead sulphate collects on their plates and lead sulphate is a good insulator. A fully sulphated battery is a door stop. Car batteries are not deep discharge batteries and each deep discharge cycle they go through reduces their amphour capacity and it doesn't take many of these cycles to wind up with the equivalent of a motorcycle battery. Buy a battery tender and keep your stored battery charged up. If you already have a battery charger, buy an interval timer (turns your home lights on each night when you aren't home) and have it make your battery charger charge your battery each day for its minimum interval (usually 15 mins, but an hour won't hurt your battery). Your battery will have a normal life when kept charged and a shortened life if you let it discharge while sitting. Also, don't think you can drive your car for 30 minutes and the alternator will charge the battery up ! You will heat the alternator and reduce its life, AND it takes a long time to fully charge a car battery and that is best done with a battery charger! You can tell the state of charge in a car battery by measuring its terminal voltage under no load. 12.0 v and below, discharged. 12.9 v and above , fully charged and linear inbetween (example, 12.5 volts, 50% charged).

 

Thanks for the info, but I have a direct short. The replacement fuse blows as soon as it is installed. I don't think that it is related to a discharged battery, but I am willing to learn.

 

Sorry, I need to read more slowly or comprehend more quickly .
You have a short in the courtesy lamp circuit which supplies power to the 2 footwell lights, 2 door map lights, 2 cargo lights, and the spare tire light, heater a/c controller, courtesy delay timer, clock in radio, audio alarm module, 2 engine compartment lights, cigar lighter, glove box light, telltale assembly, antenna relay, Bose amplifier relay. If you put a stoplight bulb in place of the 15 amp courtesy fuse, then you will have a safe 1 amp or so flowing into the short circuit and this is safe for long periods while you trace which wire is carrying the 1 amp short circuit current. Instead of cutting each wire to each load and measuring the wire current to find the short, a clamp on DC ammeter can be used to measure wire current, but the cheapest clamp on DC ammeter I know of is one from Sears for $49. Another way is to use a dime store compass and hold it against each wire and observe the needle deflection. Higher deflection means higher current. You can hold the compass against the stoplight bulb to get a feel for the effect of the magnetic field around a conductor with 1 amp flowing. My money is on one of the wires going to the door map lights because they are subject to flexing and abraiding their insulation and pinching where they go through the front of the door frame into the door through the rubber boot. Let me know if I can help any further.