Hello all,

I'm dealing with an odd battery issue on my 1988 C4 and while I AM searching through the forum for possible causes I thought I'd make a post in case I might miss something. (I live in an apartment a couple miles from the car, without any proper show facilities, so I want to do as much homework as possible before I go there and start tinkering.)

I recently brought out the car after winter hiatus and the battery was (more or less) dead because stupid me left it sitting for three months. Battery is a couple years old and after a loooong charge it seemed to be OK. Charged up until the indicator on the battery went from black (needs charging) to green (good charge). I actually had to charge it twice. I have a slow-charger, so the first round wasn't enough... Lights came on, dash came on (kinda flickery) but audio indicators were "wobbly". , so I charged it a second time and then it started OK.

Started the car... drove a bit, all systems fine, then parked overnight. Next day the car wouldn't crank. Took out the battery and it still showed "green".

I charged it up again and again she started fine. A week later, same thing... lights come on, dash comes on but she doesn't seem to be getting enough juice.

NOW, the first thing I will check is the driver side power seat because the previous owner suspected that it drained his battery a couple times. It's never happened to me BUT the last time I drive the car before putting her up for the winter, the seat WAS adjusted so something might've shorted.

My worry here is the battery. Since I live far away from the car, don't have access to another car (Hey, I'm in Stockholm Sweden... we usually only use the subway!) I don't want to drag the battery a couple miles back and forth every other day to charge it. I'm starting to wonder if the 3-month drainage has damaged the battery so that it will not give enough starting juice (after a start or two) even though it shows all-green and the lights work fine. (As AI recall, the starter on a C4 needs a fairly high amperage to even begin cranking?). But even so, the last time I charged it... it started up... several times after one another.

I will of course check for drainage the first thing I do, but COULD a faulty battery lose charge just by sitting still for a week and still indicate "OK" on the internal indicator?

My other thought is that only TWO things have changed since before winter when she worked fine: battery got drained and the seat moved. So that's where I'm going to start my search. It would be an odd coincidence if something just happened to go faulty and start draining power while the car was sitting still!

(Sorry if this is a dumb question... my brain has lapsed a bit in auto-know-how after moving to the city.)

Any "don't forgets" y'all want to give me would be appreciated.

Thanks all!

 

A lot of info, but may help:

http://www.topbuzz.co.uk/info/car_ba...ar_battery.htm

 

If a dead battery freezes it can kill it

 

Thanks, I'll dig into it.

I neglected to mention that the car is in a heated garage, so the battery has never been out of room temperature while standing still. : )

 

Just get a cheap battery maintaner

 

After charging, load test the battery.

 

No outlets in the garage. (It's heated and indoors, but not private.) And it doesn't solve the problem anyway.

I've been searching like crazy for the thread that deals with the power seat wiring but I can't seem to find it. I seem to recall a fairly in-depth thread about one of the driver side wires that can get pinned but the mechanism and short, but it's admittedly been a few years since I saw it.

 

Absolutely on the to-do list (if you mean multi-meter testing for drain).

 

What year on my 94 you just reach under the front of the seat there is a u shaped wire clip you just flip and the bottom of the seat lifts right out no tools needed and can get to the wires easy

 

She's an ´88, I meant that I couldn't find the thread, not the actual wire. (I think the 88 has a u-clip in the front of the seat as well.) I know what the actual harness looks like but figured I'd get some clue as to where on the harness most shorts seem to happen.