Battery Drain/Headlight motors
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 113
Likes: 54
From: Arkansas
Battery Drain/Headlight motors
Hello all, quick question or thoughts. My '97 has a pesky battery drain, it'll die within about 4-5 days if I don't drive it. I've already done searches on possible causes so I'm not looking to bore you guys with repetitive questions. Here's what I'm wondering. When the battery is dead, as soon as I hoof the charger up to the batter I get a clicking noise from the front of the car. Turns out the clicking is coming from the headlight motors. If I put the charger on "start" mode for about 10 seconds and then switch it back to 2amp or 10amp charging the noise will go away. From what I've read, the headlight motors could definitely be one of the cause of the battery drain. Is this clicking noise a normal thing when hooking up to a dead battery? Anyone have similar experience? I'm thinking it could be my problem. Before anyone asks, I've never heard the noise after I turn the car off but to be honest, with my hearing and the hood closed, I'm not so sure I would hear it anyway if it was clicking.
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2022
Posts: 154
Likes: 99
From: Dallas
I don't know the answer to your question, but I love the detective work! And I would suggest pulling the appropriate fuse once the battery is charged to see if it retains a normal charge to find out for sure. You could also do the thing where you read the draw across the fuse when the headlights are off and car is off.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 2,515
Likes: 441
From: Arizona
The clicking noise is from the headlight control module. Totally normal.
4-5 days is not far off. C5’s always pull on the battery. Doesn’t mean you don’t have a parasitic draw but your headlights are not the issue.
i would get a new battery first and go from there.
4-5 days is not far off. C5’s always pull on the battery. Doesn’t mean you don’t have a parasitic draw but your headlights are not the issue.
i would get a new battery first and go from there.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 113
Likes: 54
From: Arkansas
Sorry, I guess I should've said that the battery was just purchased in December and it had a manufacturing date sticker from December also.
