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Severe Power Drain--

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Vegas Smith

20+ Year Contributor
5,193
3,153
Dec 2, 2002
Houston, Texas
Last week i installed my news tansmission, everything was great for a while so i took the car later that afternoon to a friends house about 20 minutes away. About halfway over there the radio started flickering then turned off. As i got closer and closer to her house i noticed my egt gauge was starting to go crazy. I got even closer and it threw a CEL and the car started bogging really bad ect. Well i let it sit at ther house and when i tried to leave the car went dead on me. i datalogged it right there and it said like 7.1 battery volts.

Brought the battery home and charged it, got the car barely home. the next day i went and i got a new alternator, installled it and everything was great. had no problems at all. On wendsday i took the car out that night to the taco cabanna meet. halfway there the radio turned off, the gauges started going crazy again. got the car back home and the next day i went to go get the battery checked. battery tested PERFECT!!!!!

i charged the battery and the car started up, ran great. everything has been fine until today when i experienced the same sypmtoms as before on my way to school.

I dont know what the #### ius going on, i have checked all connections and fuses. everything checks out fine. i even unhooked all my stereo equipment just in case. I dont know whats going on. Any suggestions?
 
To find a short, first disconnect the obvious devices (eg. taillights if blowing taillight fuse) to see if fuse still blows. Also try disconnecting everything that is or may be on that fuse’s circuit or anything suspicious or recently worked on that’s electrical. Disconnect anything electrical that doesn’t work. Examine the wiring and connectors on the things you disconnect to see if they are frayed, broken, melted, wet, or touching other wires or metal. 95% of the time you will find the short this way (which is also the quickest). If you have very weird symptoms (eg. headlights never go off, or turning on one thing causes something else to happen that shouldn’t), try unbolting the engine fuse box and examine the cluster of wires underneath. Some may be melted, broken, or shorting against others.

If it still blows you will have to use a tougher technique. Replace the fuse that blows (temporarily and only for testing purposes) with an actual small 12 volt light bulb like a automotive tester light, marker light, or license plate light (don't try to start the engine with it in). The bulb will limit the current so you now don’t have to worry about any short melting the wires. If you don’t have a tester light you may have to solder wires on a bulb or put a bulb in a socket with wires. Then insert the wires into the slots where the fuse was. If there is a short, it will lite brightly (no short may lite it half bright along with a device doing the other half, or it may not lite at all). Then start disconnecting one at a time (1) things that don’t work, (2) suspected things, and (3) anything on that circuit. When you disconnect the item that is causing the short, the light will go out (so it's a great detection device). Keep in mind the short may be in the wiring or fuse box which is harder to find, but first check all the easier, more obvious devices and places.

Here is also a helpful link: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54846
 
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