mhuppertz

As some of you might remember, I have been struggling with intermittent battery draindown, which seems to run in streaks. It'll do it for a week or so, then stop doing it for a month or so. Well, it was stone cold dead this morning, and I got up really early to for get a server back up.
When I got home today, I started messing with it. Still couldn't see anything obvious, but something told me to pull the dash to fix some burned out lights. I founs that the map light was not out, but had fallen back in there.
So here is my new theory: The map light was getting bumped around, and would get turned on sometimes. I come home in daylight, so I wouldn't have noticed it being on. Draino... Then, it would get bumped around some more and get turned off.
I have the Fluke of the battery, and so far tonight have had no drain.
Pray for me! (on many fronts!)
Mark

farmer0_1

good post one of those hmmm.

jj3500

is just the draw of the map light enough to kill the battery? was the battery in a pre existing weakened state?

mhuppertz

The map light is a fairly high wattage tube bulb, not a regular dash bulb. I have unintentionally "deep cycled" that battery probably 20+ times, but even this winter with toasters ablaze the battery has been fine other times...

mhuppertz

This morning I had zero voltage drop. Could just be another coinsidense, but it's promising!

haloman

I left mine on one night in the 91' and the battery charged for a good bit the next day. This was during the summer

mhuppertz

Two nights, do drain. I think I got it!

mhuppertz

Battery completely dead again this morning .... Back to the drawing board

searcher

Did you ever check for current draw and if so which circuit had the draw? I've had two vehicles that would do that. The wife's Safari van had the electric door lock switch at about knee level and if you bumped it, it would stick slightly and try to lock the doors all night and drain the battery (not quite enough flow to do the job). I disconnected that switch and never had another problem. My Cherokee did the same thing but it wasn't the switch. It attempted to lock the doors through the alarm and wasn't successful. It would continue to try all night and kill the battery. The same thing could be happening with the power mirror or windows or seat. If it is intermittent like yours I would expect it to be an actuator motor of some sort.

mhuppertz

This "underworld bound" short is driving me nutz! I noticed that there was a very faint "click" when I hooked up the connector on the battery cable, started unplugging harnesses one at a time until the voltage drain (and the click) went away. Looks like the AC clutch is staying energized, but only sometimes.... The first thing I need to check is the AC relay I guess. I may just replace the darn relay if it's not too expensive.
I don't know why there would be power to that relay with the ignition switch off though, so it may not be the relay at all.

The next option is the PCM

farmer0_1

maybe some has a manual for yours that could take a look see to see if they see any reason for the a/c issue.

wannadiesel

The A/C relay has power all the time. It's possible that it's hung up. Are you a pull cable club member?