I have a short somewhere, this shoudl work right?

[MustangEater8251]

since my car got busted into I have had a short, I suspect something in the radio or courtesy light system.

There shoudl be a way I coudl pull the fuse and put a multimeter in there and see if the circuit is drawing current to help my possibilities of good and bad wiring.

Thanks.

[CARdiac]

What are the symptoms....if you keep blowing the courtesy fuse, the most likely culpret is the wire to the center console light...it passes near the e-brake and has a tendency to get pinched....if it is directly related to the break-in and not a coincidence, I have no suggestions.

[MustangEater8251]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by CARdiac:
What are the symptoms....if you keep blowing the courtesy fuse, the most likely culpret is the wire to the center console light...it passes near the e-brake and has a tendency to get pinched....if it is directly related to the break-in and not a coincidence, I have no suggestions.<hr></blockquote>


I am not popping fuses. I am slowly draining the battery. Car is fine if I do not let it sit undriven for abotu 24 hours, about 26hours+ car won't start, not enough power, 40 hours, lights barely come on.

The light you are tlaking about is not the problem.

I am assuming something in the dash, I have fixed all the shorts that kept popping my fuses, but somethign is grounding out and killing my battery.

[raider3.4]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by CARdiac:
What are the symptoms....if you keep blowing the courtesy fuse, the most likely culpret is the wire to the center console light...it passes near the e-brake and has a tendency to get pinched....if it is directly related to the break-in and not a coincidence, I have no suggestions.<hr></blockquote>

I have the same problum but i blow fuses and it all ways happens when the passenger moves and press down on the arm rest, what can i do to fix this problum.

[Big Tymer]

leaving out the posibilities of the "short"
could be a bad diode in the alternator
or they battery has a short


usualy when u have a short in the dash it will blow a fuse.... before you go and spend hours trying to find the wire in the dash get that stuff checked.......

[ka50]

Might be bad battery or bad cell in the battery which doesn't allow it to hold charge.

[MustangEater8251]

Battery and alternator aren't bad, been check, good voltage, everything. Been checked more then once, did that course since both are under warranty and fixed free. Its pretty obvious I woudl have that checked out first.

I can drive the car an entire week, jsut as long as it doesn sit for like 20ish hours, it will still have power just not much, I checked all connectors, all are good.

I replaced belt tensionor and belt, they were bad, and now my car cools a little better.

[MustangEater8251]

I also want to add, that these problems didn't exist, then the car got broken into, stereo ripped out of the dash. Courtesy fuse, and radio fuse popped, and kept popping everytime I put a fuse, in, fixed a few broken wires, fuses don't pop but this problem came up.

Also they fuxed up the vacuum lines to my AC/HEAT venting system.

[BillyCobin]

Did you just have a load test done on the battery? I used to sell batteries and a load test sometimes would not pick up a problem like this.

If you haven't already, I would take the battery out of the car for 24+ hours, and see what the voltage of the battery is after the time has passed.

[Speedin96]

tape off all the wires that went to the radio make sure the dimmer light and the amp wire and all the wires are taped off so they aren't touching something metal... ya i have a big hole where my stereo used to be too, thanks to some a$$holes, I would love to have 5 minutes with the person. I would beat them til they could couldn't breath on their own and leave them in a bed in a hospital somewhere running off of machines... ok not really but I would make them suffer... SO YA check them wires make sure they are all taped off... especially the amp wire that signals your amps to kick on it may be making a touch somewhere and the amps are always staying on? just an idea i dont know...

[MustangEater8251]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Speedin96:
tape off all the wires that went to the radio make sure the dimmer light and the amp wire and all the wires are taped off so they aren't touching something metal... ya i have a big hole where my stereo used to be too, thanks to some a$$holes, I would love to have 5 minutes with the person. I would beat them til they could couldn't breath on their own and leave them in a bed in a hospital somewhere running off of machines... ok not really but I would make them suffer... SO YA check them wires make sure they are all taped off... especially the amp wire that signals your amps to kick on it may be making a touch somewhere and the amps are always staying on? just an idea i dont know...<hr></blockquote>

I went a step further...

I pulled the radio, and iterior fuses....

I reinstalled the sotcker tape deck*shudder* all wires connected properly.

[MustangEater8251]

I yanked a decent amount of non-essential fuses. let the car sit, and no problems, not even low voltage.


IS there a way I can test if a circuit is pulling voltage?

If I got a test light, and a paper clip, put one end in a fuse jack and the point of the test light in the other jack, iff the circuit is drawing current wouldn't the light turn on? And if it isn't it won't turn on (I know I have to hold the courtesy light on the door in when I do this)

[Kham]

Hey i had the same problem on old chevy blazer. When i didnt drive it on the weekend the battery would drain. It truned out to be the starter was dead. So i replaced the whole starter and it worked fine.

[camaro_speedemon]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by MustangEater8251:
I yanked a decent amount of non-essential fuses. let the car sit, and no problems, not even low voltage.


IS there a way I can test if a circuit is pulling voltage?

If I got a test light, and a paper clip, put one end in a fuse jack and the point of the test light in the other jack, iff the circuit is drawing current wouldn't the light turn on? And if it isn't it won't turn on (I know I have to hold the courtesy light on the door in when I do this)<hr></blockquote>

I know there's a way, but not sure how...

Check your battery constant connection for you're radio. If you pulled the radio fuse, I'm pretty sure the batt. constant is on a seperate circuit. I'm willing to bet there's a screwed up connection somewhere in your radio.

[slow]

use a multimeter on your fuse panel, and check every fuse, remove fuse, and install the meter, in amps setting between the 2 terminals, and record readings.

if you need some help or tools, let me know.

Ryan.