QuestionHi Von,
I wanted to give you an update on my electrical problem, these things sure are exasperating:) As I stated in a previous e-mail the draw on the battery dropped from 145 to 150 milli amps to a nice steady 50 milliamps after removing the fuse marked room lamp. The first night I noticed after removing the fuse that the parking lights and the dash lights came on after opening the driver side door (this only happens with the fuse removed), and then shut off after a few seconds. The next night I was working on the car again, probing the sun roof switches as you suggested, (actually, I cleaned the contact points on the sun roof switch and it is working normally now) now the parking lights and dash lights come on and stay on (this only happens with the fuse removed) the lights go off as soon as the fuse is replaced. I was looking through the service manual and noticed there is a time control unit which turns certain components on and off. Is there a way to test this time control unit? for a closed circuit or maybe I should be looking at some relays? Do you think I'm on the right track here?
Thanks again........Jerry
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Hi Von, thanks for your prompt reply, I did as you said and hooked the the meter up in series. I got a reading of 145 to 152 milliamps. I started to disconnect fuses and eventually came across the one that seems to be the culpret. It was marked room lamp on the fuse box label, it controls both of the over head lamps which both took on a lot of water during the sun roof flooding incident, the sunroof control button hasn't worked since that incident also. I pulled the fuse and left it out, and will watch the battery charge to see if it drops in the next couple of days. Thanks for your help getting started not to hard once I figured out how to use the volt ohm meter(its been to long since I used one in shop class:)Let me know if you have any more thoughts on this and I'll keep you posted also..........Jerry
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Hi, I have a 93 infiniti j30t with a battery drain problem going on. I don't have a lot of expierience with electrical problems, but what I want to do is hook a VOM up to the car and get a read on the amperage draw from the battery and systematicaly remove fuses until the meter drops back to "0". The problem is I dont know were to connect the VOM to get the reading. When I connect directly to the battery I get sparks. Thanks for any help you can give.
Jerry
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Jerry,
You could get a inductive volt ohm meter that could be placed on the positive cable and check the current draw from there. Or you could disconnect the battery and use your volt ohm meter in series with the cable and post it connects with. You are going to get something like a 50 to 70 milliamp draw just from the computer and memory items like the clock and radio. But, if you are drawing more than that you could disconnect fuses like you stated and find the excessive draw. I once had a car that the fuel pump relay was stuck on and the pump ran all the time. So, your thoughts on current draw are not out of the realm of logic. Check it out and email me back and let me know what you find.
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Jerry,
Thanks for the nice comment. You might take the sunroof switch out and probe the circuit to see if it has a short. It will be a low drain from the reading you stated. But, you might get lucky when it dries out. Or, you might end up taking the motor and switch out and change one or both.
AnswerJerry,
Removal of the fuse is probably causing the time control relay to backfeed through another circuit. In my dealings with the time delay box I have just had those that have gone bad and replaced them. I am sorry but I have never backprobed one. Usually, they just leave the lights on like the circuit is stuck closed or they do not allow the lights to come on and in either case I have replaced the module.
