ok...my brothers sileighty has a bad eletrical ground. and it drains the battery after a while. how , and what would i need to go about finding it?

 

When I first got my car, I had the same problem. The battery would die after a few days being parked. I dont have a complete solution to your problem, but heres how you start finding which circuit its on. Get a test light and remove the negative cable of your battery. Clip one end of the test light to the negative battery cable and touch the pointy end to the negative terminal on the battery. If there is current going through, the light will light up. have someone hold the light there, and go through your fuse box pulling one fuse at a time until the light goes out. When it does, thats the circuit you're looking for. Dont forget the under-hood fusebox as well as the under-dash one. Once you find out which circuit has the bad ground, start tracing those wires. Hope that helps!

 

The above and also patience...

In addition, sheck also the fuses under the hood. also, some circuits are not protected by fuses, but by fusible links (smaller guage wires in line with the circuit). So keep those in mind to...

good luck.

fs

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr_CRX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When I first got my car, I had the same problem. The battery would die after a few days being parked. I dont have a complete solution to your problem, but heres how you start finding which circuit its on. Get a test light and remove the negative cable of your battery. Clip one end of the test light to the negative battery cable and touch the pointy end to the negative terminal on the battery. If there is current going through, the light will light up. have someone hold the light there, and go through your fuse box pulling one fuse at a time until the light goes out. When it does, thats the circuit you're looking for. Dont forget the under-hood fusebox as well as the under-dash one. Once you find out which circuit has the bad ground, start tracing those wires. Hope that helps!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Word.................Utmost is patience. its going to take time and persevierance. Unless you get real lucky. Thats why shops charge what they do. It takes time. Be organised, follow a logical plan. So you know where you have been and where you haven't been. Its not a bad ground problem you have but something loading the elecrical system when it should be off.

 

Don't forget there are some circuits DESIGNED to have power even when the car is off. Such as the stereo memory wire and the ecu.

 

True, and you should be able to identify those a Digital multi-meter can determine how much of a load those have. it should be real low however. SOmething draining battery on a few days will be drawing more than a small fracion of an amp.

 

all right. well, i thought thats what i had to do...and it sounded really painstaking...so i guess i'll give it a go on one of the days i have off. thanx for the help guys