Electrical Guru's! I need your help!

I have this 12v "unit" installed in my car. I am having problems with it "working". When working it's to do a certain job. Currently, its on, but its not working. Its got power but it doesn't do its job.

The only time it seems to do its job is when say my fan(automatic) comes on while sitting in traffic, my voltage drops and it does its startup test and is working. Once I start driving and the voltage appears to go back up. It doesn't work again. Even if I turn it of and on. Its currently "vampired" into the radio power. It was "vampired" into the old clock power before I started having problems. It worked fine for a couple months.

Anyone have any ideas as to why this may be happening?

Any help is very much appreciated!

Thanks,
Justin K.

 

perhaps your alternator is about to take a dump.../ do cars have voltage regulators?, i know snowmobiles do.

 

^+1....if you want to do a ghetto test, while your car is running remove the ground from your battery...if the car dies most likely its the alternator...if not its something else...like a battery...

 

DO NOT pull the cable with car running, you can cause a massive voltage spike that if your alt isnt bad, will take it out and possibly your ECU among other things.
Use the proper tool, Digital Multi-meter or anything that can read voltage.
You should be seeing >13v at idle up to 14.4v @2000 rpm. If its less than 12v while running the alt, or possibly battery is bad.
The voltage regs are built into the alt and from what i can tell arent independently replacable.

"#1 NEVER, NEVER disconnect a battery cable from car with the engine running because the battery acts like a filter for the electrical system. Unfiltered [pulsating DC] electricity can damage expensive electrical components, e.g., computer, radio, charging system, etc. "

http://www.repairfaq.org/ELE/F_Car_Battery.html down under #11

 

isn't it if the charging system tests out 12 or less the battery is bad but if it test out to 13-14 then the alternator is bad?

 

teh abttery shoudl be at 12 volts, when you running it should read higher becuase the alt. is chargin the system so 13-14 = normal

 

did you ground to your alternr with your ground mod?
i've seen a few folks on nasioc get 'false ground connects' on things like W.I. pumps when they included the alternator in their beefy ground modification.

i'd get a volt meter and see wat your battery is pushing out, and also what you laser blocker conrtol unit is seeing for power. at idle, cruising, and when the fan kicks on.

 

I never said what it was.....that's creepy.

 

and your left shoe is untied.

 

Yeah, I believe I grounded to the engine bay next to the battery, the transmission, the intake manifold(each side), alternator, and the strut top. My car has always been a little goofy when it comes to voltage. My V1 and everything else seems to be working fine though. Although, if i'm sitting in traffic and my fan comes on, the V1 will start to flicker off and on rapidly, and the lights go a little dim. Not all the time though. Every once in a while.

The only other powered mods I have done lately, but post problem, were my hella horns and I was popping bulbs in my driver side fog light. So I clipped the ground off of that and ran a new one.

I just got a multi-meter from ACE. Now I just gotta learn how to use it and test my connections. Any operating tips will be appreciated!

Thanks,
- Justin K.

 

there is a dc mode. and probobly diffrent voltages.

test the battery to ground. test power to ground at your devices.
try not to arc a bare power lead to anything.

also, there is a signal mode, and a resistance mode that are helpfull in tracking down bad grounds.

the signal will make a beep if it makes a complete circuit.
the resistance is an ohmmeter.
i'd use it to test the 'loss value' of a specific ground. thats not really worded right but in essence it's what you are doing.
put it on a coupple of diffrent spots and you will get the idea.

 

K...well. I tested the battery when off: 12.45 er so. Car in "on" position with lights on: dropped to 9.50 and drops fairly rapidly/consistantly. Battery whilst idleing: 14.25 solid. I tested the power lead right before it hits the unit while car is running: 13.70. The unit requires 12.2. Could it just be a bad control box? The 3amp fuse inside it seems to be fine.

 

test the fuse for continuality.

 

@ 2000k, 200k and 20k, I got 0.

 

I talked to a guy a tech-support and he said most likely, something went goofy with the unit and he's sending another one out asap! Woohoo. If a swap doesn't fix it. Something is very strange with my car :-/

 

cool.

 

K...I got the new unit. Installed it. Same crap. I get 13.5v at the unit, and both ends of the switch. I don't get it. For like 2 months, it was working just fine. Soooooooo dumb.

 

Something's definitely not right with your car's electrical system if the voltage is dropping like that. I'd say your battery's hosed. Have you had your battery load tested? Do you have an aftermarket stereo or anything else that could've messed things up? Your 'unit' (huh huh huh) doesn't draw enough power to worry about. Its not working because your car's voltage isn't staying constant. If its not your battery I'd guess your grounding kit's probably installed wrong. Get rid of it.

 

I was planning on getting a new battery before my install and tune since my voltage is fairly erratic. Especially when the fan comes on...drops like a mofo. V1 starts flickering on and off. weird.

 

So....of you get 12.45V, turn the key on and you get 9.5? Two possibilities: bad battery or you have a resistive short somewhere. Turn everything off (headlights, fan, stereo, etc) and turn the ignition on and test again. If it still droops to 9.5, you may have hooked something up wrong on the ground kit (or bumped something). If it goes up to 10V or more, you need to turn the accesories on one-by-one until you get a significant drop. If it anything other than your headlights that cause a noticable voltage drop, you probably found the root cause. If nothing significantly affects the voltage, you have a bad battery.

 

I swapped my battery out with a new red top optima. Still seems to do the same thing. I guess a couple days of driving will be the real test. New battery: without anything on like lights, ipod, radio, v1, "unit"...it drops to 10.10 and drops very slowly. I had the car running but hadn't driven it yet with the new battery and when I shut the car off, the battery was at 11.70 and falling slowly. I just re-wired my "unit" and my hella horns last night. all solid connections, crimped and taped with spade connectors and the usual electronic stuff. I think I'm gonna re-wire my V1 and see if that has anything to do with it. It all started around the time I wired my volume control unit into the chain.

I was testing the voltage at the battery when the car was running with the new battery: 13.95 - When the fan came on, it only dropped to 13.8. With the lights on, it still dropped to 9.2 or so. Sounded like the fuel pump was cycling constantly. Something was buzzing. I even put on a new Ground connector to the battery.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

 

I'm gonna try it without the grounding kit connected to the battery....forgot to do that. Just gonna keep the one wire connected to the engine wall next to the battery.

 

I don't have any amps. My wiring is stock except for:

I hardwired my V1 into the maplight switched power. And is grounded at the screw in the ceiling.


I wired my hella horn into the stock wiring for power and ran my own grounds to screws holding the radiator mounts. I did not use the relay supplied

My "unit" is now tapped into the radio's switched power. And is grounded to the chassis.

I have a double lighter input that I run my ipod with and it has my phone charger attached. But when I just did those tests, I unplugged it.

I turned the car on, but not running. Volts were draining and it went below 11. Nothing was on. No lights, no cars, not a single luxury. I turned on my unit, and it works...for some reason. I turn on my v1 and it's working, I turn on my lights, I see the dash lights dim, a constant buzz starts, and were probably back down to 9v. This was with only one ground wire attached from battery to engine wall. The other ground wires were stil attached to the car, just not the battery connection. This time the car was running at 13.8- and when the fan came on it dropped to about 12.

 

I also rewired a ground from my driver side fog light. I kept poppin bulbs so I ran it up to the radiator mount again. I taped off the original ground pretty well and tucked it into the rubber casing. My grounding kit consists of 4 gauge wire runing from battery to the engine compartment wall, transmission, intake manifold(both sides), alternator, and strut top screw.

 

The alternator seems to be pretty rock steady at 14.01-14.02 when running. Dropped to 13.6-13.8 when the fan came on. Its seeing over 12.2 when the engine was off. It seems as though the lights are the biggest drain on the power system.

 

I am thinking this has been a problem since way before I started attaching gadgets. Its always been kinda quirky when it came to voltage. I still don't get it though. It seems as though something is constantly draining power from it.

With the car off, the battery slowly went down to 11.8 and stuck. I turned the can to "acc" with no lights or anything on, and it dropped to around 11.4. Then I turned it to "on" and it dropped to 11. I turned on the headlights, it dropped to 10.6. Turned on the foggies, it dropped to 10.1 and was dropping consistantly slow the whole time.

 

bad headlight relay?
miswired fog relay?
short in the fog harnes?

i dono man.

this was after a full charge?
thats pretty damn quick drain....
i forget...
arnt the fogs tied into the headlamp circuit at some point?
i dont have my service book here right now.
maybe unhook the fog relay and see if the lights drain as quick.

 

This was after drivin around for a bit on a new optima red top. It's gonna haunt my dreams. Something is shorting out somewhere at somepoint, and it's mocking me. DAMN IT TO HELL!!!!

 

Holy crap. I never thought about the fog relay. Does it have a seperate relay from the HL relays? CAuse there's two relays...HL LH and HL RH. For left and right hand sides. But, where is the fog relay? I never rewired the ground from the fog relay. I just wired the foglight to a ground. It hasn't popped a bulb yet though and it's been running non-stop for over a month. A new record! (not really) Since that is the case and I forgot about the relay...and I don't know where it is anyway...I need to rewire the fog relay to a ground. But, this brings up the question...would this cause what is happening?

 

Yep. Starting to obsess and go slightly insane.

 

up in the dash.
you have to take off the lower dash under the steering wheel and the expose the fuse box.
take the fuse box off, then the relay comes out by snapping... i mean carefully releasing the crimp tab.

 

this would be a poor time to do the 'fog lights not disabled by highbeams" mod, but when you do do it, you tap a power power line down from the orange parking brake line off the rear of the fuse block and place it on the red/green stripe power in on the fog relay.
you then tape up the abandoned red/green stipe power feed.

 

It seems to be draining my battery very slowly. With a brand new battery, turning it over is sluggish. Even after driving it to work and driving around during work. Each start is weak. I gotta get this figured out. Anyone know where I can get it checked out?

 

There is a very tedious debug process.... Unplug everything (including the pump, lights, stereo harness, cig lighter, etc) and plug it back in one-by-one, looking for the big drop in voltage. I am pretty sure you have a resistive short to ground that is causing the drop. What it is? Never know until you isolate it. I suggest completely removing the ground kit (pretty much worthless anyway) and check....then go to the lights. Unplug the harnesses (not just turn them off) and plug them back in one at a time to see if one causes a bigger drop. I could go on for hours, but the key is to isolate where the drop is originating....

Good luck

 

Yeah...I'm gonna need it! I want to have it figured out by the time i get my install and tune done! Grrrrrr...

 

I have taken cars to Galaxy Auto Centers
Address: 5229 University Ave NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421
Phone: (763) 572-8870
They do great fast work and are resonably priced.

 

The last thing for me to check would be the fog lights/ground/relay and then I'm completely in the dark. Then I would've covered everything that I've wired or re-wired and still no answers.

 

And of course....what happens tonight during work? My driver side fog light pops....a'friggin'gain! Its like once a month! I think that foggy could be the culprit. I'm gonna tear it apart tonight and see if there something funky with it. Damnit.