cable?

820

Registered User
does anybody's car besides mine have one of these? it goes up under the dash and the other end has a pin connector. it just lays under the floor mat on the passenger side. there is also another small cable laying there also. this is what then of the cable looks like, it is about 5 ft. long. what would it hook to?
 

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ya you are probably correct. there is something at the top center of the rear glass that says do not rotate or remove. precision tuned. this car has some electrical issues. thank you.
 
ya you are probably correct. there is something at the top center of the rear glass that says do not rotate or remove. precision tuned. this car has some electrical issues. thank you.

I wouldn't be sure the two of them are related. (the existence of the car phone connection and Electrical problems) If you trace the cabling, you will probably find it is disconnected from everything else already.
 
there is a dead short somewhere. it will run the battery flat in 24hrs. to the point of ruining the battery. the alternator is not working and i think the one way diode is burnt out. when i first traded for the car it had the original radio cassette that had been reinstalled. imagine my surprise when i removed the radio to install a sony xplode that all the original wires had been hackd. so there may be problems there. also it has an aftermarket security system that does really stupid things, such as lock you out of the car with your keys in the ing. motor dosnt need to be running. but its a 94 five speed and i think its worth fixing up. i have had this thing since 01.
 
there is a dead short somewhere. it will run the battery flat in 24hrs. to the point of ruining the battery. the alternator is not working and i think the one way diode is burnt out. .

This will drop the battery overnight. I think a way to verify the diode, unless you can get it to Advance Auto or Auto Zone and get them to test the system (the handheld I had @ Advance could detect the diode problems) is to put a meter on the battery while the motor is running and set it to detect AC current. If you read and AC current at all, the diode is bad. Replace the alternator and see if that fixes your issues with the battery. If you want to eliminate the Radio wiring from the mix while troubleshooting, pull the radio fuses and then see if it still drains.

Also, with the vehicle off you can disconnect the negative cable and uses your meter as a bridge between the neg terminal and the neg cable to check your amp draw there. Don't open doors/run lights or anything, because a lot of meters will pop the fuse if the amp draw is too much at once.

disclaimer: I am not a pro or an expert. I spent about a month tracing a battery drain in the wife's 2003 Chrysler 300M Special. Learned a lot, but really found nothing that was the cause of it. It has been fine for 2 months now (*knocks on wood)

Edit: That aftermarket Security system should be removed. I have never seen an aftermarket system correctly installed into a car before. Even if it was done "professionally" by Circuit City or a Best Buy, I would suspect it. Most aftermarket alarm systems now days are vehicle specific and have harnesses to plug into the system, where the older ones from the 80-90's were usually "one size fits all, cut the light blue/pink wire and splice in the pink/green and purple/yellow type stuff... GL, and I do not envy you one bit tracing electrical issues...
 
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thank you for your tips A1cntrler. i am going to try them. i ordered an alternator today. i just need to get motivated. like i said i have had this thing since 01 lol. again thank you.
 
Forgot to put in there when you have bridged the negative cable checking for amp draw, if there is a large one(beyond what is needed to keep the memory/clock alive) this is when you start pulling fuses out of the fuse block until you find the one that is drawing the amps down. Find that fuse, then troubleshoot the circuit from there.
 
If your battery is draining down in under 24hrs, you can narrow your search by connecting a test light in series with your battery and pull fuses one at a time untill the test light goes out. Then at least you will know what ckt your drain is on. Disconnect your positive battery cable and place the ground of your test light on the battery terminal and the test point on your battery cable. If you have a drain the test light will light. After you narrow down the ckt/s it will be alot easier to help. EDIT: I was writing this when some one else pretty much said the same thing. Sorry for the duplicate
Mark
 
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no problem with any duplicates. thank you all. it wouldnt start so i couldnt do some of the testing that i wanted to do. the alarm was doing its stuff again only worse and i think it was because i had the charger on the car in boost mode. i just took the alt off and did i forget how much fun it is to play with these cars! this thing is stock right down to the original plug wires, although the alt had been replaced. with a no name rebuilt in japan model. thats ok though cause i was quoated a price of 100 bucks for an alt, and im sure thats what im getting. hope it lasts till i get this wiring thing figured out. i did see a hot wire on the positive battery cable that is not supposed to be there.
 
My SC drains in about a week. It is within tolerance but is annoying. I got confused by the "series" comment by Mark. Electrically with one component it is neither series nor parallel or both. Series usually implies you are running multiple components and trying to drop the impedance or increase resistance. IE, running many subs to achieve a certain Ohm or parallel running just a few to drop the ohm. I think I'm either wrong or OCD, it just confused me.
 
I just disconnect the positive terminal from my battery and then run the wire through my volt meter. Basically lay the volt meter between the two, touch the one lead to the + battery post and the other lead to the + battery wire. Then you can see see your voltage and start pulling fuses until you see the number drop significantly. Just make sure to set your volt meter up to the 10A setting first.

I "think" normal draw should be like .15-.18....somewhere in that neighborhood if your car is shut off and just sitting there with doors closed and everything. Anything higher is a drain.
 
My SC drains in about a week. It is within tolerance but is annoying. I got confused by the "series" comment by Mark. Electrically with one component it is neither series nor parallel or both. Series usually implies you are running multiple components and trying to drop the impedance or increase resistance. IE, running many subs to achieve a certain Ohm or parallel running just a few to drop the ohm. I think I'm either wrong or OCD, it just confused me.

In the case of Mark's (and Micah's) suggestion, the light would be in series with the other electrical loads on the car. Most all of the "other electrical loads on the car" are in parallel with each other, since most all of the circuits need 12v to operate.

Impedences in series add together, resulting in larger impedance. Impedences in parallel result in a lower impedence than any one of the paralleled Impedences...so your understanding is correct on the subs example.
 
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One other thing.... Depending on how much current is being drawn, the light may or may not help reveal the problem. The voltmeter would be better (again, make sure it's on the high-current setting). That way, you'll see the drain, even if it's too small to light the light.

But...It sounds like your battery is drained pretty quickly though, so a light may work just fine. :D
 
My SC drains in about a week. It is within tolerance but is annoying.
Thats going to be your alternator.. :D Unplug the top connector while its parked and see if the problem goes away. :cool:
I have wired in a relay(s) to that circuit that engage those two wires when the key is on.
 
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i think that i am going to pull all the fuses and work backwards. the reason being i dont want to be cruel to my new battery. the non factory wire that i found on the positive side of the batt is the power to that silly security system. i yanked the fuse and promptly made sparks with the negitive post of my new batt. it also is not the alt shorting out. guess if i feel like it i will start searching tomorrow after work.
 
Working backwards may not be the best way. Reason being is that as you restore the power, things will power up and possibly remain powered until they enter the "sleep" mode. You will want to do the test after everything has powered down and with the doors/trunk closed. Also disconnect your hood light, as that will draw a bit too.

I saw in a post above to bridge from the positive cable side of the battery. While this will work, I believe it is safer to use the negative side.
 
There is no danger from using the test light, the battery is disconnected from the car during testing, the only load is the test light. I use the test light cause I can easily see it from the interior of the car as I'm pulling fuses. Any drain that will kill a battery in a few days will light the light even if its dim. In most modern cars, there will always be a slight drain from devices that needs electrical power for memory. This can be seen with a multimeter but this drain is expected and is usually and most likely not your problem.

I don't want to be mis-understood, I'm not saying a test light is better but unless you are an electrician, most people have never used a multimeter let alone set one up properly to read amps and then you would have to interpret the data to determine if you had a problem or not. The test light is either on or off. if the test light lights, you have a problem if not you don't. In 30 plus years of working on cars, this method has never failed me yet.

Mark
 
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