Average power drain on swapped cars?

[MattM]

Im trying to troubleshoot a power problem, and am getting 42.6 milliamp s drain when the car is off, is this normal? or abnormally high?

[Schwarz325]

I'd say that's probably just a current running around from your battery. What kinda problem are you having?

[MattM]

still my same problem as before, it came back after the ignition fix :@

Well, the last few weeks my car has sometimes been hesitant to crank, sometimes it would take 2 turns of the key to get it going. I have just been living with it. The other night scared me though, it was probably about half hour of messing with the key before i finally got it going. When i turn the key all the lights come on, and when i turn to crank nothing happened. The alternator and battery seem to be good according to my multimeter. I left it for the last 2 days and used another car because i have been busy, went out tonight and it started up just fine.

any suggestions? Tumbler in the ignition? starter solenoid?

i checked the obvious at the C101, and at the solenoid, nothing is loose...

the randomness of it makes it frustrating.
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+ today it had a hard time starting, and about half way home(20min drive) i went to turn the headlight on, and the car lurched and almost stalled, CEL flashed, pushed headlight switch back off, and car resumed running correctly, and CEL went off.... tried again about 5 min later and they came on fine no issues....

[Schwarz325]

Have you had the battery checked with an actual tester at a local parts store? Multimeter will show you volts, but it won't tell you if it has a bad cell or whatever.

Also, have you triple checked your grounds?

Check your alternator while there too, and the wiring to the alternator.

[MattM]

im taking the battery to be checked tomorrow, i checked the voltage at the battery with the car running and i am getting 13.66 volts... so it seems the alternator is working, its too random to be a starter issue.... ill wait and see the battery test results, then ill dive into the grounds and shit if i need to...

Also, whats even more strange, is one of the wires on my old ignition was broken.... so it wasn't a complete waste... ahahah

[Schwarz325]

wow that's odd man, at least you gotta unbroken wire now hah

[e30s50dan]

Try a test light from ground to negative on battery , if the light is on , you got a draw,then start pulling fuses till light goes out. My electric antenna was shorting out. Had a bad draw

[flyboyx]

sounds like you might have multiple issues.. The advice mentioned above by other members is sound. The starter problem sounds like a loose connection in the ignition or in the starter circuit. I would go through those circuits and check voltage and continuity when it's working properly and again when it is malfunctioning.

since I assume it was working properly at one point, A really good place to start would be to check and redo all the solder joints where the engine harness is connected to the body harness. My guess is one of those joints is loose. Jusy an fyi.....i am a non practicing aircraft mechanic. During training, we were taught that soldering wires together is an unairwothy aircraft repair due to a relatively high probability that vibration will cause the joint to eventually come apart. If you crimped all of your connections you should check them all out because one or more of them are likely loose.

[MattM]

yes, it worked great ever since i got the car on the road (January 1st) up until about 2 weeks ago.

Ive been to busy with work to look into it any further, ill try the test light thing when i get a chance.

[MattM]

well, i finally got a chance to take the battery in, and it failed with flying colors.... luckily it has a 6 year warranty, and a new one will be in tomorrow...(OEM battery)

[Adrian_Visser]

It's always the simple things. Hope this solves your problem.

[e30s50dan]

yep...thats what I had,it started better as well! good luck

[MattM]

seems the new battery has solved the issue, only time will tell.....