ignition draining the battery

sheff2720

New Member

Nov 30, 2003

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Horsham, PA

Jan 8, 2004

#1

• Jan 8, 2004

• #1

well did some tests and found out that the ignition is causing a significant drain on the battery.. i pull the fuse out every nite so it doesnt drain the battery and i replace it in the morning.. that seems to be working fine but i cant keep doing that.. any suggestions on what to do

 

sheff2720

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Nov 30, 2003

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Horsham, PA

Jan 8, 2004

#2

• Jan 8, 2004

• #2

anyone??

 

I

Idwitheld-1`

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Nov 30, 2003

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Portland Oregon

Jan 8, 2004

#3

• Jan 8, 2004

• #3

sheff2720 said:

anyone??

Click to expand...

what fuse are you pulling out?

 

C

COBRAIIW

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Apr 26, 2003

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CT

Jan 8, 2004

#4

• Jan 8, 2004

• #4

Keep continuity testing the wires until you find out what's staying on or is shorted to ground.
"what fuse are you pulling out?"
Hopefully it's the ignition fuse.

 

jrichker

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Jan 9, 2004

#5

• Jan 9, 2004

• #5

See the following website for some help from Tmoss (diagram designer) & Stang&2Birds (website host)

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/IgnitionSwitchWiring.gif

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/fuel-alt-links-ign-ac.gif

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/88-91eecPinout.gif

 

sheff2720

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Nov 30, 2003

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Horsham, PA

Jan 9, 2004

#6

• Jan 9, 2004

• #6

COBRAIIW said:

Keep continuity testing the wires until you find out what's staying on or is shorted to ground.
"what fuse are you pulling out?"
Hopefully it's the ignition fuse.

Click to expand...

it is the ignition fuse.. when ever thats out the battery is fine.. if the car sits for like a day and a half with the fuse in, the battery is almost completly drained and needs to be jumped to start.. but if the fuse is out, the battery stays charged

 

LXMiker

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Feb 7, 2002

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Good ol' Wisconsin

Jan 9, 2004

#7

• Jan 9, 2004

• #7

well you could put a toggle switch on it.....then you dont have to keep pulling the fuse out

hahahhahahaha.........yeah

what lead up to this?? just all of a sudden? did you putz around with your ingition stuff lately??? new starter??? anything at all????

 

C

cougar5.0

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Nov 23, 2000

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N.W Ohio

Jan 9, 2004

#8

• Jan 9, 2004

• #8

this maybe way off base,but I was having a problem sorta like yours. Whenever I left the battery hooked up it would drain my battery. I disconected the neg. side of the bat. and put a test light in between the cable and the bat. post. I messed around for a day or so then out of curioused I pulled the plug on my altenator. Guess what,here the alt. was grounding out and draining the bat. Maybe give it a check.

 

HISSIN50

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Jan 9, 2004

#9

• Jan 9, 2004

• #9

cougar, bad diode in the alt can cause just what you say. good idea.
run a DMM in series with the circuit you pull the fuse on. see how much draw there is. then start tracing.
i cant remember fuses. is that one hot with the key off? seems like it should not be. if it is -another idea (though buggery) is to find another ignition source (key on. like the yellow wires under the column) and run a wire off one of those to a relay, then use the output of the relay to the dead side of the fuse you pull. this will energize the circuit when the key is on only. same lines as the toggle switch.

good luck.

 

N

Ned

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Apr 30, 2003

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s'land

Jan 9, 2004

#10

• Jan 9, 2004

• #10

did this just start happening? what kind of battery/how old might be helpful to know... I'd suggest looking at your alternator, that could be part of the problem

 

sheff2720

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Nov 30, 2003

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Horsham, PA

Jan 10, 2004

#11

• Jan 10, 2004

• #11

this has been an on going problem for about a month now.. i replaced the starter and that solved my problem for a few weeks.. now when this happened i knew it couldnt be the starter again so i started checking things out.. the first thing i checked was the alternator and it wasnt causeing any drain at all.. so eventually i worked my way throught things and finally got to the ignition and found the drain there.. the battery is only a month old cause i replaced that with the starter

lxmiker- i actually thought about putting a toggle switch in just for the time being so i didnt have to go under the hood every morning.. its to dam cold for that.. lol