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Thread: Potential wiring gremlin

  1. #21
    TAR's Avatar

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    I may be imagining this but...

    I'm sure someone else had this problem and found that the door switches were corroded causing some current to continually flow through the lighting circuit. Not enough to light regular bulbs. They either cleaned the switches or replaced them and resolved the issue.

    As I said, I may have just dreamt it
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  2. #22

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    Since the stereo is still out, it won't be drawing anything at the moment.
    Door switches sound like they could be at suspect and only a quick job so I'll start with these tomorrow, weather permitting. I should even have some spares somewhere..

  3. #23
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    Oh yes, normally the door switches just corrode a bit so that they remain 'closed' whether the door is open or not (plays havoc with self-locking alarms, I can tell you!), but corroding a bit more and becoming 'leaky' would make sense.
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  4. #24

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    Using a clamp meter, my car is about 60 mA (0.06A) after about 30 seconds from closing all doors. I feel this is still a bit high, but it is a decent target for you.
    Similarly, locking all doors and waiting about 90 s sees the same current.

    I have a few dicky door switches, so not guaranteed to be them, but its easy to get them out and test. I imagine there might be a point where the switch is contaminated with grime and water and makes enough contact to keep the alarm awake, but not enough to trigger ETACS to light anything up.

  5. #25

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    Eliminated some more items from the suspect list this morning..

    * Tested the door switches first by just opening the doors one at a time (the current draw with all doors closed was 0.66A to start with): OSR, NSR, NSF and tailgate all added 0.11A to the draw, OSF door added 0.21A and the aftermarket bonnet switch, connected to the alarm, made no difference
    * Just to be 110% sure, pulled out the switches and tested them - all seems OK
    * Since the interior light bulbs were out already, also pulled the housings - still no change in the current draw

    So, even though I've eliminated these bits, still no wiser of where my gremlin lives..more track and trace in order, I suppose.
    Does anyone know if there's any other components using the interior light circuit?

  6. #26

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    Thanks for that Jake - your post brought me to another test which I should have probably thought of a while ago.
    With the bonnet switch clamped open, after locking the car and waiting about a minute, the current draw dropped to 0.12A which is quite an improvement.
    The bonnet switch was rather corroded so I gave it some dremel and treated with a new screw. But since I didn't do the "locked" test before cleaning the switch, I wouldn't know yet if that was the issue. Guess I'll have to leave it overnight and see how much the battery voltage drops..

  7. #27

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    Although the car seems to start easier after fitting the other battery, even when it's been stood for a couple of days, the voltage was still down to 11.96 this morning..

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