Re: removing taillight (tracing battery drain)

[Andrew Duane USG/PE <duane@zk3.dec.com>]

Hairy green toads from Mars made Michael Benno say:

> I hooked up the Multimeter to the battery (between ground cable and ground
> terminal) and read 1.53 Amps of draw which is high. After opening and
> closing the trunk the draw was down to .04 Amps which seems ok. I couldn't
> get the draw back up to 1.5 so I assume there must be some sort of random
> drain in the trunk lid around the lock. Possible conclusions include backup
> lights, or license plate lights, rear fog, or possibly some wires going to
> the lock itself (power lock/heater?). There is quite a bit of moisture
> (frozen) in the lens which may be contributing. Its not the trunk lite,
> that pulls 1.37 Amps when it is on.

I don't know that 90Qs are prone to this (I can take a look at mine),
but many of the 5000/100/200 cars tend to chafe one of the wiring
harnesses that goes into the trunk. This causes intermittent shorts,
weird lights going on (like one taillight lighting up when you hit
reverse), and battery drains.

Take a look at all the wires going along the trunk hinge....

-- 

Andrew L. Duane (JOT-7)			duane@zk3.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation		(603)-881-1294
110 Spit Brook Road
M/S ZKO3-3/U14
Nashua, NH    03062-2698

Only my cat shares my opinions, and she's too heavy to care.