Another New person! Options

[Agent_Moof]

Hey everyone! I have been a member of this forum for a little bit of time just never got around to making a post due to me being busy all the time! I have a 94 Celica all stock and well maintained...well to a certain degree. The person I bought the car from made sure the car looked nice and runs smooth but now I'm starting to have some problems, hopefully someone can help.

The car was broken into and the stereo was ripped out of the car...stereo mounting brackets and all! The previous owner installed a new radio (even though it just sits in the dashboard without anything holding it in place lol) but I noticed that when I turned the car off the radio stays on so what I would do is just turn the radio off and take the faceplate off when I get out of the car. I started to notice that the battery would be dead if I didn't drive the car for a day or two so I decided to just take the stereo out and just rewire it. Well I have yet to put the stereo back in but the battery is still being drained. I have just replaced the battery and alternator. Any words of advice?
Another thing, the blower fan doesn't seem to turn on. I've replaced the blower motor and I've replaced the relay (I think it was the relay)

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm still in the learning process of working on cars so excuse the lack of knowledge ha ha I'm sure someone out there is thinking "oh that's an easy fix!"

[Tigawoods]

oh thats an easy fix! lol

Does it still drain after the new battery and alternator install?

This post has been edited by Tigawoods: Aug 6, 2012 - 6:24 AM

[Xander_X]

I'm assuming you have already checked your fuses as that's the first place you should ALWAYS check when dealing with anything electrical. That being said, seeing that you have already went ahead and replaced the fan and variable resister, baring the possibility that it's an issue in the wiring itself, I would say that the switch itself is bad.

As to your parasitic draw issue, I'm kinda surprised your still having a problem with the radio out. Typically the reason an aftermarket radio stays on is that it wasn't wired properly to the ignition, and the preamp slowly drains the battery. Our cars have a separate preamp that is located underneath where the radio is located. What I would start with is either purchase or find someone with a Ampmeter that can read micro amps and track down that parasitic draw.

And welcome to the party!

This post has been edited by Xander_X: Aug 6, 2012 - 12:40 PM

[Agent_Moof]

Yup still drains even after the new battery and alternator I have checked the fuses and didn't find any bad ones. I don't know how to tell if the box shaped fuses are bad or not. I'll give the ampmeter a try and see what I find out!

Thanks for the welcome! What a wonderful party it is!!

[Nihil]

Check for any built in electrical equipment. Like car alarms, power locks, remote control.... Under the dash, on both driver's and passenger's side, under central pannel and under arm rest. Look even bellow the seats. Be aware of any non-original looking cables and follow them through.

Perhaps somebody used his lack of skill to build in some device that consumes electricity.

If nothing, at night thoroughly check every possible light that might be on (especially the trunk light).

If still nothing, then I'm out of ideas.

This post has been edited by Nihil: Aug 7, 2012 - 2:34 AM

[Xander_X]

^ yes, look for any aftermarket/amateur installed items that have electronic connections. Once you get an ampmeter hooked up that can read milli-amps (I said micro-amps before by mistake), shut the vehicle off and wait a few minutes for the computer to shut itself off (your numbers should drop quite a bit once it turns off). The amount of milli-amps your car should be pulling w/o a parasitic draw is up for debate but I would say your safe as long as your under 40 or 50 milli-amps. If your showing more than that start pulling fuses one by one (replacing each one as you go) until the draw drops to under 40-50. Look at what that fuse goes to and then you'll have a good starting point.

If there are aftermarket/amateur installed electronic parts installed, they may be piggy-backing from another circuit.

This post has been edited by Xander_X: Aug 7, 2012 - 10:33 AM

[Agent_Moof]

So far haven't found any aftermarket electronics besides the radio of course. I have yet to try the ampmeter out. Hopefully that'll help me to find out what's draining it! Just out of curiosity how do you tell if the cube shaped fuses (relays?) are bad? I tried to google it but I'm not sure how to word it so all I found were things about regular fuses.

[Nihil]

Well relays are not fuses, but power activated switches that separate two or more circuits. I don't think relay could be the problem here...

I'd go with the amp meter now. Not sure of this procedure though, but I'd take the fuses out one by one and put amp meter in between the contacts where the fuse should be (amp meters got its own fuse). This way you can see what circuit drains most power from the battery.

[Agent_Moof]

Thanks for the tips guys! So it looks like I fixed the battery leak. After reinstalling the radio and wiring it correctly it seems to be working just fine now! The previous owner wired the stereo up weird. When I went to reinstall the radio I found that the constant wire was connected to some other wire. Then from that loop he had a wire branched off and that wire was connected to the hot wire on the stereo...Don't know if any of that makes sense but still seems the problem has been fixed! Now to deal with other problems ha ha No AC in Vegas=Bad