cmking26

Car runs and starts fine until it sits for about 5 days. Battery dies and while charging it the headlight motors make a clicking noise. I turn headlights on and off and noise stops and car charges and runs fine until it sits again. Im thinking bad ground but headlights have me wondering where. Any ideas?

MyShibbyZ28

First off, you should disconnect the battery when charging it.

Second, I would check every ground everywhere. It might also be the wires coming straight off the headlight motors.

Guest47904

If your car is charging fine. By that I mean checking across the battery with a meter to see that the voltage goes to about 14 volts when the engine is running. Then your problem is not a ground. So the first question is, how do you know it's charging? If it is charging correctly, than ....

Something is draining your battery when it is sitting. If you have anything directly connected to the battery, suspect that item first. Remove it and see if the problem goes away. The easiest way to find the cause is remove one of the battery cables and put a multimeter set to measure current in series with battery and the cable. Now remove and replace fuses one at a time until you get the largest drop in current draw from a single fuse. Then it's time to figure out what is on that fuse and then which one of those is the problem.

I noticed you have 2 things in your vehicle which were not stock. A gage on the dash and a multi disc CD magazine. How are each one of these powered? Always suspect additions first. Then stock items second.

Injuneer

Sounds like your headlight control unit or the headlight motors may be the problem.

cmking26

Well I noticed the aftermarket tach does not work when I turn the lights on. I wired its illumination into the radio illumination. So I'm thinking the tach maybe has a bad ground... CD changer works fine and is also wired in through stereo.

Guest47904

Again, check the battery for actual charging when the engine is running with a multimeter. If it's charging normally when running but still going dead, it must be draining when it's turned off. BUT you must be sure the charging system is working correctly FIRST. Otherwise, it could be the problem.

To address what Fred said, same thing. Check charging. If the headlight motors turn out to be the problem, it will show up during the test I explained to find the current draw.

If however, you wish to jump directly to the headlight motors first. Simply remove the 2 fuses in the underhood fuse panel for the 2 motors. See if the problem goes away.

JDBlaze85

my 94 TA would do that when I would reconnect the battery. the headlight motors would do that rattling noise. never drained the battery though. a bad battery could also be the problem after you check for a battery drain. I've seen some batterys charge fine with 14+ volts, then sit a while and die. without current draw = bad battery. but first check the voltage charge and for a drain.

cmking26

Battery is charging fine about 13.7-14.1 volts while running. I'll check the other thing you guys mentioned. Its a new battery but a cheap one. I think 750 amps.

bioallen

Looks like you and I have the EXACT same problem.. though I may have one extra problem. A couple months ago my battery died.. couldn't even jump it. That was probably about the 5TH TIME it had done that. My mom noticed a clicking sound under my hood. Sure enough.. if I unplug the connectors to the headlight motors.. stops draining. It USED to drain in a bout 4-6 days.. now it wasn't draining.. but I have no control over my headlight motors. No good!

Turns out I may have ANOTHER drain or something.. because now.. even with my motors unplugged, my battery still died.. but this time after about 4-6 WEEKS. Tomorrow I am going to see if I can figure anything out... but I'm not experienced when it comes to these electrical issues, so I'm just going in fingers crossed and hoping I can work SOMETHING out before my school cmas break is over.

One thing.. anyone had any problems related to TAIL LIGHTS? I've changed some bulbs in my tail lights more often than I would think is necessary, and seems that another is out again. Could something be causing that.. something related to the battery drains?

Drew
(On my friend's login name)

fragenstein

Hey, the previous post by bioallen was me on his name...

I've been trying to investigate my electrical issue, which sounds identical to yours.

First, I want to question, or confirm, what someone else said in this thread.. is it true that if you measure 14V across the battery... you do not have ANY bad grounds?

Second, I'm hoping the previous is not the case.. I will be spending some time today looking at connections in the circuits related to my headlight motors.

Third, after looking some last night... I have a theory that worries me some. My headlight motors were clicking just as you described, but only when the battery was already VERY low.. too drained to start the car at all. It would be entirely dead in less than a week. After unplugging the connections above the washer resevoir that directly go to the motors... my car no longer died in under a week. This time it died after 4-5 weeks. Here is where my concern is. I thought this was indicative of a second drain, but now I'm thinking that may not be the case. Mounted on the stock airbox (or sitting in that area if you have no stock box) is the headlight control module. It has a 5 pin plug on one side and a 4 pin plug on the other. From what I understand, this module receives 12v power and determines when to send power to the headlight motors. My theory is that the ONLY problem may be the headlight control module... draining the battery in a matter of DAYS when able to send power to the motors with the car off. When you unplug the motor, perhaps the module is still receiving power that it should not be receiving, and it's just a far smaller draw since it cannot send any power to the unplugged headlight motors.

I am hoping that there is another possibility and that it is not the control module. From what I've heard, that module will cost a good $200+ from a dealer. I'm still wondering if perhaps something between the module and the battery could be the issue, sending power to the module with the car off, rather than the module TAKING power with the car off. Off the top of my head the possibilities as far as that would be limited, I THINK, to maybe the headlight switch/dimmer.

To end this lengthy post ( ).. I tried doing what I thought was mentioned in this thread as far as putting the multimeter in series with the battery, set to amperage. My highest scale was 250mA (bad?).. when I first put it in line, the needle would rise to about 100mA, then drop to about 50mA, then drop to about 10mA if I recall correctly. My friend (Chris - bioallen) opened the driver door to get at some fuses while I monitored the meter. As soon as the door opened, the fuse in the meter blew out. We closed the door and replaced the meter fuse with a spare. I put it in line between the pos. cable and the pos. battery post. You could hear a click, as I often do when I put in a new battery, but then, holding it in place, the rapid ticking began that I originally heard from my headlight motors draining the battery. The needle on the meter at this point was being pulled BELOW 0mA. I'm not sure what that means but I assumed it maybe meant it was above the scale (250mA)? Anyway, we unplugged one motor... the other gets louder (maybe another sign it is an issue with the signal from the module)... unplugged the module... the meter went to 0mA. Plugged the module back in.. blew the fuse on the meter again... no more fuses. Am I using the wrong kind of meter, doing something wrong, etc..?

Drew