Hey guys, my car has been acting strange. One day last summer, I walked to the car at lunch and heard the radio on. This is strange because the keys were in my hand, not in the car! As soon as I opened the door, it shut off. When I closed the door again (I assume closing the circuit), it came on again. I unplugged an old cd changer I had in the trunk and the radio shut off, so I thought that fixed it.

Flash forward to this winter, I tried starting it cause I like to let it run every now and then through the winter, but it wouldn't start, wouldn't even turn the interior lights on. I figured that maybe it was a combination of the extreme cold we were having at the time and my waiting too long to start it up again.

Now jump to a week ago, I pulled my dd up to it to jump it. It clicked the starter but would not turn over. What is even stranger, when I closed the door and then reopened it, there were no interior lights, it was like the battery was completely drained again, even though they were on while I was trying to jump it. The battery is just under a year old btw.

Frustrated, I then went and bought a battery charger and plugged it to the battery. With the doors closed, I noticed that the radio kicked on when I plugged the charger to the car, even though the keys were not in the ignition (guess the cd changer wasn't the sole culprit!) The charger showed a full battery while the doors were closed but as soon as i opened one, the radio turned off, the lights went out and the charger showed a dead battery and started a new charging cycle. This caused the interior lights to come back on slowly, but I can't get the car to start with either the doors open or closed.

Any ideas of where to look, or does any of this sound familiar to anyone? Electrical aspects of car repair are not my favorite and if I could just get the car running long enough to take it in I would.

Thanks everyone, and sorry for the long post!

 

May be related to the retained accessory power (RAP) module. That's the module that keeps your radio and power windows powered up after you shut the key off, for 10 minutes, or until you open a door.

Not sure what the failure mode would be, but the RAP module allows power to the radio to bypass the ignition key, and the RAP module interfaces with the door switches for the courtesy lights.

Shoebox has a schematic of the RAP module. I would try unplugging the module to see if the problem goes away.

http://shbox.com/1/rap_schematic.jpg

http://shbox.com/1/express_down1.jpg

I'm going to move this to "General 67-02 F-Body Tech", since it isn't really an "engine" problem.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Nice to see you are still here helping people out! Been a long time since I've been on the boards.

 

Ok, after turning my body into a pretzel, I managed to get the RAP out and replaced the battery. The car starts now and I was able to drive around, but that could be just because the new battery. How do I check the RAP? With it out, the radio, windows, and convertible top do not work at all. Thanks again for the help!

Edit: Just saw 87LT1RX7's post with similar problems where Shoebox gave a method to bypass the RAP. Gonna try that tomorrow.

 

you might have a bad door switch and maybe its kept your dome lights on ,, try spraying them with some lube. they do get crudded up,, and u said u put a stero in it. make sure your not backfeeling yor stero from yoor deck keepiing the ign hot

 

nah, it was the RAP. took it out and it starts up fine now with no drain over the last few weeks. just need to get a new one now so i can actually raise my top, windows, use the stereo, etc. Thanks for the reply though!