1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Repeated similar tests today and still have 'pulsing' drain.. needle pulses between 15mA and 80mA. When fuse#28 is pulled, needle stay constant at 15mA, BUT a few seconds later jumps to about 140mA. Put fuse back in and needle jumps to 250+mA (i assume that putting the fuse back in 'resets' things, much as it does when the battery is first connected and i would have to wait 1-2 minutes to have all the relays/timers shut off).
Spoke to Jim at Sobstory who didn't think the numbers above were enough to drain the battery over just a few days and thought maybe the pulsing was clock related (could still be 'on' although the hands don't work). He advised me to test the alternator and indeed the battery is getting a 14V charge with the alternator running... has 12V charge with engine off (even though i needed to jump it to conduct this test).
The next time i need to drive the car on Sunday, so:
1) I can leave the battery disconnected now and see if it starts up on Sunday. Only problem is that the battery may not have a FULL charge right now (given that i had to just jump start it to do the above test). If car starts on Sunday, next step would be to let the car sit for a few days with the battery connected, but fuse#28 pulled; then see if the car starts after a few days.
2) Since battery likely doesn't have a full charge right now, Jim suggested maybe i drive the car around for 20 minutes to give the battery a charge which would make the above test more conclusive. However, the battery distributor is about 20 minutes away from here and i could just drive there and have them charge/test the battery. They said they would need to leave the battery overnite but could give me a loaner 'reconditioned' battery so that i could continue to drive the car. I'd sooner do this as a last resort since it's somewhat inconvenient, but if it's recommended i go for a drive anyway, then maybe i should just bite the bullet and confirm once and for all that the battery is good/not. The battery is only one year old, and even though the majority of my trips are short hops, it shouldn't fail so soon.
What would you do?
Thanks.
PS- Interestingly i found a similar post from somebody back in September although no follow-up/solution was given (i even searched by username to see if a follow-up was given in another thread)
posted by 68.193.225...
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