battery power drain

cetme1

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
I need some advice on where to start with this issue. I drove my 87 GN a few days ago and it ran perfectly. No knock, nothing. Just Buick perfection.
That night I went outside and heard a loud buzz click coming from the car. Turns out the power antennae was making noise. I have owned these cars long enough to know the ribbon was broke so I disconnected it at the plug.
Next morning car was dead. I was so dead that I couldn't even charge it. It was 10 years old so I replaced it. Car started right up BUT now the interior fan switch doesn't do anything. The ac compressor will turn on and off but the fan will not work on any setting.
Next morning the new battery is completely drained.
So where does a guy that not good with electrical problems start? 1 Is fix the power antennae. 2 find out why the climate control fan isn't working? Could these two things drain the battery? I still have the antennae disconnected. I also have the underhood light disconnected and the radiator fan relays disconnected. What would cause these problems?
Fuses all look good.
 
odds are when you pulled up the wires to unplug the antenna you moved the wiring to the blower motor , check the connections under hood by the a/c box and the blower ground
as to the drain the broken antenna would run until you unplugged it so it may have dropped the battery voltage way down ,..new batteries arent always at full charge ..they loose just sitting on the shelf and it may be a bad battery (not uncommon) ,give it some time running or on a charger to bring it back up
 
I need some advice on where to start with this issue. I drove my 87 GN a few days ago and it ran perfectly. No knock, nothing. Just Buick perfection.
That night I went outside and heard a loud buzz click coming from the car. Turns out the power antennae was making noise. I have owned these cars long enough to know the ribbon was broke so I disconnected it at the plug.
Next morning car was dead. I was so dead that I couldn't even charge it. It was 10 years old so I replaced it. Car started right up BUT now the interior fan switch doesn't do anything. The ac compressor will turn on and off but the fan will not work on any setting.
Next morning the new battery is completely drained.
So where does a guy that not good with electrical problems start? 1 Is fix the power antennae. 2 find out why the climate control fan isn't working? Could these two things drain the battery? I still have the antennae disconnected. I also have the underhood light disconnected and the radiator fan relays disconnected. What would cause these problems?
Fuses all look good.
Charge the battery fully then disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery hook a test light in series or in line between negative post on battery to negative cable terminal if it lights up with the key off then you have a drain on the system start disconnecting fuses one at a time until test light goes out when you see the light go out that is ithe circuit we need to troubleshoot that is where the problem is
 
I appreciate all the replies men. Apparently it was a lot of unrelated problems that just happened to occur at the same time. Needed a new battery since the antennae killed the old one. Replaced the plastic mast in the antennae which immediately broke. It actually split the brass metal on the plastic mast. Highway stars stepped up and replaced it so kudos to them. Replaced the relay and now the ac fan works at all speeds. Replaced the drivers side power window motor and now it works. Apparently when I was pulling fuses I must have hit the Security system switch and that's the other reason the car wasn't starting. Found that out when the scanmaster suddenly started working and I noticed the battery voltage wasn't dropping when trying to start the car, so I looked and flipped the switch and now it starts. Comedy of errors but shes up and running good again! Thanks all.
 
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