Major Battery Drain

[russgill]

I'll give it a check when I go out this morning and report back.

 

[russgill]

Still good when running 14.6 to 13.8. Still have stumbling when you punch the turbo, much worse at lower speed than when punching at say 55. It is almost like it is starving for fuel. It may do it for 2 or 3 seconds and then bam, she goes. Volts are running 13.5 or so when this happens. It is almost like it is ready to back fire but doesn't. I guess Thursday we will pull the dash and clean the connectors and put it back in right and run some test to see what we see.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I really hate it when this happens.

 

[salvageV6]

Normal battery readings for engine off with a new one.

Mine dips down to 11.8 volts or so but it's 11 years old now.

What has changed other than the voltage issue since it hasn't been running well? Has it ever run good WOT?

I would pull some plugs and take a look at gap and read them to see if you are rich or lean, ie. black or pale white deposits or wrong gap.

Read the O2's, or better yet have a passenger watch the scanmaster when you get on the throttle a bit, don't need WOT just until it feels like it's stumbling then check the O2's for about 5 readings on the scanmaster, if they are all above 500 you MAY be rich, if well under 500 for that period you MAY be lean.

If it stumbles at low speed or tip in with the throttle you can probably watch the thing easily and see if anything is up rich or lean wise.

 

[SNKSKNR]

Check and make sure the plug contacts on the back of the factory dash are making contact. If the dash is not pluged in or loose it will do all the same things that your car is doing right now. P.S. Optima batteries suck! I went through 3 in one summer and are summers are short.

 

[russgill]

It had starting problems and would run the RPM's all over the place until it warmed up, but no turbo problems, the turbo issue started after we pulled the dash, pulled the stock alarm and put in a new MAF sensor. This is when we saw the voltage start dropping. Tomorrow we are going to pull the dash and hit all the connections, if that does not work then we'll run the checks V6 recommends. What happens when the waste gate does not operate properly? Can a waste gate solenoid go bad? I do have a note from Eric at Turbo Tweak on some readings on the BLM of 142, I sent him and based on that he said I was running lean and MAF might be the issue, that is why we changed it.

Would be interested in hearing about the waste gate issue.
Thanks

 

[philosobrad]

I'm paying close attention........my 86 T is doing the EXACT same thing.

New MAF last week, found the boost solenoid unplugged and plugged it back in, took the stock Delco radio out and then put it back in.........then the problems started. This is interesting.

Note: I'm running a BRAND new Optima red top and BRAND new parts store remanufactured alternator.

 

[russgill]

I am learning do one thing at a time, then check everything out and be sure all is well, then proceed to the next thing. We will do the dash tomorrow and run it around before we move on to the O2, plugs, etc. Did you use a stock/rebuilt MAF or move to the other one?

 

[philosobrad]

Stock, rebuilt MAF. Didn't seem to cause any issues, I ran this for 3 days and had no problems. The day BEFORE having the hiccups, I reconnected the boost solenoid and removed/reinstalled the factory radio.......I'm wondering now if I didn't booger something up in the wiring at the radio location. Maybe it would make sense in my situation, to pull the radio fuse and begin the checks.

 

[russgill]

I guess it wouldn't hurt, but you can see by all my questions I don't really have an indepth knowledge base. Did you clock stay on all the time and that is why you pulled the radio?

 

[philosobrad]

No, the radio would power up, clock functioned normally, but cut in and out. I decided to install an old aftermarket unit I had laying around, but it was dead......So I re-installed the stock piece. I didn't cut/splice any wires while doing this........but wonder now if maybe I didn't crimp something in the process.


I then bench tested the aftermarket unit to make sure it was the radio, and not the car.......it was the radio.

 

[russgill]

Maybe one of the our folks can give there input.

 

[russgill]

I meant their

 

[philosobrad]

I meant their

Agreed....I'll give you your thread back and monitor it. Thanks for allowing me to hijack it for a bit!:smile:

 

[russgill]

Not a problem, as you are experiencing the same turbo problem so it might turn up a clue.

 

[russgill]

Here is what we found, we opened the hood and found the hose from the intercooler to the turbo had come loose where it goes on to the turbo, repositioned and reclamped. We pulled the cluster and checked all circuits, all looked good. We checked the connecting cable and found one broken ear and one ear just hanging on. We took inserted 2 rubber sticky back pads to keep the plug from moving back in to the plastic housing.

One of these two fixes worked and we no longer have a stumble and she runs fine.