As if a heart transplant wasn't enough

Post by **Calimus** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 12:38 am

Now the wifes cabby is looking for a nervous system repair.

Shortly after I got the beast running again back in March we found that somewhere there is an electrical drain that if given enough time, will drain the battery in about 3 days. Well, since kuklaki is always in the damned thing it wasn't a major concern as the car never sits long enough to let the tires cool off.

Well, with her being going for the last 2 weeks and me working so much, naturally, the car sat and the battery died. Well, she got home yesterday and as such I pu the battery charger on it for about 3/4 hours. Fired the car up and figured it was good to go. She didn't drive it today because I also was trying to repiar the dome light and the wires were just haning there so I figured it best to not have the car bouncing down the road where they could touch and cause me more problems.

Well, she gets home tonight and asks me why her radio in the cabby keep flashing on and off. I got out, see this happening, try to start the car.....WTF! The damn battery is dead already. So it's back on the charger. Looks like I'll be playing the Hook the multimeter up and pull the fuses game till I find where the drain is coming from this weekend. Not my most favorite thing to do, but then again, I get such a kick watching her take off in the bunny so what can I do.

Hope some of you guy's have a better weekend planned then I do.

1lowcab · Post by **1lowcab** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 1:05 am

good luck with the cab, i hate electrical problems!
my weekend plans are:
saturday, start putting the clutch in the diesel, mow three yards then back to the clutch till dark.
sunday, hopefully have the clutch done saturday so i can work on the 1.8T golf. my oil light came on the other day and now i have to find out why. seems like all my cars took a crap at once!

Post by **Calimus** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:39 pm

The oil light should only come on in that thing when the oil is low. Which is very bad for the turbo since it's oil cooled. At least all turbo's I've ever seen are oil cooled. My sugestion would be first check the oil level before driving it a single foot farther. If it's not low, then I'm at a loss.

Take that back, it could be do to loss of oil pressure, which is also usually tied to a low oil level. That or your oil pump is about to crap out. Dunno, have a peak and see whats up. Don't forget to share though.

1lowcab · Post by **1lowcab** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:52 am

yeah, checked the oil, it's right on. i was looking around and the oil pressure switch looks like it's been hacked. it has tape around the wires... definitely not factory! i'll look more into it this weekend.

Post by **SoCal_Cabby** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:12 am

chirp...

233

Post by **kuklaki** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:15 am

Hey! No chirpin' in here, buddy

Post by **SoCal_Cabby** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 7:49 pm

kuklaki wrote:Hey! No chirpin' in here, buddy

[whisper voice]chirp...he he...chirp...he he[/whisper voice]

232

bubster007 · Post by **bubster007** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:39 am

Calimus,
What was draining the battery?

Post by **Calimus** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:52 am

The drain was actually the radio. A new head unite that I installed using a adapter harness was causing the drain. The wiring diagram for the harness basicly sucked and was way off. So I had to wing it a bit. Basicly, if the faceplate is left on it can drain the battery in 3 days. Remove the faceplate and the battery will be fine 3 months later if it's not run (car has been in the garage for 6 months thanks to a number of upgrade issues I've been running into). So at some point I'll have to get back in a fool with the wiring a bit more, I know there are some other wiring issues in the car as well that will require attention.

However, for now the easy fix is for the wife (kuklaki) to remove the face plate from the radio whenever she parks the car at the end of the day (which she should anyway to prevent theft). Hopefully if all goes well, the car will be back up under her arse and on the road this cominf weekend. Pretty much all I have to do now is wait for H&R to drop off 2 15mm spacers. I'll have the other two rims modified to accept them by the time the arrive and then slap them on the front of the car. From there it's off to the alignment shop and back on the road. As soon as the two shows are over in april however, it's back in the garage so I can see about upgrading the front brakes a bit. The I'll finally get to start on my poor scirocco.

BigDaddy90Cabby · Post by **BigDaddy90Cabby** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:34 pm

i had the same problem when my wife drives the car....

BigDaddy90Cabby · Post by **BigDaddy90Cabby** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:36 pm

cristine, whats a "Chirp" ?

BigDaddy90Cabby · Post by **BigDaddy90Cabby** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:38 pm

Once I can get back into the car, I need to wire the remote wire on the stereo up to the ignition switch or something. Constant power on the stereo gets her every time.. I have to go and check every time wife gets home in the car... some times worse that explaining something to our 6 year old. Neither of them listen to me.

theonlychuck · Post by **theonlychuck** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:12 am

you should have 2 power lines, one for continous power and one for power only when the car is on. i just use cont power for both on mine that way i can have the radio on without the car being on, but i always take my mp3 face off when i get out of my car, since it's been broken into twice already. and a chirp is a way to pad post counts because either your bored or the thread isn't being used much (hence the crickets).

BigDaddy90Cabby · Post by **BigDaddy90Cabby** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:48 am

see, when the wife drives the car, she forgets to take the face off.. so I really need to connect the remote wire to the ignition switch

theonlychuck · Post by **theonlychuck** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:54 am

but isn't there a power wire that's only "hot" when the ignition is on? if memory serves me correctly there should be one power wire for the clock and memory presets and stuff that is always hot, and one that is only hot when the ignition is on. now i wired both of them into my constant power so i could have it on when the car was off, but if you hook up the constant power to the head unit constant power and the reg. power to the normal power it should turn it off when the car is turned off.