tivoliman

The 300E 2.6 seems to have a short. Please suggest how to track down a phantom 'electrical leak'.

I've taken the car to a professional, who looked at it for a week, and could only find a slight "electrical leak (short)", which he addressed.

My daughter drives the car, and only she has experienced the dead battery.

The alarm system is connected, and works. I was thinking the alarm was going off, and draining the battery. But if the alarm was active - all would hear it.

I have replaced the OVP, and the battery twice (original replacement, and a replacement of the replacement)

I'm asking for suggestions on how to track down the short.

I am currently driving the car daily - which may be keeping it charged - but yes I see no issue.

thanks for the help and suggestions.

YNVDIZW124

Maybe you need a new battery? Start removing fuses that have to do with the interior, stereo, and alarm. Buy a Jump Pack for her. They are about 50 bucks and that will help her start the car when it drains out.

tivoliman

She seems to be experienced at using the battery pack

Please expound - what do you suggest after removing the fuse.

I was considering a trick I found on this forum - to use a headlight and see which fuse was 'putting out power'.

One wire on the battery and the other in the fuse box - light on suggest there is power - but some should have power.

Tis a puzzlement

John M.

As I responded to your previous post about this, get a voltmeter and hook it up to the battery. Start pulling fuses one by one until you get a change on the voltmeter. Whichever fuse causes the voltage to rise...is where your problem is located.

tivoliman

So last week, I had the car parked at the airport.

After sitting for a 5 days, I went to start it - and no charge to the battery. Seemed like the dashboard lights were having a challenge to light.

Over the weekend I pulled each fuse, and tested the current by placing the red probe on the bottom and the black probe on the top. (If you get it backwards - the amps report as negative - no harm)

Found that when the ammeter (multimeter) was set for 10 Amps, there was current on fuse #9 (radio, clock and such). (read .12 amps)

Is .12 very much?

Well, this week the car is at the airport again. Only this time I removed fuse #1 & #9. Both relate to the radio and other 'dashboard things'.

I'll report back next week. I'll be getting the car on Thursday night - Hope the battery doesn't die, that may help identify the circuit with a short.

tivoliman

The car was parked at the airport all week with fuse 1 & 9 removed.

The car started. So I had a clue - and I think 9 was the culpret.

I intended to trace each wire down - testing if there were amps on it - but ... found (per EMT) that all wires were red with a white line.

Took the fuse box apart and sure enough - all wires off of fuse 9 we red with white line.

Prepared for further investigation by testing the amps drawing, with key removed - tested at the battery. Disconnected battery cable, connected (touched) ampmeter with the terminal and main wire - .14 amps (and .13 were from fuse 9)

But I did notice there were two groups of four wires. One group had an amp reading of .13 with keys removed, and the other did not.

Then a thought came - I could put the hot wires to a post that was only hot with the key turned on.

I ended up removing the hot group of 4 wires and re-attaching to fuse 5.

Should be interesting - I'm hoping the clock is not in the group that I moved. I've already confirmed - the radio use to work with key removed - does not now.

{Yes, the stray wire I found before is still there - will remove soon.}