91 Festiva Electrical short

[Jblair]

Jus baught a 91 efi 5 speed and it has a short some where, the draw is large, everything dims when key is in hot, car wont run when its shorting. No obvious wires, newer alt, newer starter, new coil and ignition components, what could draw enough power to kill everything? , . . 500$ purchase from old man who is second owner with maintenece records, awesome buy in my book.

[bravekozak]

Start pulling fuses for HOT in RUN to see which circuit the short is on. Start with METER, then WIPER, FAN, DEFOG, HEATER. Good luck doctor J.
You really need an EVTM (Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual) for your Festiva.

[bravekozak]

There is only ten minutes left in this auction. You had better hurry.
You are not online. I will buy this for you and you can Paypal me after.
Just PM me your address so I can tell the seller where to mail it. Believe me, this will be the best ten bucks you will ever spend on your vehicle.

[crazyrog17]

Brave, that was a generous offer. If he doesn't take it off your hands, pm me

[Jblair]

Id like the manuel. Electrical is always fun. Ive never had a car with electrical issues that affwcted everything. Even my dome light flashed when the car died.

[crazyrog17]

Have you checked the fusible links? Drivers side shock tower. Soak it with PB Blaster and carefully remove the links. Replace them with pink green pink (30A 40A 30A) long leg cartridge fuses.

[Jblair]

They are a little funky, what is pb blaster? The link housing also looks a little toasty, at some point therehas been an issue in this area. Old owner use to use fuesable link as antitheft system, he would unplug the link at night. Lol, he had the car stolen a couple times in yhe 17yrs he had it

[bravekozak]

While you have the fusible links out, pop the brass terminals, wire wheel them and then push them back in.

[crazyrog17]

PBB is a spray to loosen rusty bits. I've broken a few terminals in the block, not impossible, but not fun to fix.

[bravekozak]

The Kia part mumber is KK14066760 for a new one. Just in case.

[Jblair]

Sweet ill take the advice and try after work.

[Jblair]

Ok, fuseable inks feplaced with solid fuses, pulled all fuses to sub circuits that dont include operation. Short is in a main circuit or relay. Anyone know where to go from here? Im not even sure wherr to begin. New alterntor, new starter, new coil. These replaced by previous.owner within 1yr, dont think they are related to issue. My thought process thinks ignition or relay somewhere but electrical is not my expertise. Any ideas? Also, what is the relay near radiator overflow behind battery? When ever the short happens, it triggers a relay, could just be its taking power away from relay causing circuit to open akd close but im just putting it out there

[Jblair]

Ok, ive done some research and the relay i ws looking at was the main power, what happens if it goes bad? My starter works fine, my spark is cutting in and out, something is grounding. how would i test the relay?

[koRnhead]

if it is the main relay, it wont run at all but crank and crank away....so if you have had it running it probably isn't that.
To test, well make a jumper wire and bridge it, if it starts then your golden, time for a new one.

[Jblair]

Ill try bridging it, they dont make the relay anymore either, that sucks. Do you have experience or ideas what my problem is. My thought is to start cutting into the harnesses to find melted wire.