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Originally posted by Sparkleface
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A good battery should read 12 volts between the positive and negative battery posts with the engine off. While the engine is running, you should read somewhere between 13-14 volts.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk"Fred" 93 Festiva L B6-ME Swap
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What would make it read 0.1 or 0.2 volts then.? Because it is like the alternator is draining the battery, but the alternator is new. The battery was brand new today. I havent checked the volts on this battery yet...Comment
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Make sure your meter is set to read DC voltage.Originally posted by Sparkleface View Post
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk"Fred" 93 Festiva L B6-ME Swap
“Though he is small, he is but fierce.”Comment
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I was doing a parasitic draw test when i got the reading of 0.1 and 0.2.. Testing from the battery terminals...Comment
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A lot of your symptoms sound like a gradual ignition unit failure- a rather cheap replacement you probably want to replace either way. Its a small plastic unit in or near the distributer. I've had them fail- the car just stalls running, and then eventually won't start.Comment
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This sounds painful, and I know, because over the past week I have been going through something similar, although I have resolved it now. My car has a B6T swapped in and a modified wiring harness, so the actual reasons my battery and alternator were not working, and the car was not always starting are not the same. But there may be similarities.
First, I had 3 wiring problems, not one. It sounds like you might have more than one problem, which makes it harder to sort out.
Second, I had to use 3 different multi meters, because I was not getting reliable readings.
If a brand new battery is drained to zero volts in a day, you have a big current draw. That should easily show up in a proper test. Or you have a real problem with your meter readings.
Cheap multimeters are fine for volts, mediocre for ohms, and quite poor for measuring current. And to measure current they have to be in series, not in parallel like for measuring voltage. So using them as ammeters is just a bit trickier. My long standing multimeter gave me meaningless measurements of current, sometimes zero, sometimes off scale, sometimes wandering about when I tested for a battery current draw. Finally I checked it with a current source and saw it was crap. (I used a fully charged battery on a trickle charger as the current source; it should have read around 1 amp or less, but went off scale)
So I borrowed another one, and it gave good stable readings, and showed a 2 Amp current draw when in series between the ground terminal of the battery and the detached ground cable. That allowed me to start the hunt, by disconnecting everything one lead at a time, starter cables, main relay, main connectors from engine bay to cabin, alternator leads, and so on. That identified the alternator circuit as my problem. (I should add I touched the wrong circuit with the borrowed meter, drew more than 10 Amp, and blew out the internal fuses in the meter, so I had to borrow a third meter, because the second one now always reads zero current, even though the voltmeter and ohmeter still work fine.) If the meter were not fused drawing more than 10 Amp will most likely destroy it, and then it will give stupid readings under all circumstances. If an internal cabin light, or door light were on when you tried to read the current draw it might be larger than 10 A, and so immediately ruin your meter.
There was a broken connector in the cabin to the dash lead that gives the alternator 12 V, and the connector to the alternator was cross wired (my mistake), so two problems, which made diagnosis more confusing.
Your current drain is likely different, but it has to be coming from a circuit that is always hot, or your ignition key is leaking current. Only a few circuits in the engine bay are always hot, and the cabin and parking lights are always hot. But it has to give a current reading if it is draining the battery while off.
Your bad starts, or problems during running and braking may be a different problem. It may be any important wire, not just the main fuse and main power wires.
But my car still started sometimes and not others. With the engine not started and the key in run, I wiggled all the cables in the engine bay, and heard several relays clicking on and off as I did. So bad wire or bad connector. I wiggled smaller groups of wires until I found it in the power lead to the main relay. I will have to replace the wire, the connector, or both.
I am not sure what ignition module the last poster is referring too, but problems with the spark will show up by pulling a plug wire and cranking. Previously, I did have trouble with the condensor, that is a small plastic box near the distributor. When I disconnected it the car ran fine, and has run that way ever since (no radio, so no worries about the electrical noise). The distributor internals can go bad, but they most frequently fail hard, not partially.
Best of luck, electrical problems are sort of invisible and can be combined and compounding. I hope my comments lead you to some clues.
Last edited by Icedawg; 02-03-2019, 12:06 PM.Thricetiva replaced Icetiva as the new ride
Icetiva-3-race-car-build
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where can you buy the 80 amp main engine fusible link?Comment
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There is no 80 amp fuse on a festiva. The main 30 amp or whatever fuse is available at any auto parts store or www.rockauto.com
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