[ztweny8]

Just a few quick questions

1. Previous owner put in an optima battery, the really nice ones. But its seems to be too tall because its hitting the hood slightly with the negative terminal. Are 5.0's supposed to get shorter batteries with side posts? Hood is 3 inch cowl fiberglass btw, and it wont align right because the battery is to tall.


2. Having some charging problems. I had the battery checked and it passed the test. So its not that. If I went outside right now and tried to start it, it wouldn't have any battery power, I would boost it, it would run, and I would be able to turn it off for a few minutes and start it back up. But say I didnt touch it overnight, and not until 5pm the next day, it will be dead again, even after running it for an hour the previous day. When its running the battery gauge is near 0, and if you turn on lights/heat etc. it dips even lower. But also when driving, the battery gauge goes up when I rev it or drive it, but as soon as its back at idle goes right back down. I assume this is a problem with the alternator right? Obviously i've checked and nothing is staying on when I turn it off, and it ran fine all last year, until the near the end of the season and it started doing this. And I havent changed anything.


3. Once I reposition or do something to the battery, I want to align the hood and install the hood pins I bought. How exactly do you go about doing this? I thought they would bolt in where the factory spring bumper things are on each end, but I don't think that's how it works. Should I just drill holes in the core support? Want to make sure.


4. I have racing seats in the front, I didnt install them, previous owner did. The main bolt on the driver seat nearest the clutch pedal broke or fell out or something. How do I get the seat off the tracks to be able to access that?


5. Whats a good tranny fluid for my T5?


I'm going to try and fix all these problems tomorrow (saturday), so quick answers would be appreciated. I can do all this easy, I just want to confirm what i'm thinking and make it all go smoother. Thanks

[kyle89gt]

1. ive never seen one with a sidepost batteries but i guess you could run one if you got some different terminals.
you could also relocate your battery to the trunk.

2. it could be your alternater. you could take it to a shop where they have a midtronics and they will test it or you can pull it out and bring it to autozone to get tested. if its not charging your battery enough when driving then it could die like you are saying.

if your alternater checks ok you could have a parasitic draw on your battery. a way to check for that is by pulling out 1 fuse before you park the car and see if that same thing happens. the next day pull a different fuse. by doing this, you are taking power away from certain circuits and hopefully finding the one that is drawing current from your battery.

i had a problem where the lights in my sun visors would come on because the velcrow wouldnt hold the button down tight enough and that would drain my battery.

3. you can just remove the hood bumpers and install the pins in there location. use a marker and color all over the tips of the pins and shut your hood (obv bolted to your hinges). the marker will transfer to the hood and thats where you drill your holes. sometimes black hoods are hard to do this on, so you can use whiteout or something that can easily be removed after.

4.most likely you can just pull the 4 bolts out from each corner of your seat and deal with the track once the seat is out

5. ive heard good things about royal purple brand and lucas brand fluids. as long as its the equivalent to the specified tranny fluid any brand will do the trick.

[notchbackfox]

have you checked the connections? if they havent been removed for a while they could be corroded which would be causing your charging issues

[ztweny8]

Got the alternator checked, and it passed. So theirs something drawing power. I bought a multi-meter, does anyone know a good guide how to use them for automotive use? What setting should I put it on?

I'm just wondering what could be draining so much power. If I boost it, it will run, but the battery gauge will be at the bottom. If I rev it, or drive, it will go up, but then right back down when it returns to idle, copying what the tachometer is doing. Meaning that the alternator needs to spin faster just to power whatever is happening right? I turned it off for 10-15 when I got gas, and it started ok. Then I parked it at home, and tried to start it the next day around 5, and it just made the buzzing noise a car makes when theirs not enough battery power. No lights, gauges, stereo stuff is staying on from what I can see. Whats the most likely culprit? Where should I start?

[kyle89gt]

you could get a battery tender to keep the charge while your not driving it. or install a quick disconnect for the ground cable to cut off power from the battery when you turn it off..

either that or track down the parasitic drain...(pain in the ass but worth it in the long run)..

my 89 would sit all winter and get started maybe once every week and would always fire right up. then in the spring when she got put on the road would run like a champ.

one night and it dies is DEFINITELY not acceptable

[GNWDAD]

i have checked to see if you have goog soilid grounds, if one is broken or loose it could continue to arh and drain the battery?

[notchbackfox]

it wouldnt drain it but would not let it charge up properly

[ztweny8]

So I just went and tested with the multi-meter. I finally found a good guide on the net how to use it.

When set on DC 10A, it reads 0.04 between the negative cable and negative terminal. If I open the driver door, which would make the car want to draw current for the interior lights, correct? With the door open it reads 0.67. So wouldn't 0.04 be a normal parasitic draw (stereo/computer staying on all the time to keep settings)?

Leaving the interior lights on would probably take around 6 hours approximately to drain the battery. And it would be drawing 0.67. So the draw i'm reading, 0.04 dosent seem to be enough to be causing this. Right? Because from what i've read its normal to have a small amount to keep certain things on standby.

Are their any other tests I can perform?

Could it be the battery? That was the first thing I tested last year, and it checked out O K, but after yesterdays alternator testing adventure, I don't know how much I trust these dumb ******* working at these auto parts stores.

With the little I know about electrical systems it seems like their is a big main wire not doing its job. The alternator works, for one because I got it tested, and for 2 because when I boost it to get it running the battery gauge rises when the engine is revved above idle. The battery would appear to be working because I got it tested, and for it to turn on after 15 minutes it would need to be holding some charge. It seems like one of the main wires must be "releasing" power rapidly. So, where are the main electrical "arteries"? And how can I test them to see if their releasing charge?

[notchbackfox]

.04 is a normal draw and it wont cause it to drain like that... start the car and put you dmm on 12v dc and see what the charging voltage is it should be between 13.5 and 15

[ztweny8]

Originally Posted by notchbackfox

.04 is a normal draw and it wont cause it to drain like that... start the car and put you dmm on 12v dc and see what the charging voltage is it should be between 13.5 and 15

will do right now

[ztweny8]

Alright, I was going to test the charging system with my multimeter, but when I went to use it I found out it doesn't have a 12V setting. So I decided to just boost it again and play with wires, see if any were loose or corroded etc.

Once I got it running I noticed a noise, not sure if it was always making that noise, or only when the problem started. But I made a video of it none the less because it didn't seem right. It sounds like a fire alarm, but with someones hand muting it, and its coming from the ignition coil. It was kind of hard to hear in person but you can hear it clearly throughout the whole video, even when i'm inside the car.

I also took some footage of how the battery gauge is behaving when the car is revved. And then I took some of my A/F gauge. I think this car may still have the tune from when it had a centrifugal blower on it. Or I remember reading that if its just a shortband A/F it will be nothing more than a light show, and behave erratically like that, so maybe its just that.

Anyways, would the ignition coil have anything to do with what I'm experiencing?

[ztweny8]

well the new ignition coil doesn't sound like an air compressor lol, so that's good. I boosted it and its running right now. Held it at 2000 rpm for a little bit and I'll do that again before I turn it off. And We'll see if it starts again later on.