Ok, Ive been trying to track down a drain on my battery which kills the battery in about 4 days. When I bought the car I removed a poorly installed alarm system. I have had the alternator, starter, and battery tested... all were good. I even hooked up a multimeter and pulled fuses to see if the 52 miliamp draw would decrease... nothing.

So today I was looking around the brake booster area and saw a large red wire with a smaller orange wire looped back into the plastic wire loom. I traced the wire which was grouped with several others to a bosch relay that is attached to the inner drivers side fender. This relay doesnt appear to be stock and as far as I know GM did not install bosch relays in their vehicles.

Upon closer inspection of the smaller orange wire I could make out the words 50 mm fusible link, this wire was also split open and I could see the internal wires.

So my questions are, is this a factory relay and if so what is it for (I could not find it on my chiltons or haynes wiring schematics), and could this fusible link be blown and causing my battery drain issues?

Please help me with this, I'm at wits end with this thing. I bought the car a year ago and have to leave it charging with a battery tender if I want it to start.

I have more pics of the relay and wiring if need be but I think its only going to let me upload two pics.

Thank you for any and all help.

 

more pics

 

Hello MI ROC-Z!!

If that is the relay that is in front of the windshield washer tank, then that is the relay for your fog lamps!!

The Bosch relay is stock!!

It does look as if your missing the bracket that holds the EST module, Fuel Pump relay, MAF relay, and the MAF Burn Off relay, that bolts to the firewall, between the fender, and the back of the brake booster!!

About your 52 milliamp draw, do you have a light that may be on continuously, like the underhood light, or the cargo compartment light, or even the dome light, or how about the rear window defogger??



P.S. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a fusible link is like a fuse, in that, if it blows, there is no power flowing, so how can a blown fusible link let power flow???

 

because sometimes they blow and still hang on by a thread

4 days is way too long to even be a light in my opinion. i'd be looking at faulty relays for sure. get another battery and start pulling them and putting them to power, seeing if they click on and off cleanly. you could even put a DVOM to them and see if any of them are drawing power constantly even when it's not grounded.

another possibility is the battery having a bad cell and it just dies without charge applied to it constantly.

 

Thanks for the reply Dizturbed, I have an analog multimeter (cheapie), and would like to check the relays, and other stuff like the rear window defogger. I'm not really familiar with how to test them so any help would be appreciated. Also if I took the battery into autozone for them to test it, would their equipment be able to detect a bad cell?
Thanks

 

Oh yeah, I wanted to add that the bosch relay I found was behind the washer tank and has a lime green, light gray, brown, and large red wire that go to the wire loom. The lime green, light gray, and brown go towards the front driver side T split wire loom by the headlights. I also removed the MAF relay and mount to gain access to this wire loom, it just looks like its not present!

 

Just an update, I went and picked up some 16 gauge fusible link wire which I soldered into the wiring harness that is connected to the Bosch relay. After checking my Hanes manual thoroughly I found a wiring schematic which shows the Bosch relay is in charge of my headlights. I found it interesting that the previous owner placed an 18 gauge fusible link there and that the schematic specifically says it should be 16, oh well its repaired now!

I also put in my new MSD 6A, coil, and wiring adapter kit. All in all it took about 45 minutes to put all wires in the looms and hide the 6A box. Just waiting on my new wires to come.

Quick question though... I bought replacement AC Delco R45TS plugs and gapped them to factory .35. Should I open the gap to say, .40 or let them open up on their own over the next 15,000 miles?

 

Hello Dizturbed One!!

I took the meaning of blown, as being "blown", and not hanging on by a thread!!

Also, isn't there supposed to be power flowing through the fusible link anyways, when the circuit is powered???

 

your right it acts just like a fuse...same concept

 

Sorry, having problems uploading pics.

 

Here's two pics of the #6 plug that took forever to get out. It was gapped at .45 and I'm interested to find out how old these plugs could be! Amazingly they look like they're in great shape.

 

.35 to . 40 is good for a SBC in my opinion im at .35 for my engine and it runs fine now, got it in time yesterday youtube will be next.

 

the battery in my bird dies in 4 or 5 days as well a simple solution is to just unhook it if your gonna leave the car off for a few hours. atleast till you get it fixed. thats what i do any way

 

hey chefmann, let me know when you get the you tube video uploaded. I don't think third gens are represented well enough on you tube. Yeah as far as the plug gap goes, I gapped them to .35 and called it a day. I just ordered my replacement coolant fan switch sensor today along with my msd wires so I'm looking forward to getting everything buttoned back up. To include putting the starter back in, which I'm really not looking forward to. The sales guy at Autozone thought my starter was out of a diesel truck, LOL, thing is freakin huge!!!

 

hit a snag with my harmonic balancer going to fix that then go to to the floor lol my 283 has no center threads in the crank and looking for a answer in another post.