Battery dead - AGAIN >_<!#$@!#%@

Okay, I've about had it with this bull crap. My battery was dead today, AGAIN. EVERYTHING was turned off, I swear. There was nothing plugged into the lighter, no lights on, the rear cargo lights were pulled because people kept leaving them on... etc.

My only other thought is, could the level ride compressor be cycling while the car sits? I thought it was supposed to shut itself off after X number of minutes? The battery and alternator both tested good, so I'm at the end of my rope. I need suggestions, ASAP.

Thanks.

Pull the fuse for the ELC and see if that helps.

Where is the fuse located?

Also, the guy at autozone (I took it there to test the battery) said that because it's been cold lately, and I haven't been driving all too much, that could have an effect as well. True/false? If true, explain? I don't know about this "cold" thing. lol


Edit: If I pull the fuse, won't the car sit way too low and weird, because nothing's pumping it back up? Or...?

If you pull the fuse, the pump won't run of course. If your system is in good shape (no leaks) then you shouldn't see any change. However at our cars ages, most do leak at least a little so likely the car will start to settle a tad low. Though it shouldn't be too bad unless your springs are shot.

But just for testing purposes it's a minor inconvenience to be sure that's not your problem.

How long had the car sat since last being driven? Cold weather will affect a battery but one which tested good shouldn't be "killed" by a few cold nights.

My springs are alright, but the system DOES leak.

The car hasn't been driven since Sunday, but as you know Mike, it's been unseasonably cold this week (20s and 30s in the morning, 40s during the day). Do you know where the fuse is? I'll give it a shot. My dad said something like disconnect the pump itself, but I wouldn't know where to begin to look for that either.

I feel so dense sometimes. lol

I'd have to go look but I THINK the fuse is in the convenience panel on the dash. Entirely possible I'm off on that though. The pump itself is located ahead of the rear axle, on the drivers side if I recall. Unplug weather pack to disable that way.

Four days of those temps won't kill an otherwise good battery. I only start mine every couple weeks during the winter and it's routinely colder than that between Dec and March. It turns over a little slow but not dead. Sorry but it's not just the cold temps I'm afraid.

Yeah I didn't think it was just the cold either. The battery tested good though, 11.97 volts and all... and the alternator is brand new from October, so I'm leaning toward level ride running and killing it. There's no other logical solution.

Would the fuse location be in my FSM? I can check that later.

11.97 volts is low. I'd want to see at least 12.6V from a typical car battery an hour after the car is shutoff.

It was dead and just jumped. I'm going to leave it on the trickle charger at advance when my friend gets out of his class he's taking me up to drop it off.

Wait, when you said the battery was tested I presumed you meant load tested. There's a huge difference between measuring the voltage on a battery versus load testing it which, as the term implies, places a load on the battery thus seeing how it holds up under a 'cold start' condition.

I've had batteries which show a nice 12+ volts with a voltmeter but fail miserably under a load test. I'm pretty sure most of the local parts places can load test a battery for you. It should be fully charged (if possible) first though.

Get that battery load tested before you spend lots of time looking for electrical gremlins.

EDIT: And yes, your FSM will tell you where the load level pump fuse is.

Okay, I'll have them do that then. Ugh, I can't afford a battery, so that would SUCK right now.....

Okay, it passed its load test. 13.1 volts. Should be good right? From reading anything from 12.6 to 14 is normal?

Now to chase the electricals... I have to pick the battery up in an hour. Any info on where the fuse for the level ride is? Or a photo of what to unplug on the compressor? I need the car for work tomorrow and to drive home on Saturday. Can't afford any more shenanigans right now.

I don't know about your car, but the fuse for the level control for my LT1 is under the hood on the passenger side wheelwell. I think it does have an uninformative name like ELEC.

There is an explanation on how to change the control from always-on to keyed on the Wagons forum of ISSF. I have to do that one of these days.

ELC fuse located and labeled as such in the underhood electrical center as Nick Danger described.

Also, if you want to "put it down" for good, also unplug the control above the axle.
According to Mitchell OD ,it is powered from the interior lamp fuse and a level ride fuse inside the car.
This along with the ELC fuse for pump and dump under the hood as previously mentioned (from 95wagon on ISSF).

Fix for always hot -
http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=250848

I had a problem several years back with a Lincoln, coming out in the morning to a dead battery. Spend money at a "Quality shop" replacing batterties and alternators.

Figured it out when morning when I came out of the house and noticed that the rear window was defrosted and steaming, while the rest of the windows were snow covered. The rear window defroster was not turning off, but the indicator lamp was not on to show it.

Never went back to that garage again, wouldn't give me any satisfaction for misdiagnosing the problem but had no problem taking my money when they were wrong.

Reading the ISSF post confused me even more. This is looking more and more annoying every time I think about it. Great.

To slow it down for me:

In order to disable it for good (I don't mind doing this, I'll be replacing the air shocks soon anyway, so why bother with them right now?) I need to:

Unplug some fuse under the hood by the passenger wheel well labeled "ELEC"
Unplug some sort of thing that's above the rear differential, somewhere?
Done.

Or I suppose I could do the wire splicing thing, since I kept the battery out of the car for right now anyway (so all wires should be safe to mess with). To do that:

Find wires by the rear diff.
Cut orange/black wire.
Splice orange/black wire into the red/black wire
Tape
Done.
______________

Am I getting this right? I'm ALL FOR whatever is the easiest one, and will save my battery.

If you want to switch to air shocks, unplug the fuse and the connector to the sensor over the axle.

If you want to make it so the ELC sensor/compressor is not "hot", switch the wire positions in the connector over the axle, easier than cut/splice.

I want to switch to regular shocks for the car in the Spring. So I'll just unplug the fuse and connector.

Gotcha. Now if only I could find a ride to pick up my freakin' battery! I hate having all these friends without cars, I swear. lol

Stingroo wrote:

In order to disable it for good (I don't mind doing this, I'll be replacing the air shocks soon anyway, so why bother with them right now?) I need to:

Unplug some fuse under the hood by the passenger wheel well labeled "ELEC"
Unplug some sort of thing that's above the rear differential, somewhere?
Done.

Or I suppose I could do the wire splicing thing, since I kept the battery out of the car for right now anyway (so all wires should be safe to mess with). To do that:

Find wires by the rear diff.
Cut orange/black wire.
Splice orange/black wire into the red/black wire
Tape
Done.
______________

Am I getting this right? I'm ALL FOR whatever is the easiest one, and will save my battery.

Honestly, I dont think you need to do all that. My compressor was unplugged from the harness under the car, tucked back and held in place with zip ties. I've never had a problem and the only way I knew the car even had air ride was when I saw the compressor for the first time when the car was on a lift. Fuses and everything are still in place.

Stingroo wrote:

The car hasn't been driven since Sunday, but as you know Mike, it's been unseasonably cold this week (20s and 30s in the morning, 40s during the day).

I drove my wagon for the first time since Saturday. Temps have been in the mid 20's during the day, it was 11 last night. I drove the car today, turned over first time. Sounds like you need a new battery. I can't see a few days of temps in the 30's causing a problem unless the battery is shot. How old is it?

It JUST turned 3, so it's 9 days out of warranty. It tested good though, so I think the compressor is cycling while the car sits, and is killing the battery. I'm unplugging it and pulling the fuse and seeing where that gets me. At the very least, it'll get me home, and then Santa Claus can put a new battery under my tree.

Sucks, but that's about all I can do.

Stingroo wrote:

It JUST turned 3, so it's 9 days out of warranty. It tested good though, so I think the compressor is cycling while the car sits, and is killing the battery. I'm unplugging it and pulling the fuse and seeing where that gets me. At the very least, it'll get me home, and then Santa Claus can put a new battery under my tree.

Sucks, but that's about all I can do.

Yeah, once you pull the fuse and unplug the compressor, you'll be all set. I dont see why they would say to cut and remove all that wire. Thats just asking for trouble imo. All this talk about shocks reminds me I still need to do mine....

Cutting the wires and splicing is if you want to keep level ride, but not have it active while the car is off. I however, do not want level ride. I say to hell with it. I'll take some regular shocks and springs and be on my way.

Stingroo wrote:

Cutting the wires and splicing is if you want to keep level ride, but not have it active while the car is off. I however, do not want level ride. I say to hell with it. I'll take some regular shocks and springs and be on my way.

That's how my car is. But the springs are original and the shocks have about 50k on them, time for a change.

I'm ordering the Bilsteins. Sprocket found them CHEAP online. Not sure what to do for springs yet, but I can only assume all of it is original... :s

So... in browsing my FSM, I see there are a few connectors down there for the ELC.

Which do I unplug? All of them? Here's the page I'm looking at. I think connector 21 (top left)is the one that ISSF post talks about cutting and what not, since I can see multiple wires going into it in the diagram. Is that the only one I unplug? Or is that not even the right one?

My book says H and 22, looks like yours says 27/28? Either way, its the plugs in the top left corner.

Well I couldn't access the pump anyway, couldn't see it under the car (I couldn't jack it high enough in the parking lot...) but I pulled the fuse for it and it seems to be okay. I'll fiddle with it more over winter break when I have access to a real lift. New shocks in the Spring, and maybe (hopefully) a front end rebuild (paging Krzdimond, lol)

You are looking at the wrong page/diagram. You want to be looking at the sensor, which is conveniently pictured on the opposite page, in the lower right part of your picture. The square box with a pigtail attached to a bracket with an arm on the other side. That is where one would be switching out pins in the connector or cut/splice to change the ELC from always hot, at least on a 95.

Well, I couldn't see anything under the car due to it not being high enough off the ground, so I settled for pulling the fuse. lol Seems to have worked.

The compressor is on top of the frame rail, in a secret compartment. I got to it by removing the access panel in the front of the driver's front wheelwell. No jacking was necessary. I just turned the steering wheel left.

Wait... it's in the front? I thought it was in the back of the car. Hmmm.

I'll look into this further tomorrow. I just got home. Apparently my air shocks DO work still, but there's a leak somewhere, because when I pulled the fuse the car sat too low so I had to put it back. I just pulled the fuse whenever I shut the car off. So the key-on-hot trick would be better, and save me the fuse pulling nonsense.

Nick Danger wrote:

The compressor is on top of the frame rail, in a secret compartment. I got to it by removing the access panel in the front of the driver's front wheelwell. No jacking was necessary. I just turned the steering wheel left.

Not in my '93. Its in the rear of the car, just infront of the rear axle on the drivers side. Sting, thats where yours probably is too. The diagram you posted is almost identical to the one in my FSM.

I can't imagine many changes from '92-93 (if any?) so yeah.

I couldn't get the car high enough to see where the compressor is. I may have access to a lift from my dad's friend, so I'll mess with it then. Until then, ghetto fuse pulling will have to do.

You're right, it was in the back from 1991 to 1993, and in front from 1994 to 1996.