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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 12:33 pm 
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So this one will kind of be a back and forth troubleshooting on my dad's Park Avenue Ultra. He's about an hour away from me, so I'll just be relaying info back and forth so he can try and troubleshoot the issue.

From what I understand, here's what's going on with the car. In the mornings, he said it's been cranking over really slowly and acting like the battery is weak or dead. He's had the alternator and battery tested, and both are testing fine (battery is relatively new, within the last few months I believe).

I've sent him here and he's tried a lot of the troubleshooting from the voltage threads, but just to list here to make things easy, he's also gone through, set up a multimeter to check the voltage on the battery, and with key off, all electronics off, it's showing a .03 amp voltage draw, and I believe it's supposed to be closer to .01amp. He's gone through and pulled all of the fuses and relays one at a time to watch what effected the meter, and said the only two fuses that made any difference were the 60amp battery fuses that dropped it down. I'm not familiar with the 00+ electrical systems, but what should he be looking for next based on that information? And anything else that I should ask him to test so that I can post back results?

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 12:39 pm 
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Has he already done the basic cleaning of connections?

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 3:11 pm 
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^That, and make sure everything is tight. Anything weird when it's actually running?

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 4:32 pm 
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Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. When I talked to him this afternoon, hr said thr battery cables were cleaned (insulation pulled back to check for corrosion), battery terminals cleaned, wirewheeled, and tightened back up nice and snug. Once the car cranks, it runs perfectly fine from what I understand, it only acts up when starting for the first time in the mornings, and I guess is intermittent, since it started up fine today, but acted up yesterday. I think he's going to check the connections to the starter to make sure those are tight next.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 6:01 pm 
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Wow, I think this is going to be a major pain to track down.

I think it is an intermittent draw, and he is going to have to keep repeating the draw test until he can see the draw. He should probably start mastering the "connect the draw meter without disconnecting the battery" maneuver too, because my money is on the issue clearing every time power is disconnected, until it happens again.

What is the system voltage first thing in the morning, before the startup, just to confirm voltage is to blame.

And an issue that causes starting issues the next morning will be painfully obvious on the meter. .03 amps (30 milliamps) is not painfully obvious.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:46 am 
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This is GM's test for amount of parasitic draw:
Quote:
Check and record the current reading.
Note the battery reserve capacity.
Divide the reserve capacity by 4.
Compare this to the multimeter milliampere reading taken in the previous step.
The parasitic current drain should not exceed this number.
Example: If a battery has a reserve capacity of 100 minutes , the current drain should not exceed 25 mA .

If everything electrical checks out, it's possible that the starter is starting to go.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 7:01 am 
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Thanks for the info, I'll pass this along to dad and let you know what he says when he's able to do some more diagnostics on the car. This morning is pretty chilly, so if it acts up in the cold, hopefully he'll be able to see something today.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 1:01 pm 
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your Dad seems to be quite handy with a volt/amp meter. ask him to run electrical leads from the battery and to a voltmeter in the driver compartment. under the conditions that you stated, see how much the voltage drops at startup. could still be the battery even tho new. if the voltage drops below 9 volts, get another and different brand of battery. one that has a cold cranking amps above 600.

for comparison, my 95 PA NA (with meter routed to driver compartment) reads 12.06 V at first morning startup. outside temp 75 F. with key engaged to start, meter dropped to 10 V. meter response is not instantaneous but is digital so I would guess no lower than 9V. with car running meter rose to 14.4 V (alt charging).

I have also noted that my guess work in torqueing battery bolts is less than specified. if your Dad has torque wrench, torque to 11 foot pounds.

also note that my test leads were connected to wires going to starter and accessories not directly to battery. this connection ensures that you see the actual voltage going to the starter.


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