Battery drain found - now what?
Veteran Member
Joined: Apr 2017
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From: Kansas City USA
RA.Stewart , have you done a hard reset beyond simply removing the positive battery cable only ? This may get your automatic car shutdown sequencing back to normal is it may be out of step . Does your steering wheel extend and tilt manually .
The sound deep in the dash may be the column extend motor turning with the " reach cable " broken which is common . Look for the tilt motor to move the column manually and if not well look at the tilt sensor gumming up and freezing the tilt movement .
Without the column going to full retract and tilt up position the car will not have completed the go to sleep sequence and stay alive draining the battery . The switch on the side of the column ( name ? ) cuts this auto function out . The seats may work out after the hard reset beyond the positive battery cable removing .
The key in / key out command for the go to sleep sequence we'll look at later as it may be intermittent but we'll look at the actuation movement items first for clarity as you can see things visually going on .
The sound deep in the dash may be the column extend motor turning with the " reach cable " broken which is common . Look for the tilt motor to move the column manually and if not well look at the tilt sensor gumming up and freezing the tilt movement .
Without the column going to full retract and tilt up position the car will not have completed the go to sleep sequence and stay alive draining the battery . The switch on the side of the column ( name ? ) cuts this auto function out . The seats may work out after the hard reset beyond the positive battery cable removing .
The key in / key out command for the go to sleep sequence we'll look at later as it may be intermittent but we'll look at the actuation movement items first for clarity as you can see things visually going on .
Last edited by Lady Penelope; Feb 12, 2018 at 10:36 AM.
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 132
Likes: 19
From: Mount Bethel, PA
Yes, I have done a hard reset (assuming you mean grounding the positive cable). The column moves manually with the switch and the sound I hear appears to be tied into the ventilation system. I sprayed the ignition switch little "flap", that appears to be the trigger for the switch and the key in gong and left your lights on gong started working. Lately you only got the singular ding....ding....ding, but now get both that and the dingdingding if that makes any sense. I put a fresh fully charged battery in it and will not have a chance to do anything until Saturday, so I think that alone will be a pretty good test all by itself. We love the car but it certainly has its idiosyncrasies! The previous owners told us "you just have to let her do what she wants to do" when it comes to automatic adjustments, etc.
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Joined: Apr 2017
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From: Kansas City USA
In order to enjoy physics , it first must be obeyed .
Lube the dingdingding thing a ma jiggy and try with a full battery of 12.77 volts .
Lube the dingdingding thing a ma jiggy and try with a full battery of 12.77 volts .
Last edited by Lady Penelope; Feb 14, 2018 at 03:46 PM.
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 132
Likes: 19
From: Mount Bethel, PA
Well that did it! Tried it Saturday and she kicked off perfect. Didn't get a chance to run her again until this afternoon and she kicked off perfect again. Thanks for the tip and diagnostic advice.
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Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 435
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From: San Francisco Bay Area
Hi, I'm having a similar draw problem and have these symptoms, anybody have some direction for me? It is a 96 X300, the automatic memory function stopped working years ago but if you touch one of the buttons everything works. If I take the key out the column does not move, but if I have it in the aux position, press a memory button it will move and if I turn it to off it will continue to move. If I remove the key in the middle of the movement it stops immediately, so I'm thinking the switch is functioning. When I put the key in or take it out there is the sound of a motor running but it is not the column motor, it sounds like it is buried a bit deeper behind the dash.
Another symptom is it sometimes does not unlock the doors when you turn the car off and seems to want to keep you in the car. I did replace the security module a couple of years ago when that system went haywire.
Driving rain here today or I would be pulling fuses, etc. but I've got a feeling this is something along the lines of a hung relay or switch somewhere.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Another symptom is it sometimes does not unlock the doors when you turn the car off and seems to want to keep you in the car. I did replace the security module a couple of years ago when that system went haywire.
Driving rain here today or I would be pulling fuses, etc. but I've got a feeling this is something along the lines of a hung relay or switch somewhere.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
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