I found the circuit which is draining my battery ( I think). It is the one labelled "domelamp" on the fuse box cover. It is draining about 10-12 on the 200mA scale of my ammeter (i'm not sure how many amps this is). Now how do I fix this? I assume that domelamp means the interior light circuit, is this correct? And also the connection in the interior light (courtesy) is bad, as you need to giggle it to get the interior light to work- could this be the problem. Thanks in advance

Alan, Australia

 

Yes, dome lamp and courtesy light are the same thing. If you have to jiggle the light/switch to get it to go, then one of the connections there has either broken or unplugged.
It's usually really easy to get to and fix (as long as you're okay with a soldering iron). I just took that lamp out of a car I'm stripping for a "frame up" (interior's now completely out), and one of the connections was loose and bare. A little soldering and shrink wrap or tape and you ought to be back in business.
Dave

 

Is this what could be causing the drain? The connection is pop riveted on, I guess that is how the last guy attached it- should I break this and solder it back togeteher. Thanks for the reply

Alan, Australia

 

Pop riveted it? Not just those little circles often used in mass-produced circuitry to affix tabs, like in most plastic AA battery cases in toys, etc.? If that's the case, wow, definitely clean that out, and resolder a nice *small* connection . Possible that the PO used enough force with that rivet to break something else in the fixture, too. The jiggle-the-switch symptom makes me think that careful disassembly of the light fixture is probably in order. Some heat-shrink tubing over your repair solders will make it look nice and clean and guarantee no shorts on those junctions. Hopefully he didn't mangle the connection fixture too bad for such a repair (i.e. will you have enough left to solder to?). The price for a new light isn't that high, but of course it's not as good as free re-use of what you have. If you want to be sure about the nature of the leak, try a continuity (resistance) test with your trusty multimeter between the hot (+) lead of the light and the body, with the light switched off, doors and hatch closed, etc. Then test again between the hot lead on the light and the negative lead on the light. There shouldn't be any connectivity there in either test. It's possible for a fair amount of electrical power to leak out of an interior light fixture. If it's a consistent leak, it could drain a battery enough to have a weak-cranking start after even several hours. At least it's relatively easy to test in a Z. Cars with trunk lights can have the switch break, leaving the light on *all* the time, not just when the trunk's open, causing dead batts resulting in wrongly replacing alternators (Probe's do this for some reason...). It's not too unusual for those wires to have been hacked in the car's history for accessories, etc. (or lengthening for sunroof installation) as they're easy to get to and easy to damage. Hope this helps somewhat!
Dave

 

Yeah, its those small ciclre things, I didn't know what they were called, so I called them pop rivets. Thanks for the help, I try it out when I replace the fuse in my multimeter (I blew it)

Alan, Australia