71 240Z. Car Wants To Start When Key Is Turned To "lock" Position. My Remedy!

[glassguy]

My 71 240Z started doing this late last summer. At the same time it started killing the battery after parking it for more than 3 days without driving it because of parasitic voltage drain. After reading through numerous threads and endless hours of unsuccessful electrical troubleshooting of these problems, this is what I have figured out to remedy these issues. At first I thought the ignition switch was faulty. The new switch didn't change anything. I thought that maybe the new ignition switch was bad too, but before I got too carried away I decided to go back again and try to figure out where the battery drain was coming from when the key was in the off or lock position. So I do the thing where you look for amp draw between the positive or negative battery post and battery line with an amp meter. Now I've done this process in the past many times while pulling fuses and yes, there where two fuses that would kill the drain, but I wasn't able to pinpoint the specific thing that was causing the drain on the battery, and it was really pissing me off. So, this time I noticed a faint clicking sound coming from the passenger side under the dash when I pulled the upper left fuse, the fuse that powers the fan motor, which by the way would run if you turned it on even with the ignition off. Another unexplainable problem! It turns out that the clicking noise I was hearing is a relay that from what I have learned supposedly controls the hatch glass heater. The part# is 25230-E4100. It has a small cluster of wires with a 4 prong plug. After I unplugged this thing, ALL of my problems are gone!!!!! Also, when I first unplugged this relay I had no idea what it was for. Only after I googled the part# I learned that it seems to be a relay for the hatch glass heater. So far, nothing else seems to be adversely affected by disconnecting it. I have no idea how this defective relay actually causes these problems and since electrical issues are my least favorite thing to deal with, I'll just be happy with the fact that I dont have to disconnect my battery every time I park my Z at home, or worry about it going up in flames because of some weird electrical problem. And here is a pic of the offending relay. Hope this might help someone else with this annoying problem!

[Mikes Z car]

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Edited April 3, 2015 by Mikes Z car