280Z Starter draining battery

[gotham22]

Great suggestion SteveJ thanks for the help.  I will try that

[Zed Head]

The wiring diagram shows a seat belt timer for the Manual and a seat belt relay for the Automatic.  Possibilities.  

If you can find a really quiet place you might hear something click as you connect and disconnect the solenoid wire.

[dutchzcarguy]

I'm surprised no one said this:

Take of a pole from your battery and put in series a amp.meter or in detail:

Take of the minus pole then put the meter on the 10A socket (Red wire in 10 a socket on your meter!) and put the wires in series (in between) with the pole and pole-clamp.  and switch the meter to the 10A setting.. (If the current is very low, under 1 amp. then you can switch back to the other connection (V,Ohms,mA on your meter and set meterswitch to mA.)The current you now are seeing is the leaking amperage!  Start now taking out fuses and every time take a look at the meter.. then at a certain fuse the amperage will drop, thats the part (of your wiringloom) that is draining the battery!

If there is no current at all? then your battery has a internal circuit-leak and has to be re-newed..

Good luck! 🙂 

Mart.

[SteveJ]

1 hour ago, dutchzcarguy said:

I'm surprised no one said this:

Take of a pole from your battery and put in series a amp.meter or in detail:

Take of the minus pole then put the meter on the 10A socket (Red wire in 10 a socket on your meter!) and put the wires in series (in between) with the pole and pole-clamp.  and switch the meter to the 10A setting.. (If the current is very low, under 1 amp. then you can switch back to the other connection (V,Ohms,mA on your meter and set meterswitch to mA.)The current you now are seeing is the leaking amperage!  Start now taking out fuses and every time take a look at the meter.. then at a certain fuse the amperage will drop, thats the part (of your wiringloom) that is draining the battery!

If there is no current at all? then your battery has a internal circuit-leak and has to be re-newed..

Good luck! 🙂 

Mart.

The test light is a poor man's ammeter. The process I described to him was designed for him to come back to us for more advice. That way we could evaluate the circuits and see if we could find the offending component.

[dutchzcarguy]

1 hour ago, SteveJ said:

The test light is a poor man's ammeter

Yes.. but he has a Amp. meter there! ... so he has to learn how to use it.. That's why i described the proces.. hope he gets it. 

[gotham22]

SteveJ, I got all the items and did your test. I tested the light on the battery first to make sure it worked.  I then went one by one on the fusible links and it did not light up for any of them. I attached some pictures of the fusible links in case it helps.  The light is not on in the car and the clock never worked.  I did not always have this battery issue.

 

[SteveJ]

I double checked the testing with an 1156 bulb using my parking lights and headlights (all LED). The improvised test light only lit up when I turned on the headlights. My more conventional test light (similar to this - https://www.harborfreight.com/612v-circuit-tester-with-5-ft-lead-63603.html?_br_psugg_q=circuit+tester) lit up with only the parking lights. That means I might have steered you toward an inconclusive test (false negative). You could re-test with a purpose built test light like I linked or with an ammeter. 

Just because the clock isn't running doesn't mean it's not drawing current. It might be drawing more current if the motor is trying to overcome increased friction.

[Zed Head]

On 4/10/2022 at 4:40 PM, gotham22 said:

After a lot of trial and error I noticed when I disconnect the black and yellow wire from the starter the battery remains charged.  Once connected it starts a slow drain. 

How did the focus shift from a battery drain through the starter solenoid wire (apparently a short circuit through the solenoid windings to ground) to the fusible links?  I don't see a connection.

[gotham22]

this is probably my fault.  I thought for sure it was the starter but then I i pulled the wire and the battery still drains

 

[Captain Obvious]

I consider that good news actually. It would have been unusual for the starter to be the culprit, and now you're at least back to the "usual cast of characters". 

[SteveJ]

Hence why my diagnostics changed to fit the data.

[Zed Head]

On 4/14/2022 at 7:48 AM, gotham22 said:

It has to be something else.  I see the voltage drop in days and not months.  I am not sure where this is coming from.  It never did this before and I haven't touched the car in months.  Too cold to work on during the winter. Time to pull fuses

"It has to be something else" is the transition point?

Might help to re-describe the problem.  "recently the battery was draining for an unknown reason" seems to be all that's left of the original description.  Age of battery, type of charger, level of charge, condition of battery terminals, details like that might help.

It looks like a car that sat in a cold, probably freezing, garage all winter and now has a battery problem.  Kind of common.  Batteries don't like to be cold and discharged.  Another cause might be mice.  Urine is a good conductor.