Parasitic battery draw.

[eljefino]

The seat belt relay, for the door-mounted 3-point belts, was to disable the inertia reel so you could whip the door open quickly, unspooling a lot of belt, while leaving the NHTSA-required "passive" belt buckled in its "emergency release."

This broke in my 1992 cutlass ciera, and the "Fasten Seat Belt" dash light came on, differently, to indicate some sort of code (?)

I unplugged the dumb relay, leaving the inertia reel always available, and unbuckled the belts manually like everybody else.

Glad OP found his issue.

 

[pitzel]

Originally Posted by eljefino

The seat belt relay, for the door-mounted 3-point belts, was to disable the inertia reel so you could whip the door open quickly, unspooling a lot of belt, while leaving the NHTSA-required "passive" belt buckled in its "emergency release."

This broke in my 1992 cutlass ciera, and the "Fasten Seat Belt" dash light came on, differently, to indicate some sort of code (?)

I unplugged the dumb relay, leaving the inertia reel always available, and unbuckled the belts manually like everybody else.

Glad OP found his issue.


Lucky you, actually getting an indication. I didn't -- and proceeded to basically get only 2 years or so out of my batteries, constantly needing to charge them even in the middle of the summer. And a few incidents of the battery going dead in airport parking lots, requiring a boost to get back home.

Once I finally tracked down that issue and pulled the relay, magically my battery seems to be lasting properly now. But between 2005 and 2015...what a nightmare! I even removed the negative battery cable so many times and re-attached it that I stripped out the negative battery terminal, and suffered a total electrical blackout one time. (all the money saved from not changing the oil in 100k miles except once to deal with a LIM issue and the flush thereafter....went into replacement batteries, boosts, etc., though Costco's 3-year full replacement warranty was generous and abusable, albeit embarrassing given my profession!).

Those seat belts...yeah very stupid. I tried using them "as intended" once....

 

[wtd]

I checked the battery voltage this morning before my fiancée went to work and the battery was at 12.68 volts, just like it was yesterday before I started working on it for the day so I'm going to say it's fixed. Now just have to wait to see what else fails or gives her problems. LOL

 

[rubberchicken]

Originally Posted by wtd
I checked the battery voltage this morning before my fiancée went to work and the battery was at 12.68 volts, just like it was yesterday before I started working on it for the day so I'm going to say it's fixed. Now just have to wait to see what else fails or gives her problems. LOL


Nice !!

 

[Hootbro]

Good job! Nothing like tenacity to get to the problem. Sometimes you have to go through everything else that is not a problem, to find a problem.

I trouble shoot aircraft avionics systems in my day job and sometime I go through the same issue of having to check everything on the circuit and it almost never fails that Murphy's Law makes it one of if not the last thing to check.

 

[wtd]

Originally Posted by Hootbro
Good job! Nothing like tenacity to get to the problem. Sometimes you have to go through everything else that is not a problem, to find a problem.

I trouble shoot aircraft avionics systems in my day job and sometime I go through the same issue of having to check everything on the circuit and it almost never fails that Murphy's Law makes it one of if not the last thing to check.

Thank you. I'm glad I was finally able to pinpoint the problem.

I did jinx myself though by saying I will have to wait what happens next on this car. Piston in driver's side caliper was stuck in the out position and wore the outer pad down to the pad thickness gauge after only 17,000 miles which was the last time I replaced the pads. Fiancée said wheel was getting hot and that is what I discovered. Replaced rotors, calipers, brake pads and rubber brake lines on both sides and while it doesn't get very hot like it did, it is still getting slightly warm when the passenger side wheel is cool. When it rains, it pours.