Hi all, I've been lurking since May, but now I'm hoping someone can help me out:
Always been an E30 man, but I bought my first M42 in April. I love her and she hasn't given me much trouble except when the battery stopped charging in July. I checked the brushes (they were pretty worn) and ended up swapping out the voltage regulator. The system seemed to be working fine after that, but I figured it would only be a matter of time before the brushes would be toast.
Had an oil change in October and shortly after that the original cassette player died. I kept it, but manually installed a new CD player a month later. Looking back I wonder if I damaged something when I did this.
Three days later once again the battery is not being charged. I live pretty close to the Euro Depot, and they didn't have an M42 alternator in stock, but I brought them my alternator and they swapped the brushes with ones from another Valeo unit for $50. I put it back in and everything seems fine, the alternator is definitely working.
Apparently I didn't tighten the cable going to the battery enough when I put the alternator back because it came loose at some point and I ended up stuck in Boston the same night. But I tightened it up and once again everything seemed fine. And then two days later I go to leave and my battery is dead. So I think, OK, my battery is 5 years old and it's from Walmart. It's been repeatedly discharged in the past week or so, maybe it's dead nowl? So I get a jump from a neighbor and drive down the street to the auto parts store to test the battery, maybe get a new one. But when I get there, on a whim I turn off the car. Then I turn it back on. It starts right up.
So my limited experience tells me (1) the alternator is functioning. I can unplug the battery after the car is started and drive around like that all day. (2) The battery is not completely dead...it is possible that (a) the battery is not holding a charge, or (b) something is draining the battery when the car is off.
Well since then I've been unplugging the battery when I park, and it hasn't died yet, so my guess is (b), something is draining the battery.
A test light confirmed that the culprit is quite power hungry as well. So I started pulling out fuses in an attempt to determine where this drain is coming from--nowhere. So I guess it has to be something that bypasses the fuse box. I don't have a diagram, so maybe this is where someone can step in and make suggestions.
I've begun to notice that there is some sparking when I try to start my car and a burning smell near the positive terminal. What could this mean?
Since I never had any problems before, I have to assume I did something wrong either when I put in the CD player or when I removed/replaced the alternator. It was probably something simple and stupid too. If you have any ideas what I might have done wrong, please let me know.
Topic: What did I do to my car? (Read 3087 times)