gauges drawing power
 

Anyone else have this problem?

Let me clarify...

I have 5 STRI gauges inside, daisy-chained together, and I just discovered they're drawing on the battery. I hooked a test light up between the negative battery cable and the negative post on the battery, and the light came on. I started pulling fuses and narrowed it down to the gauges and automatic door locks. I might already know what's wrong with the door locks but the gauge thing trumps me. I checked over the wiring last night and from what I can tell, nothing is wrong, nothing is grounding out, etc. All wires are going where they're supposed to.

Anyone else have this problem? Is it normal? Is there some way to hook up the wires to keep it from doing this?

I guess I should also mention that my gauges don't light up, never have really. I haven't looked into that too much, but thinking on it now, I guess that might be a factor haha. I just thought my dimmer switch was bad or something.

Oh, when I found the problem last night, all I did was unhook the gauges themselves, not all the wiring, and the problem went away. Shouldn't I have had to unhook all the wires too?

If you could spare the time you could just unhook the battery after driving it but that would get old quick. The light thing with the gauges could be a problem too, the gauges on my '70 1/2 camaro don't light up and that thing sucks down batteries like crazy.

Pulling the fuse would be alot easier haha. Or just using a battery cutoff switch.

I checked the harness connector for my dimmer switch to see which one was the ground, and all 3 wires had continuity with ground. I'm pretty sure that's not right haha.

Hook up to a hot connector that is only hot when the key is in the running position .

^Yes, my first thought too. Where are you getting power from now? There is a switched power source available using a spade connector (comes on and off with ignition) just above the fuse panel here:
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/776...tchedpower.jpg
I would still include an inline fuse.


As for gauge lights, I tapped the wire going to the ashtray light in the console. It will then turn on (and dim) with all the other lights.

Are you talking about for the gauges or what exactly?

I'm getting power for the gauges from the dimmer switch, but like I said, I'm not sure that's gonna work right since I get continuity to ground on every wire. I'll change it to the ashtray light though, I didn't know it would dim with the dash lights.

I removed that unit and found a switched wire in the back that was a big gage.I ran several small wires from the connector out several inches and put fuseholders on each .I replace the unit and used the wires to power several things as needed .There may be one or two ready to receive another part to power .This was 8-9 years ago and no problems .I also power the gage lights with the ash tray light wire .

I wore through the aftermarket guage wiring. Now I have no turn signals, dome light, radio, power locks..... I think I accidently pushed the harness behind the clutch pedal without realizing it. Make sure you do a good routings job.

The dimmer is essentially a reostat (sp?), not a good source of power. Use the 12v switched power I circled in the picture. All you need is a spade connector and an in-line fuse...maybe 15 A before the gauges.
The gauges are probably drawing constant power from the battery instead of just when the key is on.

Ok thanks guys!

I'll try that Signal. Thanks!

It most likely is drawing milliamps to retain memory. Our gauges do this to but its soooo small like 3 milliamps. your car would need to sit for 2 weeks before the battery would be dead. it also depend on how many gauges you have too. in your case the gauges are drawing 15 milliamps.

simple fix. Just run there memory wire to a switch power :)

I was thinking the same thing after reading some other stuff. Someone asked me if I had peak and hold, and it does make sense that it would need constant power to retain memory. I have 5 gauges with peak and hold. And I'm also using an Odyssey PC680.

Other culprits before was a starter booster from Pettit (only because the original problem made itself known right after installing that), the door lock problem is still there but it's unhooked now. I don't remember what else I thought it was. My alternator might have a bad voltage regulator too, cause now it's putting out even less than it was before. But it's a new/upgraded alt so I was hoping that wasn't the case.

Thanks!

no problem, glad we can help.

Well as it turns out, the test light is SOOOO dim when the gauges are plugged in. I discovered tonight that my alternator was drawing a HUGE bit of power. So that will get tested tomorrow, along with my battery just to be sure.

Thanks for the update/follow up.