BigBriDogGuy
Full Access Member
Western Washington (Seattle area) gets a ton of rain. Typically, it's overcast and partially cloudy with scattered showers. That could be the weather forecast 75% of the time. My brother-in-law came to our wedding from Mexico City and said, "I can see now why Kurt Cobain killed himself." Had a sunroof drain tube clog recently, but cleared that out. No sign of moisture. No smell of dampness or mold. Everything seems really dry inside. Plus, I can see the puddles of water behind the front wheels when it gets wet.
The battery thing is interesting. Whatever it is, seems electrical, for sure. When the guy came to tow me, we were getting an electric parking brake fault when I tried to release it. He hooked up a portable battery unit to my battery to get the parking brake to release (which it finally did). He also said it was reading whacky, like the voltage was randomly going up and down. He wasn't used to seeing that.
I was thinking an alternator because the vehicle was running just fine, until the juice got sucked out of it to the point it was getting all these faults. However, the tow guy's portable battery unit reading has me re-thinking that scenario. The car wasn't running at the time he was reading it, so I don't know how the alternator could come into play. Maybe once the battery level gets that low and has thrown a bunch of faults, the ECU is going to freak out until whatever is wrong gets fixed and the ECU gets reset.
My first car was this old Chevy Impala that had a modest version of Batmobile wings in the back. It was truly a boat, but the engine was simple. I had an electrical problem with that one. Changed the alternator (or it may even have been a generator back then) that didn't seem to fix it. Had a friend with an electronic testing meter come out and test various wires and so forth. Finally, we came across a very plain looking heavy colored wire (green?) that was dangling with a flat washer-type hook on the end of it. We stretched it out and moved it around to look for possible connections and there it was, a common screw connected to the frame. Turns out the electrical system wasn't grounded. Attached the wire and... "Bob's your Uncle." (Hopefully, it's something like that.)
The battery thing is interesting. Whatever it is, seems electrical, for sure. When the guy came to tow me, we were getting an electric parking brake fault when I tried to release it. He hooked up a portable battery unit to my battery to get the parking brake to release (which it finally did). He also said it was reading whacky, like the voltage was randomly going up and down. He wasn't used to seeing that.
I was thinking an alternator because the vehicle was running just fine, until the juice got sucked out of it to the point it was getting all these faults. However, the tow guy's portable battery unit reading has me re-thinking that scenario. The car wasn't running at the time he was reading it, so I don't know how the alternator could come into play. Maybe once the battery level gets that low and has thrown a bunch of faults, the ECU is going to freak out until whatever is wrong gets fixed and the ECU gets reset.
My first car was this old Chevy Impala that had a modest version of Batmobile wings in the back. It was truly a boat, but the engine was simple. I had an electrical problem with that one. Changed the alternator (or it may even have been a generator back then) that didn't seem to fix it. Had a friend with an electronic testing meter come out and test various wires and so forth. Finally, we came across a very plain looking heavy colored wire (green?) that was dangling with a flat washer-type hook on the end of it. We stretched it out and moved it around to look for possible connections and there it was, a common screw connected to the frame. Turns out the electrical system wasn't grounded. Attached the wire and... "Bob's your Uncle." (Hopefully, it's something like that.)
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