240 Electrical Oddness.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joseph Oberlander
  • Start date Start date
J

Joseph Oberlander

Well, I got it back to the auto repair shop. I'm convinced they
messed something up as my mechanic looked at it - .6 amp drain
when it was shut off. Alternator fine. Battery okay. Just a
big short somewhere.

They will fix it, though - so all's well. Car is still a blast
to drive in tight city traffic thanks to the tiny turning radius
and stick. My Buick beater has nothing on it :)

Just wondering - what could cause such a large drain?
The radio on drew .6 amps. The interior bulbs - .1.
All I can figure is when they blended the door to match the
fender, they as is normal, removed all of the door hardware.
(fairly normal for most shops, I hear)

They must have shorted out or broken the door lock mechanism
as the door locks are not working.

Q: if all four door locks were jammed or the servos were on
all the time - would it draw this much current? I hope they
didn't mess it up and all of the door lock servos fried themselves.
I can hear a relay in the dash going off when I pull the knob
up, but I get no activity from the doors. The sound is exactly
like what you get when you push it down and they are already down -
a click but no real movement.

Q: if the servos are on all the time - will it fry them after
a few hours? I'd hope not. Half an amp drain would get it below
their triggering voltage in a few hours, so it's not like they
would have been on for 40 hours straight.

Morale - I told them to mask the area off and not touch the
door lock. They said it would be fine - they do it all the time.
I should have insisted as the door lock on Volvos is a known
tempermantal area.

Not to mention getting a new insurance company - refused to even
let me pay the difference for a new fender. Went with a used one
that saved them $15. No more AAA for me, thank you. State Farm
was more expensive, but they had no qualms about something like
that or me paying the difference. Nice body work, though - the
place was top-notch, just someone messed up I guess.
 
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