Relocated Battery, Now Won't Keep Charge!!

[rico05]

Ok, the only thing that I can think of is that I did not reinstall the manifold-to-chassis-to-battery negative lead. Could this be the issue? I set the battery on the ground (bad idea) and of course, when I got everything back together, it would not start. We jumped it, and at idle, it held 12.7X volts (according to my HKS E-01 timer). I went for a charge up drive, and turned my lights on, and all was fine. After a few blocks, I look down to see the volts at 10.x!!! All of a sudden, the car chugged then dies. We jumped it again, let it sit hooked up, and got under way. Car would not run for s***. Wouldn't rev, wouldn't go, nothing. I got about 3 blocks going <3mph, when it dies again.

The only changes I made when putting it in were:-2 gauge power cable-2 gauge negative cable, grounded to the spare tire hold down location. Yes, I ground off the paint first.

Everything is hooked up, just the old negative cable that went from the battery to the chassis, then to the intake mani. Could that cause my battery woes? It seems that there is a drain somewhere, but there is nothing grounding out, the negative battery cable is not hot, and at idle, with e-fans off, lights off, etc it would hold OVER 12v. The battery is now toasted...it won't even show over 10.5 volts jumpered to a running car. I am at a loss.

[biosehnsucht]

there is a ground on the engine for a reason.. just bolt it to the chassis near the front someplace.

[rico05]

So you are sure that is my problem? I can't afford a new battery until friday, so I want to have everything fixed so I can drop it in and go

BTW, thanks my homie. You are always there to help

[biosehnsucht]

well I can't say its your only problem

but not properly grounding the engine is a fast way to **** **** up.

[float_6969]

Yea, if you didn't ground the motor, that would cause the problems. Think about it, there really isn't any connection from the chassis to the motor. The mounts are all rubber, as are the hoses. And you should be running more like 14 volts when idling w/everything off, not 12V.

[rico05]

Hmmm. Ever since I have had the TT I have shown over 13.5. I hardwired my e-fans to always be on, since I live in Tejas, and it always gets hot. I looked over the cahrging system circuit in the FSM, and all looks good. I hope I didn't fry something by not grounding the motor. But I think I just kept everyting from charging right, and the alternator had to work double time and couldn't keep up, meaning, I was running off the battery.

[boost_boy]

I know this might sound elementary, but besides ground the engine to the chasis, did you make sure that you have the two white wires that were connected to the stock battery + terminal, connected to the same junction block as the big gauge starter wire? If you didn't understand that Japanese, did you hook the charging wires from the alternator to the source the connects your big starter wire to the battery? Just my crumbs......

Dee

[rico05]

Yeah, I double checked that red block that goes on the + terminal, cuz I knew the alternator needed that. I just hooked the whole block to the + lead cable, as well as my e-fans and the harness power cable. Here is a pic of what i mean:



And I have a UK FSM, so no need to read JDM

[boost_boy]

I see! The the only thing left is to check all the grounds again.

Dee

[rico05]

Well, talking to my guru buddy, he said that Hondas use the valve cover to upper rad support ground is used by the alternator and the ECU, which would explain my crappy running and bad charge. I will keep you guys posted. I love how I screw the little s*** up

[f s t caz]

Such a familiar sight: super rusted battery tray and a duct taped coolant resevoir

[Dattebayo]

Such a familiar sight: super rusted battery tray and a duct taped coolant resevoir

I know what you mean.

BTW, how long did you put the battery down on earth for? It takes a couple of hours to drain one as much as that...

[rico05]

Well, I pulled it, set it on the ground, and spent the next 3 hours hiding the engine bay wires better and installing the box, with a lunch break in there. Plus, the battery was old when I bought the car 2.5 years ago, and I had killed it a few times before I literally stripped the passenger side of the engine bay clean and started from scratch. Needless to say, it looks a ton better!

I am borrowing a swasall to get out the battery tray, then a light repaint.

[rico05]

Ok, so I reinstalled the ground, and tried to jump it again. Of course, no go. However, the ECU clicked every time the starter turned over. Did my worst fear happen and I fried my ECU? If so, anyone wanna sell me one? I'm not made of money, so help a guy out

[top_secret]

if you are still in houston let me know, my car isn't running at the moment (just got it swapped into my new shell but the fuel pump isn't kicking on) once I get it running as is I'm going to upgrade my ECU and etc so you can buy my old one if you want.

[rico05]

Cool bro. Well, I am actually in College Station, but an hour drive for an ECU I can manage

Anyone care to give feedback about the noise? The battery is totally dead at this point, so I assume that it may just be the ECU powering one before every crank. It is dying between every crank b/c the turbo timer restarts ever time. I hope that nothing is FUBAR, and the car ran fine until it dies when it was running cuz the power circuit sucked. I will know Friday I guess...

[top_secret]

so what is the status of the electrical system right now anyway?

[float_6969]

You don't have another battery you could borrow to test it out? I think the battery is just toast and when you're cranking the car, you don't have enough juice to power everything else.

[top_secret]

yeah thats kinda what I'm thinking as well.

[rico05]

Well, the only battery that I could have used was a side terminal on my g/f's Cavilier, and the new terminals that I have won't really clamp on that well. Why in the hell am I posting this at 2am when I am getting up at 9am to go get a new battery? LOL. I'll post results in the later AM.

Don't you guys love how retarded I can be?

[rico05]

Well, I installed a new battery and am seeing 13.7x volts at idle when warm. So, it semmes that I might have fixed it, but my g/f is following me to work to make sure that all is well. We shall see.

[biosehnsucht]

I think my battery is on the way out, I have a hard time starting cold myself.

I think the ECU's rebooting on every click of the starter as its cranking, as the tach is barely fluctuating at the bottom of the gauge not even hitting 300 rpm before falling back down.. when it's been on recently it'll start up immediately, on the first crank, and you can see it's hitting whatever RPM before I let out the starter. When cold I can crank it for a moment and let go even though the tach is looking dead and the car will appear to come to life from 0 RPM as it recovers and fires up..