electrical and ignition terminal to clean up this wiring?

[josh72ooh2]

I am trying to chase down an electrical short and one of the places to start is this positive terminal under my hood.  The battery is converted to the trunk and I have this rats nest accumulating on this terminal. 

 

Any ideas of a junction box or some way to tidy it up? 

['76mintgrün'02]

I am not sure about the tidying up the terminal, but I did read a trick here for finding shorts; which is to disconnect the positive terminal at the battery and put a test light between the post and terminal.  If it lights up you have a short and can possibly isolate it by removing fuses one at a time to see if the light goes out.  If it does, that is your faulty circuit. 

[freedo]

I am not sure about the tidying up the terminal, but I did read a trick here for finding shorts; which is to disconnect the positive terminal at the battery and put a test light between the post and terminal.  If it lights up you have a short and can possibly isolate it by removing fuses one at a time to see if the light goes out.  If it does, that is your faulty circuit. 

this is correct.  except do it between the ground, not the positive.  so disconnect your negative terminal, clamp the test light to the ground post and stick the test light onto the ground strap.  if there is a short it will light up.  pull a fuse and check to see if its still lit.  if the light goes out then whatever power goes through that fuse is your short and start back tracing from there.  your positive terminal looks like a mess though. are all those wires necassary?

[josh72ooh2]

Yes, you can test for a parasitic draw with an Amp meter too... which my tests have been inconclusive.

 

Yet, if I let my car sit for a week or two, the battery goes dead. And the battery is only a 1.5yrs old. 

 

My car idles super low due to the EFI set up.  Occasionally, it will idle so low that the voltage light will go on.  But a simple rev of the engine and it goes off. 

I did re-connect a windshield washer pump for the first time in years. That is the only new electrical 'change' that has occurred. 

 

Lately however, the complete electrical system will cut out.  My car sat for a few weeks.  I jumped it.  And then it died while in my driveway idling. twice.  I jumped it again, drove it and it died a block from my house.  I jumped it, drove it home, charged the battery, and tried to start it and the whole electrical system cut out completely.  Then turned key off, tried again, and it fired right up. 

 

I started the car, disconnected the ground, and the car still ran OK (indicating the alternator is OK).  The battery currently has a full charge.

 

So i have to sort through all my wiring and try to get to the bottom of this.  And while I am at it, it is time to clean up that wiring for piece of mind.  All that wiring goes to various things like the stereo, car alarm (mainly used for door lock actuators), and a few other odds and ends.  I am going to disconnect everything that isn't necessary for the car to run and go from there.

[MoBrighta]

When I relocated my battery, I installed a battery bus up front, mounted near where the battery used to be.  I re-purposed the old battery + cable, feeding power between the bus and the starter solenoid.  I used screws on the bus to connect everything at a single location.  Alternator, relays, extra feed wires to lots of other consumers were all nice and tidy, and secure.

 

My 'bus bar' was from a household breaker panel, used therein to connect all the neutral wires, but it had plastic standoffs to insulate it from the box.  So I used it and never had any trouble.

 

I got the idea from an aviation technique - connecting all consumers to a battery bus.  Usually there were two or more in the aircraft's power wiring, but I thought one would be enough for a 2002.

[josh72ooh2]

Happen to have a photo?

 

My 'bus bar' was from a household breaker panel, used therein to connect all the neutral wires, but it had plastic standoffs to insulate it from the box.  So I used it and never had any trouble.

 

 

[Simeon]

All those circuits connected directly to the battery should have a fuse. How about taking one large CSA wire to a fuse box nearby and then start those circuits from there?

[josh72ooh2]

I just took my car for a 45 minute drive with a few stops and had no issues.  I removed everything from that terminal that isn't necessary.

 

I cleaned up a few wires around the car with shrink tubing which had cracked and exposed wiring. But those were for license plate lights and such.

 

Yes, the wiring going to that + terminal are fused.  Two are inline fused wires that are for the headlight relay conversion. One is for an alarm (which might be the main culprit in all this), and one is for the stereo/powered subwoofer. 

[bento]

My vote is for the alarm first. Stereo would be my second bet.

[MoBrighta]

Happen to have a photo?

Sorry, no.  Car is a racer these days, I would bet they've pulled out most of that wiring... certainly the relays for all the extra lights I had in it.

[MoBrighta]

All those circuits connected directly to the battery should have a fuse.

 

How about taking one large CSA wire to a fuse box nearby and then start those circuits from there?

Fused? of course they should be! 

 

Q: what do you mean by 'CSA' wire? 

[photog02]

You could use a bus bar. I used a marine bus bar I picked up at West Marine.

[JayMac]

Out of curiosity after you drive your car for a while what does the battery voltage read 15 minutes later?

[Shad]

There's a million ways to skin the tidy it up cat. Here's a link to some distribution fuse blocks to give you some ideas, no experience with this company, just grabbed the link and pics off google to help answer your question. Your local stereo shops have lots of power distribution accessories, as well. The usual suspects have it all too: NAPA, West Marine, Pep Boys, etc. Keep it clean, keep it safe...and if it's exposed to the elements: keep it covered.

 

https://www.ceautoelectricsupply.com/fuseholders.html

 

 

[Simeon]

Fused? of course they should be!

Q: what do you mean by 'CSA' wire?

Cross Sectional Area. Heavy gauge wiring. Might not be a phrase used much in US.