Hello FBrethren, I have a 78' 308 GTS with a battery drain of 350mA. I can't find it. I have pulled every fuse and every relay and it is still there. I was disconnecting the battery and noticed a faint click. I repeated the experiment and something "clicks" each time I connect the positive terminal to the battery. I thought it was one of the relays in the fuse panel area but it was not. I am thinking that this has to be a relay, yes?, and if so, it is drawing current as soon as the battery is connected, hence the "click". It sounds like it is coming from somewhere under the brake fill resovoir, front wall. If you put your ear there, it sounds like it is coming from below. If you stare at the fuse panel, it sounds like it is futher in where your feet would be. Does anyone know if there is a relay in this area of the car? Are there any hidden lights that go on with the front hood up? Thanks, RJay
How long are you letting it sit or how long does it take to drain? The reason I ask is I have an 80 and if I let it sit for 10-14 days I'll lose the charge. I don't particularly know why either, so I'd like to see where this goes. The radio drawing a small amout of current to maintain it's memeroy is one of the theories I have for my car.
Do you have an aftermarket alarm of any kind in the car? Is there a battery cutoff switch? Aftermarket radio or amp? Either of these would be a candidate in my mind. I had an alarm in my 911 that had the siren detached. It was tripping off all the time due to a faulty switch in one of my doors, but the siren wasn't sounding. however, the rest of the circuitry, along with whatever lights etc it lit off, were draining my battery something fierce. In my Dino, we had a short in the emergency cutoff switch that was causing a drain on the battery. I went through each circuit, got nothing, finally took out the switch, problem went away. sometimes radio installers jump straight off the battery, or from the front end of the fuse block and place an inline fuse farther down the line. That might also be the source. Other than that, a painfully slow, one line at a time search with an amp meter should eventualy produce the line that is causing the drain. DM
i will second the radio possibility. i had a similar issue and it turned out my radio was on the fritz. disconnected the radio and all is well. john
what about the clock ? Being mechanical, it will have some drain too. (radio or alarm is my other guess)
My drain was the after-market radio. It was connected to the OEM power/speaker plug which supplies power all the time. The radio was sucking the battery dry after 5 days. I moved one of the power leads for ACC off the OEM plug & into the fuse box. Problem solved.
Do you mean that you've already checked under the passenger footrest panel and the sound is coming from even deeper? Under that panel is about the only place to "hide" anything extra. The 350mA is really unacceptable so you've got to keep digging/searching.
I had the same problem with my 82 308gtsi. Tried everything , but still had the drain. It turned out to be the driver side door lock actuator that was drawing amps while the car sat in the garage. The door looks worked fine, but the actuator was the problem. It is in the bottom rear part of the door. Not sure you have those in the 1978 model?
I found the click. The picture is of this sorta "fake floor" in a 308. It is cleverly hidden with carpet. I checked the grainy CD manual and there it was in full Italian. Anyway, there are four boxes on this plate. In the picture, the one on the lower right was the culprit. When I take the connector off, I see almost 0 mA of current with the meter. I LOL'd when I saw this because I really thought I knew all of the main components on the car. Surprise! My reaction was "What the $%# is this?!" - didn't even know this even existed - I would have lost lots of money or had to do something embarassing in a bar if I had bet on this not being in the car. So, I did a little sleuthing and I guess the offending one has something to do with my Tach and I haven't a clue yet as to what. The box on the lower left was unplugged. The manual says this has something to do with recovering gas vapors (methinks emissions - carbon heater?). The other two in the top picture translated on google to "Telephone exchange electronic for catalyst system drainage". I'm thinking auto dial up for the Cats??? So.... as always....more questions. 1) Can anyone outline what these four boxes do or point me to a thread on this? 2) Back to the first problem - Why does the relay need to be energized when the ignition is off (despite what the heck it does). Rjay Image Unavailable, Please Login
That black unit is the "Suction Fan Timer" (see Fig 101, page 110 of the 150/78 OM) At ignition key shutoff, it should run the suction fan motor (see Item P, Fig 74, page 85~86 of the 150/78 OM) for maybe three minutes (so during that three minutes after shutoff a current draw of 350 mA is OK) which evacuates the gas vapors in the airbox and moves them into the charcoal canister. If the suction fan timer never shuts the suction fan motor off, you've got to conclude that the suction fan timer is bad. If you no longer have a suction fan motor (sadly IME most '78 US 308 don't), you can concluded that the timer itself is internally wacky and just unplug it with no other ill affects. Do you still have a suction fan motor like in the jpeg? Does the suction fan timer shut off after a few minutes (i.e., does the parasitic current draw drop down to something more reasonable after a few minutes)? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Steve, Thank you very much! That was the problem relay. I didn't realize it was a timer. When I get some time, I will verify whether it cuts off after a few minutes. It is quite comical to troubleshooting a current leak when each time I reconnect or disconnect, I am restarting the timer. In the meantime, I am deep in the speedo and the battery is disconnected. Hey, you refer to page numbers in a manual. I don't have this one. Can you be more specific or send me email on how I can find this or get a copy? Also, does anyone know what the red box in the picture does? or the other two boxes. The Italian translation on google says the red one has something to do with an actuated valve and the tach. The other two are described with the word Catalyst. Any ideas? Thanks all, Rjay
Steve, I forgot to mention that I do have the canister in your picture. I thought the wires were for some heater inside. The picture you showed was a sweet-clean carb 308. Was that yours! Nice! I am working to get mine close to that, and as you know, it is a lot of work. RJay.
RJay -- Yes, that was my ex-'78 308GTS (US version), and thanks for the compliment. I had the advantage of replacing the missing bits ~16 years ago when you could at least still get the emission parts (even if they were crazy expensive -- I think I paid something like ~$300 for that Suction Fan Motor). The red box is an ECU that "tells" the air injection system to dump the pressurized air from the air pump into the atmosphere if you hit something like 4400 RPM when cold and under heavy load -- which you shouldn't do anyway. The two "cat" ECUs are for the "slow-down (overtemp) warning lights" (they use the thermocouples as the input signal representing the cat temperature). The OM describes the "self-test" that you should be monitoring at every start-up, and what the lights mean. The F OMs are available for download as a .pdf files from: www.owners.ferrari.com after you get registered (alternatively, if you do an internet search on "Jenkins Ferrari" you might find a copy of 150/78).
Steve, Again, thanks. A quick explanation, as you gave, really helps me to understand. I see that my OM is 190/80 so I will try and pursue the Ferrari Owners site. The car is a 78' but the previous owner must have picked this up along the way. It is very close but has a few differences that I have run into so far. Best Regards, RJay
Interesting that you should mention that 190/80 OM -- when I bought my ex-308 in 1987, even then, that was the only carbed 308 OM still available from F (so I bought that one too until I found a copy of 150/78 via the FML). Personally, I like having a print copy (or even a Marparts reprint), and have found them to be easily resellable so getting a print copy wouldn't be a bad thing IMO. If you want a print (or reprint) copy of 150/78 try FerrariUK (aka Maranello C. -- contact Stuart -- see http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99240 -- they have the best price on F literature by a huge margin) or maybe www.ferraribooks.com. I mangled the description of the red ECU -- it discharges the air injection air into the atmosphere (via the Diverter Valve) either at an engine speed greater than 4400 RPM (warm or cold) or if one of the slowdown warning light ECUs detects a cat overtemp condition.
There's an original 150/78 on eBay now: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FERRARI-308GTB-308GTS-OWNERS-MANUAL_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ119133QQitemZ8051189110QQrdZ1 These usually go for ~$75-100. Just beware that this has been reprinted so double check the authenticity. I've got the 150/78 in a PDF file. If you PM me your email, I can send it to you. Also the '78 US model parts book. Regards, Kerry '78 308 GTS among others
