HELP!!!- Testarossa battery drain and flashing battery light

Try removing the 2 connectors under the coolant tank and cleaning them with contact cleaners, especially if they are green. Happened to me 2 mos. ago. I followed my tech's suggestions and viola, all is good.

Alex
'91 TR

 

Send a PM to "91TR"...he can fix you up.

 

Please describe this fault during the warm restart attempt in more detail:

1. Absolutely nothing happens -- the starter solenoid doesn't fire, but when jumped at the battery, the car starts OK.

2. The solenoid engages (clicks), but the starter motor doesn't have enough oomph to turn the engine over. Again, jumping starts OK.

3. Something else?

You could have two (weakly-related) problems (although having the alternator warning light come on is a clear sign something is wrong and needs to be corrected).

Please confirm your engine family is F113B (or give what engine family you have) and send your email address to me via PM

 

Could it be that the battery you have fitted is a little bit too large... If the height of the battery is more than 21,5 cm (I believe), it will make the positive connector touch the metal-lid above, either causing a permanent short-circuit, or just occational contact over bumps if the battery is not properly bolted down. Either way, this will drain your battery quite quick, and eventually destroy it altogether after a while.

Just a suggestion, speaking from experience....
Lars

 

MY BEST ADVISE IS TO REPLACE THE BATTERY CHECK ALL CABLES CLEAN ALL CABLES. AND CHECK FOR ANY SHORTS IN YOUR ELECTRICAL SYSTEM..

JOHN

 

Hello, drove my testarossa all day yesterday with no issues, came home parked it in the garage and the Battery light came on and stayed on even with key out of ignition, I put it on the battery tender for the night. Came out today to take the car for dinner and the battery was totally dead, I put it on a actual battery charger/starter and it fired right up. Everything worked and seemed fine, let it run for several minutes and was going to go out for a drive and the lights nor the radio nothing was working but the car was still running, so I shut it off and tried to recrank and it was dead. So I turn the main power switch off and put it on a battery charger for 60 minutes and will look at it again in the morning. Any Ideas? All the fuses looked good.

Thanks Mike

 

The Testarossa is a pretty simple car electronically speaking. Since you pulled out your battery and charged it up and worked would eliminate the battery for now.

You have a power drain somewhere. When you pulled out the key, nothing should light up. The fact the battery light was still on indicates that maybe the ignition is still technically in pos II

A simple test is to put a multimeter on your battery...car off. You should read 11.8-12.2 Volts
give or take. Start the engine and put the meter on it. It should read 13.5-14.2 Volts indicating the alt is charging. Put all the lights on, fan on high and the volts should not change....meaning the rectifier is working.

Let us know your results.

Shamile

Freeze...Miami Vice!

 

the battery light gets + ( plus ) from the ignition and - ( minus ) from the alternator when the engine is not running. when the engines runs the negative from the alternator changes to plus. so on both sides at the battery lamp there is plus and the light turns off.

so as shamile mentioned even the ignition is off you may have power from the ignition switch. best to test would be with a testlamp to check if you have the problem on the positive or on the negative side

 

Or have the garage do that !

 

Please see the "512tr starter problems " thread.

I am pretty certain that if you read my last post there....you will find your issue.

I think the tell tale sign is your alternator light. Notice in the diagram that this single connection feed the alternator too

 

If this was the fault = all of the gauges in the dash would still be "on" too. The OP doesn't mention that one way or the other, but if the gauges aren't also "on" = the probability is strongly shifted towards the alternator internal components IMO.

 

OK, so I came out this morning and checked the battery it had 12.7 volts after sitting all night, master power off on the car. Turned the master power on and the battery light was on the dash again, car cranked everything worked and no lights on dash (battery Light) so I went back out to battery and checked volts it was 11.8 volts at idle and then started to drop off I shut the car off when it went to 11.6 volts on the battery, turned the car off and battery light was on (on the dash), I put the key to the II position and waited the battery light to go off, then turned the key to off and removed the key battery light stayed off. So I went to the rear of the car and put my finger on the top of the alternator and it was very hot, I mean very hot. No way should it be that hot only being ran for a few minutes. So I then went to the fuse block up front and felt of all the fuses and none were hot or did I see any problems. I think the internals of the Alternator are bad and maybe it has shorted out inside? Any ideas? If it is the alternator can they be rebuilt or do they need to be replaced and if so where can I get one? Thanks Mike

 

This is actually as "bad" as the alternator warning light staying "on" with the key removed (i.e., whenever the key is in Pos II and the engine is not running = the alternator warning light should be "on").

+1
(the alternator is connected directly to the battery -- no fuse nor relays involved)

Nothing special about a TR alternator -- any auto electric shop that rebuilds alternators can rebuild it.

 

Ok I am going to remove the Alternator and take it to a local rebuild shop and hopefully that will take care of it. Any tricks on getting it removed? I removed the cowl screen and think I can get to everything from up top. Thanks Again Mike

 

You said you've had your alternator replaced / rebuilt a couple times already, right? What good will rebuilding it yet again do? Personally I'd think there was a short somewhere in the system that's frying your alternators.

 

Not quite. This thread was started over 8yrs ago by someone else.

As pointed out earlier the alts are nothing special. My '85 has an AC Delco that was rebuilt in the spring. Looks and spun like new afterwards.

 

yeah I just added on to the previous post as it related. No I have never had the Alternator replaced or rebuilt, so will do that and hope it fixes it. Thanks Mike

 

Good point on pos II about the gauges. I once had a 308 where the key was worn and when you pulled it out of the ignition the power was still on....this was my thinking.

Ok, since you did the battery test with the multimeter, the alt is definitely not charging the battery when you had it running.

You can have your original one rebuilt. There is no benefit spending the extra for a new one. The money you save can go right to strippers and blow.

In the cross-reference thread I posted that I sent mine out to central Florida remanufacturing in Orlando. I don't know where you are but any very good remanufacturing shop can do this.

Shamile

Freeze. ..Miami Vice!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

 

@ at idle and then started to drop off I shut the car off when it went to 11.6 volts on the battery @

This shows imo that the dynamo/alternator does not deliver its recommended 13 Volts ?

 

When the car is running, you should get around 13.8-14.2volts on your multimeter when hooked up to the battery.

Shamile

Freeze. ..Miami Vice!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

 

Ah! My bad. Reading comprehension was never my strong point

Also, a very quick way to test whether your alternator is working if you don't have a voltmeter handy is to have the car running, and turn on the headlights. Then turn the car off. The headlights SHOULD dim a little bit because they're now being powered by the battery instead of the alternator. If they don't dim when you turn your car off, then you know your alternator isn't working.

 

When your alternator is generating current....can you please tell me what connection it used to charge the battery?

Have you checked the connector I asked you to?

My buddy was having the same trouble with his 512tr...guess what it was?

 

Well this just started with mine. Red light NOT on when driving. Stop engine the light remains on with key removed. Alternator gets hot.

But If I wait until engine off and light out in key position II and slowly remove key the light stays off.

Any thoughts,
Roberto

PS mechanic checked and alternator was charging but not by much. I'm going to check and post numbers. Now the car is cooling down and I want to check the temp of the alternator when the car is cooled off a bit.