spiderwebfx Posted November 15, 2020 Posted November 15, 2020 Car is a Silvia S12. It has slowly drained it's battery over time. To be expected as it just sits there but today while driving it, I noticed that the interior light was on really faintly (LED). When I get home and check it, for some reason it has 6v when it should be none. I open the door and it goes up to 12v as it should, then close the door, it's dims down till the lights off, but then the 6v returns again a split second later. My initial thought is to inspect the dimmer for it, but thought I'd post up to see if anyone could offer other things to look into just in case? It does also have an alarm which uses this circuit to lock the doors if the door hasn't been opened after disabling the alarm. Quote
AllTorque Posted November 15, 2020 Posted November 15, 2020 The door switches earth the circuit. If you have a wire on that side of the circuit that has rubbed on something sharp and is just touching and has some resistance you may get 6 volts at the bulb. My money would be on the alarm is shitting the bed. Quote
spiderwebfx Posted November 15, 2020 Author Posted November 15, 2020 Just now, AllTorque said: The door switches earth the circuit. If you have a wire on that side of the circuit that has rubbed on something sharp and is just touching and has some resistance you may get 6 volts at the bulb. My money would be on the alarm is shitting the bed. Oof I hope not. The alarm was new and installed by a sparky only a couple of years ago. Thanks for that though, I will have a look into it. Quote
Kiwibirdman Posted November 15, 2020 Posted November 15, 2020 I would start with checking the wires from the door switches to the light. lots of places to rub through and short out. Quote
flyingbrick Posted November 16, 2020 Posted November 16, 2020 It has a dimmer on the interior light? Quote
spiderwebfx Posted November 19, 2020 Author Posted November 19, 2020 On 16/11/2020 at 18:24, flyingbrick said: It has a dimmer on the interior light? Yes. I spoke to my auto-sparky and he said it's likely the dimmer has pooed itself. Weirdly enough, the problem seems to have stopped so I'm just going to keep an eye on it and see what happens. I've since also bought a trickle charger to help with keeping the battery in check while it's parked up. Quote
flyingbrick Posted November 20, 2020 Posted November 20, 2020 OH!, actually. Two things. Firstly, that dimmer circuit should be the first thing to check. If it is faulty then just remove it and join the door switched wires to the interior lamp so they just turn on/off as per normal. secondly, its possible that the dimmer unit is always on with 6v being pulled across the lamp but at very low amps. Dont quote me on any of this, because I really have no idea what im talking about. Maintenance chargers are the best thing ever. Seriously under rated bits of kit. 1 Quote
spiderwebfx Posted November 21, 2020 Author Posted November 21, 2020 On 20/11/2020 at 14:58, flyingbrick said: secondly, its possible that the dimmer unit is always on with 6v being pulled across the lamp but at very low amps. Dont quote me on any of this, because I really have no idea what im talking about. Sparky said that's also a possibility. I'm going to leave the circuit as it is and I'll just put the maintenance charger on it to keep it in check. 1 Quote
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