lina944

My fellow 944 owners...I'm hoping I can get some insight for an electrical problem that I'm experiencing in my 85/2 944.

I've been trying to isolate the problem today but can't seem to find out whats going on. When the terminals are unplugged, the battery reads ~8+ volts. When i plug in the terminals the battery reads at 2.5 Volts...indicating there is a short somewhere - I suppose. I pulled all the fuses and relays, but still at 2.5 volts. I recently installed an instrument cluster from another 944 at the junkyard so I pulled it out just in case and its still reading 2.5V(plugged in).

Not sure what it can be! I read something about it being the alternator but the car is able to keep running after I jump it, however the battery meter on the cluster reads around 10 volts.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

austin944

Are you saying the battery reads around 8 volts with the cables not connected to the battery?

travisgreen

Your battery is dead, get a new one or use a fully charged one, then diagnose

konakat

Yes, that battery is so dead almost any load will make it go completely flat. Most likely there is no problem except your dead battery.

lina944

Although the battery does need to be charged after all this, it's new. I'm worried that there is a short somewhere though since the resistance between the positive terminal and negative terminal (unconnected) is less than 200 ohms....

konakat

That's doesn't sound crazy. 12 volts divided by 200 ohms is 60 milliamps, no big deal at all. It would take a very hard short to flatten a good battery, like a thousand amps.

Racerstev

The battery needs to be at 12 volts to check anything. Charge it up and
set your meter to check amperage and see if you have a draw.

Steve

austin944

I think you mean there's a battery drain, not a short, right? So you had a brand new battery connected, and it went dead (perhaps due to a drain), and now you're trying to diagnose the drain?

lina944

Battery is charged and seems to be working fine! A it needed was a charge I guess lol