Electonic System *Help*

[BlakeV]

I'm wondering if anyone can help. I have some sort of electronic problem where the battery volts on my 93 Eldorado Touring Coupe are constantly changing. I've gone through 3 alternators within the last 2,000 miles. The volts go as low as 11.4 and as high as 14.2, but never consistent. Also the lights dim when the volts drop below 12 along with if the radio is too loud, it turns off too. I'm worried that there is some serious problem with the electronic system and I was hoping this happened to someone else and that it was fixed, haha. Thanks so much guys.

[Ranger]

Check the grounds.

[BlakeV]

Well this past summer I brought the car to Cadillac and they said they found 10 shorts, and now its happening again, how would I go about checking the ground?

[thu]

*TEN* shorts??!?! Sounds like a dealer got a little too happy. Sounds really suspect. Where did they find these ten shorts?

[BlakeV]

yea I know i had a feeling as well, but its just really strange because afterwards the car was fine, and then progressively gets worse till i blow another alternator, i'm not really sure exactly where they were at, is there any way to find out the exact ground problem, or what i should do to trouble shoot it

[chubbyranger]

You can try to isolate the circuit by pulling fuses out. If it is grounds you will have the problem with multiple fuses out, but with an FSM you can find out where the ground distribution is for those circuits. You may also get lucky and find one circuit that's causing the problem. I would only insert or remove fuses with the key off; which will make it a slow job.

[BlakeV]

yea i changed the ground wire from the battery and everything was perfect, i drove a minute down the road and voltage dropped all the way to 11.4. Are u referring to the large fuses, (50amp example) under the hood, or the smaller 10 and 20's in the trunk and under the hood. plus is there any other place that i could check other grounds to see if they are corroded?

[chubbyranger]

I would take out as many of either type of fuses as possible, just short of keeping the car from running. Check to see if you still have a problem, although you will probably be tripping many new codes. If no problem, keep reinserting fuses until the problem comes back. If its driving as opposed to standing that starts the problem, it could be the ELC compressor going wild if there's an air leak or a number of other things. You may also have a bad battery - may be time to take it for a load test. In fact, I think I would stat with the battery.

[dkozloski]

Sounds like a flood car.

[BlakeV]

Well the battery is brand new along with a new rebuilt alternator, and i checked all of the fuses that I can, all i can say is that i think there is a constant draw from so sort of device and I cant figure this out. If anyone out there has any idea, please let me know...thanks
Blake

[davidjp3]

Did you ever figure this out yet? I had a similar situation on my 92