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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:09 pm 
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Posts: 31
Gasbrick wrote:
My warm battery terminal would have shown a voltage difference (voltage drop) by measuring the voltage directly on the battery post and at the other end of the wire. The voltage drop caused by excessive resistance in the crimp created heat which pinpointed the problem to me.

Be alert to the symptoms and go through the wiring methodically and you will identify the source of your problem.

RT


How much of a voltage drop?

I dont have any voltage drop from alternator to battery but from battery to fuse box there is about 0.3.


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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:37 pm 
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On a different note I spent another hour in the garage tonight and tried a few things. I noticed that the positive cable at the battery gets really hot when the fan is only on at high speed. It will get hot withing 20 seconds. I also tried high beams only, fog lights only, heated seats only and that didnt seem to affect how hot the cables get.

I really dont think its the cable anywhere because there doesnt seem much resistance from the earlier voltage drop tests I have done. There must be something else making the cables hot?

I also wanted to add that I dont get any spark when I touch the negative battery cable to terminal. All batteries ive played with in the past show a big spark when hooking it up.

voltage between pos and negative was now about 12.1


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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:37 am 
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Location: Caraquet NB
hamburgler wrote:
On a different note I spent another hour in the garage tonight and tried a few things. I noticed that the positive cable at the battery gets really hot when the fan is only on at high speed. It will get hot withing 20 seconds. I also tried high beams only, fog lights only, heated seats only and that didnt seem to affect how hot the cables get.

I really dont think its the cable anywhere because there doesnt seem much resistance from the earlier voltage drop tests I have done. There must be something else making the cables hot?

I also wanted to add that I dont get any spark when I touch the negative battery cable to terminal. All batteries ive played with in the past show a big spark when hooking it up.

voltage between pos and negative was now about 12.1


The engine cooling fan draws a lot of current (at least 20 amps, if not up to 40) so if there is a bad contact it will heat up.

The only thing that heats up cables is resistance combined with current flow (unless they are close to an external heat source such as a hot exhaust system) -- assuming you are conducting these tests with the engine off. The resistance can come from a wire sized too small for the load (unlikely), broken wire strands underneath the cable sheath, or more typically corrosion at the terminal. Corrosion at the terminal can be between the terminal and mating contact or where the wires are crimped inside the terminal. The heat generated at a terminal will travel along the wire as copper is an excellent heat conductor.

The lack of spark when hooking up the battery cable may be a symptom of high resistance in the terminal crimp or simply that most of your accessories are off and that there is no electrical load when touching the battery cable to the battery post.

If you find a particular wire that is warm, try running an additional large wire in parallel with the warm wire and see if that helps. Please let us know if the terminology we are using is unclear or confusing, there are many ways of explaining this and we may be making the wrong assumptions about how you are interpreting our instructions.

Just out of curiosity, how are you measuring voltage drop along your wires? Where are you placing your voltmeter's electrode tips?

RT

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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:36 pm 
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Gasbrick wrote:
hamburgler wrote:
On a different note I spent another hour in the garage tonight and tried a few things. I noticed that the positive cable at the battery gets really hot when the fan is only on at high speed. It will get hot withing 20 seconds. I also tried high beams only, fog lights only, heated seats only and that didnt seem to affect how hot the cables get.

I really dont think its the cable anywhere because there doesnt seem much resistance from the earlier voltage drop tests I have done. There must be something else making the cables hot?

I also wanted to add that I dont get any spark when I touch the negative battery cable to terminal. All batteries ive played with in the past show a big spark when hooking it up.

voltage between pos and negative was now about 12.1


The engine cooling fan draws a lot of current (at least 20 amps, if not up to 40) so if there is a bad contact it will heat up.

The only thing that heats up cables is resistance combined with current flow (unless they are close to an external heat source such as a hot exhaust system) -- assuming you are conducting these tests with the engine off. The resistance can come from a wire sized too small for the load (unlikely), broken wire strands underneath the cable sheath, or more typically corrosion at the terminal. Corrosion at the terminal can be between the terminal and mating contact or where the wires are crimped inside the terminal. The heat generated at a terminal will travel along the wire as copper is an excellent heat conductor.

The lack of spark when hooking up the battery cable may be a symptom of high resistance in the terminal crimp or simply that most of your accessories are off and that there is no electrical load when touching the battery cable to the battery post.

If you find a particular wire that is warm, try running an additional large wire in parallel with the warm wire and see if that helps. Please let us know if the terminology we are using is unclear or confusing, there are many ways of explaining this and we may be making the wrong assumptions about how you are interpreting our instructions.

Just out of curiosity, how are you measuring voltage drop along your wires? Where are you placing your voltmeter's electrode tips?

RT


Ill trying running a wire parallel to the wires that are getting hot and report back.

I am measuring voltage drop with all accessories on. The exact voltages can be seen in earlier posts. I have placed the multimeter on the battery terminal, on the clamp and within the wire (on the copper).


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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:28 pm 
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Last night I ran a new wire from the starter to battery and then from the battery to fuse box. There is no more heat on the POS cables or battery terminals. Also no voltage drop but my lights still flicker and nothing has changed. Now I am really confused.


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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 1:30 pm 
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Fix the ones you've found as they will get worse over time. You can then use the same technique to eliminate other suspect wires. Keep looking for hot spots and clean up your chassis and engine ground connections.

Is this a Western car or do you know if it spend time in the salt belt?

RT

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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:15 pm 
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Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:33 pm
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Gasbrick wrote:
Fix the ones you've found as they will get worse over time. You can then use the same technique to eliminate other suspect wires. Keep looking for hot spots and clean up your chassis and engine ground connections.

Is this a Western car or do you know if it spend time in the salt belt?

RT


It was sold new in montreal and only spent a year there then was sold to a dealership in saskatoon. Ill buy new clamps and make some new battery wires and report back if that helps.

Would replacing ground wires and clamps help too?


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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 8:59 pm 
Haha, I just built a W24 Octo-Turbo, now what?!
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Check/test the door switches for shorts?

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 Post subject: Re: dash and dome lights flickering 1998 volvo
PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 5:41 am 
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I'm not sure about the the FWD drive cars, but I was able to drill a small hole through the end of the crimp on my battery terminal. The hole went down into the wire. I then heated the terminal with a torch and fed flux core solder into the hole. The flux and heat clean the corrosion for the solder to get a decent hold onto wire and crimp terminal.

I would check all ground connections for corrosion. If the wires are not warm they are probably sound. Bad connections with current flowing generate heat.

RT

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