DH Comet Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 My silver '88 lives in an underground parking garage - a friend's second space, which she doesn't need. It's an informal agreement; the strata council there thinks the car is hers. It's great having the car under cover, but there is no power down there at all and if I leave the car for two or three weeks without driving it (easy to do, this time of year), the battery will go dead. I've tried using a battery disconnect, which worked well for the battery, but I started to have issues with the car, mainly in the climate control area - heater doors would stop working, etc. I think they didn't like being plugged/unplugged all the time, and my regular mechanic recommended against the practice. There is a fluorescent bulb overhead, and I have a solar trickle charger that puts out 12.5v from the light of the bulb alone, but that's an unloaded reading and I suspect that it doesn't really do much. Any ideas? It's gotten so that I'm considering selling the car - I can't keep putting batteries into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Welcome to the forum! I used a battery disconnect for years without problems. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Walker Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Can you periodically start and run the engine long enough for the alternator to keep things charged up - ventilation in the garage an issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DH Comet Posted February 6 Topic Author Share Posted February 6 I could, but I don't live there, so I'd have to hang around. I suppose I should look on it as an excuse to drive the car more! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 What sort of issues with the climate control? The memory of the ECM does get cleared when the battery is disconnected but I don't know of any direct connection to the HVAC system. Good looking car by the way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 3 hours ago, 2seater said: I don't know of any direct connection to the HVAC system. Good looking car by the way. Only thing I know of is the system defaults to defrost mode when the battery has been disconnected. That does cause the A/C compressor to kick in which would cause the air to feel cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 4 hours ago, Ronnie said: Only thing I know of is the system defaults to defrost mode when the battery has been disconnected. That does cause the A/C compressor to kick in which would cause the air to feel cold. I never examined it closely to see what mode the system starts in, but you are right that it does have a default of some sort. I am not as familiar with the touch screen cars but I do think the system starts in full auto on my 90, which could be defrost or similar that starts the compressor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Defaulting to defrost mode after the battery has been disconnected might be an '88 only thing. Seems like there were a lot of things different between '88s and other models. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DH Comet Posted February 7 Topic Author Share Posted February 7 The heater used to get stuck in the "full blast" mode. It would get really hot in there! It happened a couple of times, so I gave up the battery disconnect idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 18 minutes ago, DH Comet said: The heater used to get stuck in the "full blast" mode. It would get really hot in there! It happened a couple of times, so I gave up the battery disconnect idea. Could the climate screen be changed to a cooler temperature and the air temperature wouldn't respond or did the climate screen not allow changing the temperature setting? My guess would be a blend door binding if the temperature wouldn't respond to commanded temperature. If the climate screen was stuck, that's a new one. From the original comments, it sounds like everything operates normally as long as it remains powered? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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