93 regal electrical and idle problems
makolasmatt
10-09-2005, 02:38 PM
I have a 1993 Buick Regal Limited with the 3.1 liter. Right now it has a few problems, which I am stuck on.
First, it has a massive electrical problem. The day after I bought another car (of course), the Buick decides to drain the battery down to nothing overnight. I found that the car draws over 2 amps with everything off and the key out. Pulling fuses and cheking the current draw, I traced it down to the ELEC fuse. I proceeded to chase that down until I found that the wires that connect to the seat belt keeper behind the door panel were the problem, so I disconnected those. And magically, the battery drain jumped from the ELEC fuse to the CTSY fuse. So now I drive it around with the CTSY fuse out, and consequently without courtesy lights or power door locks. Now, heres the rest of the story: the previous owner had installed an aftermarket keyless entry system in the car after the factory system went kapoot. But, upon removing all of that, and I mean everything I could find, the problem still remains. Some additional electrical problems, which may be related:
1.) When glove box door is wiggled and the lights are off, the dash board lights come on. (when glove box switch is depressed, dash lights up).
2.) When headlights or parking lights are turned on, the ash tray light turns on too, even when the ash tray is closed.
3.) Even though their fuse is pulled, the power door locks lock at any given time while driving down the road. Before all these problems, the power door locks worked fine, except they wouldn't unlock when shifted into park.
So far I have looked at the ECM (the one under the fuse panel on the passenger side in the engine compartment), but the connectors all appear clean and the wires look to be good, atleast up to the firewall. The back of the fuse panel in the glove box appears to be in good condition as well.
Other problem: the engine does not idle that great. The car stalls whenever you come close to being it to a complete stop (whenever you are braking). You can hear misses and backfires from the exhaust pipe as well. It has a really weak idle, and if parked facing uphill, it will coast backwards until it stalls. I have already replaced the coolant temp. sensor, and the oxygen sensor. It also has new plugs and wires. No trouble codes.
Any help that someone could give me would be greatly appreciated, I don't know what else to do from here. Thanks.
First, it has a massive electrical problem. The day after I bought another car (of course), the Buick decides to drain the battery down to nothing overnight. I found that the car draws over 2 amps with everything off and the key out. Pulling fuses and cheking the current draw, I traced it down to the ELEC fuse. I proceeded to chase that down until I found that the wires that connect to the seat belt keeper behind the door panel were the problem, so I disconnected those. And magically, the battery drain jumped from the ELEC fuse to the CTSY fuse. So now I drive it around with the CTSY fuse out, and consequently without courtesy lights or power door locks. Now, heres the rest of the story: the previous owner had installed an aftermarket keyless entry system in the car after the factory system went kapoot. But, upon removing all of that, and I mean everything I could find, the problem still remains. Some additional electrical problems, which may be related:
1.) When glove box door is wiggled and the lights are off, the dash board lights come on. (when glove box switch is depressed, dash lights up).
2.) When headlights or parking lights are turned on, the ash tray light turns on too, even when the ash tray is closed.
3.) Even though their fuse is pulled, the power door locks lock at any given time while driving down the road. Before all these problems, the power door locks worked fine, except they wouldn't unlock when shifted into park.
So far I have looked at the ECM (the one under the fuse panel on the passenger side in the engine compartment), but the connectors all appear clean and the wires look to be good, atleast up to the firewall. The back of the fuse panel in the glove box appears to be in good condition as well.
Other problem: the engine does not idle that great. The car stalls whenever you come close to being it to a complete stop (whenever you are braking). You can hear misses and backfires from the exhaust pipe as well. It has a really weak idle, and if parked facing uphill, it will coast backwards until it stalls. I have already replaced the coolant temp. sensor, and the oxygen sensor. It also has new plugs and wires. No trouble codes.
Any help that someone could give me would be greatly appreciated, I don't know what else to do from here. Thanks.
maxwedge
10-09-2005, 04:44 PM
Check the egr remove and clean it, look for vacuum leaks, make sure there is no vac. leak around the the throttle body, spray some carb cleaner around the tb base see if the idle changes. Ashtray lite is normal. You may want to get all the accessories back to factory operation and disconnect completely any am installations. You may need a factory wiring diagram to do all this. Alldata.com has an online subscription with the all the info you would need.
makolasmatt
10-09-2005, 11:17 PM
Thanks for the reply. I have removed all of the aftermarket keyless entry system that I could find, yet the electrical problem remains. I have traced all the vacuum lines, except the one for HVAC, and have found no problems so far. I'll try looking around the throttle body base. Thanks for your help.
If anyone else has any ideas, let me know. thanks.
If anyone else has any ideas, let me know. thanks.
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