Hello all, im having an issue with my 96 SC2. no, not the head gasket i mentioned earlier, or the oil rings but rather a charging problem. I bought the car for my girlfriend and it was a turn key car when i got it but two things were done on it around the same time and now i have a battery drain.

After i bought it i had an alarm and auto start installed. it ran fine for me and then after i gave it to her she took it in to have one of the headlights repaired.
the headlight was replaced by me but it turned out it was more involved than that. a wire was broken somewhere along the line and her mechanic who repaired it said that the rest of the wires were bad and wasn't sure how long it would last.

Now assuming that the guy was honest and wasn't trying to pad his work order, the viper auto start system does have a 2400milliamp draw but its not enough to drain a brand new battery after two days, it should take up to two weeks (first hand experience from my expedition) so that leads me to believe its the wire splice that was done to repair the headlight. log story short does anyone know if these cars are susceptible to wiring problems?

-SPGC

 

the design of the wiring for the flip up headlights sucks. The wire ends near the socket for the sealed beam headlamp get fatigued from the up and down ing and the wires break, often inside the socket itself. You can only butch the repair via soldering so many times before you have nothing left to solder to.

Those wires get quite brittle (insulation wise) so that is prob what he is referring to.
You can get replacement ones from 1st gen sc2s in junkyards. I suggest you start searching now.

As for the current drain, you're not going to get that from repairing a broken headlamp wire. The Viper is not your issue -- the issue is HOW it was installed. I will make a wild guess that something that does not require stay alive current was accidentally wired that way, and is draining your battery. Or something that does require constant power is simply drawing too much.

Who installed the Viper system? Viper certified tech?

The easiest way to sort it out is to find a way to disable the system electrically -- possibly an inline fuse under the dash. Not familiar w the add on security and remote start arena.

But if someone did extensive wiring modifications to my car and the battery started to drain overnight, I'd look there first. I'll venture to guess that it was draining when you had the car -- it just wasn't long enough timewise between starts to cause a no start condition.

 

I agree with derf. If the battery was okay before getting the remote start and alarm installed, then you already have your answer. Who needs that stuff anyway?

 

I had the alarm put on before the headlight and it seemed to be fine but after i turned the car over to her she was driving it everyday so it never had the two or three days to drain. then the following weekend she had the headlight service done and it sat all weekend and started having problems and thats why i cant figure out which one.

the system was installed by "professionals" as far as i can tell. the brain box did malfunction once but i took it in and on the plus side viper systems have a lifetime warranty so i was going to have them unhook it and see what happens and if it still does it then next in line is the wiring. I just thought id ask quick before i bother trying to take it in because the car has no insurance on it at the moment. she has an 06 taurus to drive in the meantime but she does like the car very much and i wast it out of my driveway, iv got too many projects as it is.

I had those systems installed because
1:she lives in a not great neighborhood
2:saturns are targets because theyre easy to steal
3:its cold in minnesot and having an auto start is just smart thinking