ARC Fuse

91Bird305

Club Member
The car is a 91 Firebird.

Should the ARC fuse be drawing any amps when the car is shut off? We are troubleshooting a drain on the battery (.4 amp drain) and ran across .2 amps on the ARC fuse.

I believe this fuse is for the radio? I can see it draining a little bit to keep the clock radio and presets from erasing. But not .2 amps. Anything else on the radio that would cause this big of a drain? It's just a factory tape player.

Thanks.
 
200mA seems like a lot to keep the clock and radio programmed. I had to ditch my original radio as it had some REALLY funky electrical problems going on with it, and I wanted a cd player. I don't think that fuse should have much of anything going through it with the key off.

My 85 TA has a bad drain (1.4ish amps?) that I need to fix. Old electronics for the engine are gone, rewired the stereo for a cd player, now it's time to find what's still left pulling juice off it. I'll let you know when I track down what's pulling current on mine, which I'm hoping to do this weekend.
 
Could be a bad tape deck. Off the top of my head there is something else on the radio circut however. Can't quiet remeber what and the diagrams for that car are sketchy but try unplugging the radio and see if it clears up.
 
Could be a bad tape deck. Off the top of my head there is something else on the radio circut however. Can't quiet remeber what and the diagrams for that car are sketchy but try unplugging the radio and see if it clears up.

yea, I will pull the fuse and see what works and doesn't.

Also, that other .2 coming off the battery. Do you remember when Joe ran my electric cut out at the shop? Cause I can't find the other .2 amps that's being drained cause it's not on the fuse panel. Pat & Sean checked the hotwire kit for the fuel pump and that was good. So the only thing I can think of that wouldn't be hooked up to the fuse box would be that cut out. The scanmaster does hook up to the fuse panel, and that checked out. Same with the meth kit.
 
Rock out to a lot of tapes these days eh?? LOL

LoL, you know it.

mc-hammer.jpg
 
I think the only other thing that might be on the radio ciruct could be the Speedometer buffer box. IIRC. It could just be the radio has a problem and the memory is pulling to much current becuase it isn't turning off. How are you measuring the drain ?


yea, I will pull the fuse and see what works and doesn't.

Also, that other .2 coming off the battery. Do you remember when Joe ran my electric cut out at the shop? Cause I can't find the other .2 amps that's being drained cause it's not on the fuse panel. Pat & Sean checked the hotwire kit for the fuel pump and that was good. So the only thing I can think of that wouldn't be hooked up to the fuse box would be that cut out. The scanmaster does hook up to the fuse panel, and that checked out. Same with the meth kit.
 
hmmm. I haven't used that method in a long long time. It works though. I would try disconnecting the radio and see if the load falls off.
 
I just pulled a fuse block diagram. ARC is running from what I can tell the headlamp motor module. Got a stuck headlamp door ???
 
Any one have any good tips on un-sticking them?

I have a hunch mine are doing that, as I had a slew of headlight problems before it got tucked away last year. I have a current shunt I'm dropping on mine when i get home, and have a good feeling I will not like what I see.
 
I just pulled a fuse block diagram. ARC is running from what I can tell the headlamp motor module. Got a stuck headlamp door ???

I do have an issue with the headlights.

Parking Lights
- I hit the parking lights, they come on. But my driver side head lamp will also pop up but with no light on. Passenger side will stay down like it should. But maybe it stays down because of my next issue.

Headlights.
- I hit the headlights and the driver side one will pop up and light correctly. But the passenger side one stays down but lights up. When I kill the headlights, I have to put both of the lights down manually.

Also, if I go to turn my headlights off / or my parking lights. Neither head light will go down. They just shut off.
 
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