1999 V70 Wagon, failing NJ state inspection.

[scot850]

The 98 cars are less voltage sensitive than the 99- cars. There are less electronic controls like the throttle body (ETM) fitted.

Neil.

[kevinAtKAB]

If the battery goes dead quickly, you need to connect an ammeter in series with one of the battery leads and see what the current draw is with the ignition off. Sounds like something is drawing too much current. Maybe the glove box light is not going off like it should.
I drive about 10 miles a week. and the battery is 4 years old and was only down 10% on the load test. Though, after a 4 hour charge the starter does sound better.

[MrAl]

If the battery goes dead quickly, you need to connect an ammeter in series with one of the battery leads and see what the current draw is with the ignition off. Sounds like something is drawing too much current. Maybe the glove box light is not going off like it should.
I drive about 10 miles a week. and the battery is 4 years old and was only down 10% on the load test. Though, after a 4 hour charge the starter does sound better.

Hi there,

I can't recommend that exactly because that requires disconnecting the battery and that means the monitors go 'not ready'. That's unless you have a jumper to keep the computer alive while you are connecting the ammeter.
Easier though is to just get a clamp on DC ammeter, you don't have to disconnect anything that way, but you do have to sneak the clamp on part between the wires.

[MrAl]

The 98 cars are less voltage sensitive than the 99- cars. There are less electronic controls like the throttle body (ETM) fitted.

Neil.

Hi there Neil,

My fuel relay problem made it more sensitive to the battery voltage because the capacitors were going bad. It took me years to find out that it was the fuel relay that was chattering once in a while when I went to start the car. The bad caps do not filter as well so the voltage getting to the guts of the relay can dip pretty low then jump back up, then back low, then back up, etc., many times as the car is being started.
I always thought that was strange but didn't know what it was until the fuel relay functionality became questionable and I dug into the circuitry to find out what might be wrong. I think I had the car 6 years before that.

[scot850]

I'm not saying the -98 car's can't have issues due to low voltage, it is that there are less parts of the system that are that sensitive.

Neil.

[MrAl]

I'm not saying the -98 car's can't have issues due to low voltage, it is that there are less parts of the system that are that sensitive.

Neil.

Oh that's great news. The problem I was talking about involved a 'bad' component anyway it was not a normal sensitivity.