Expert: Roland Finston - 10/11/2011

Question
I have a 1999 lhs and my battery wont stay charged. Also I have the flickering light problem on the interior lights. A few days ago I went out and jumped the car, but the A/C wouldn't turn off, my headlights would not turn on and the mileage display would not show. I know its not the alternator due to the fact that my battery light wouldn't come on, but that leaves me to believe that it "could" be bad due to the fact that there are other electric problems with the vehicle. I have about 140,000 miles on it and have had problems with the battery connections arcing out and having to replace them several times.
If you could point me in the right direction into fixing these problems that would be great.
Thanks.

Answer
Hi Nic,
There are several issues going on here, some cause, some effect. There is some sort of current being drawn when the ignition is off. That is called the 'ignition off draw'. It would be helpful if you had a volt-ohm-milliamp meter to measure the milliamps of current that flow through the wire on the - post of the battery when everything is shut down. You would disconnect the - post clamp and jump the leads of the meter when set to measure milliamps across the gap between the cable clamp and the battery post. It should read about 25-50 if everything were normal.
The flickering interior light are likely due to one of the doors being too loosely latched. From inside the car press outward on each door to see which one turns on the lights. Move the latch striker in the door frame of that door inboard and few millimeters until pushing on the door from the inside doesn't provoke the lights to come on. It may be the case that in the cool of the night the interior lights are coming on by themselves when you wouldn't notice it.
When you said the a/c won't turn off you probably mean the interior blower motor. Do you have the digital automatic temp control sort of unit? It sounds to me like you do and the symptom of a failed blower motor "module" is that the fan keeps running no  matter what you do. It is located in a duct of the HVAC unit under the dash on the right side. Follow the wires from the blower motor located at the far right end of the unit as they run over to the module nearby. There are 2 screws and a plug to remove from the module and then it drops out of the duct. You may be able to get a used one at the wrecking yard.
The mileage reading on the odometer is another issue which pertains to the digital data communication to the dash. Tell me if anything else than that is wrong at the cluster.
Those are the first things I would fix.
Roland
PS Sorry for the delay but I just found your question in the 'pool' to which it had been referred by Kervin.