Originally Posted by
onehundred80
Does this sentence really say what happened or is it just an assumption? The battery and resistor was OK when starting the car so the resistor had to fail between starting the car and before the heater was turned on, or am I missing something?
Not quite Dave... The regulator had to fail before he let the car sit, not at startup.
Originally Posted by
Robertwav1
Okay, here is the scenerio. Went to start the car the next morning, the battery was completely dead. Hooked up one of those battery starters and immediately the fan came on with the fan switch in the off position. Apparently internally the resistor shorted to ground and the fan was energized thus draining the battery overnite with the ignition off.
It sounds to me like the 'resistor'
<Dammit, it's a regulator, not a resistor> failed while the car was running the previous time. When he shut the car off, he did not notice that the fan kept running, which is certainly possible. This is all conceivable.
The act of putting the top up or down, particularly with the engine not running, can also zap the fan
regulator. My battery was over four years old (violated my own four year rule, you'd think I'd listen to my own advice), back in 2015. I tried to put the top up without starting the car, and zapped my seat belt module. Running old batteries and/or cycling the top without the engine running can take out modules in the car. I still think some SKREEMS die due to this cause. And don't get me started on those damn "battery tenders"...