Newbie here. Recently bought a 1995 Z-28 convertible, 6-speed. It has a lot of miles but seems to very weel taken care of. I have two annoying problems. I don't know if they are related or not.

Problem 1
The door chime (the one for key still in the ignition or lights still on) still chimes even after the key has been pulled from the ignition. Sometimes I can make it stop by wiggling the ignition. Once the door is closed the chime turns off.

Problem 2
I sometimes have a battery drain as if I had left the headlights on for an extended period of time. I had been driving and restarting with no problems. I pull over, turn the ignition off, and lowered the power top and windows. Then I went to restart and the battery was dead. Yesterday I was doing some interior detailing with the top and windows down, and both doors opened for about 30 minutes. Went to start and battery was dead again.

It seems that any power used while the engine is not running quickly kills the battery. I drove it over to the local Auto Zone test the battery and they "said" that it was a good battery with a full charge.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

Ignition switch

 

That's what I was thinking. It this a common problem on 4th Gen Camaros ??? Do you think the ignition switch is the answer to both of my annoying problems ???

Thanks,

 

Very uncommon. Normally when an igintion switch fails you see issues with a number of circuits not just one. It would be the buzzer and the radio and the heater/AC etc.. even the motor itself may not shut off. I would unplug the chime itself to see if the draw goes away. Remember chimes are designed to work with the key off so they have power all the time and if it shorted internally it could cause the issue you descibed.

Also note just because the chime is sounding it does not mean your issue has anything to do with the chime. A shorted device can back feed power in to a circuit and cause it to look like the issue. If the car was in my garage I would track down the draw and most likely what you fine is causing the chime.

 

Actually my chime never worked until after the ignition switch was changed out but what was causing my battery to die every single night was the actual ignition box in the steering column. I had already done the cylinder change out and while that allowed the car to be turned off and not still running without the key, it didn't help my battery situation out at all. Now sometimes I get the chime at crank, sometimes I don't.

It took 4 times going into the shop before they even believed me and then they decided to pull the steering wheel for the heck of it. Found a lot of bolts missing and the entire situation was a wreck waiting to happen. He had to order some bolts etc from GM to properly put it back together. Someone had used a nail and rigged up the box somehow and it was shorting out. It spent 48 hours on some kind of telemetry thing monitoring the electrical system and it never done anything while on there. They thought I was making it all up!

 

Ya its pretty safe to say what happend on your car is pretty rare. I would even dare to say that a nail in the steering colum is unique situation and very unlikely to happen again,, ever.

Chimes do short out and casue this kind of problem. It could also be a combination of issues. Lighters are the most common casue for overnigh battery drains with glove box lights and underhood lights falling right behind. The testing proceedure for battery draw is pretty easy if you have the right tools.

 

I'm not sure if this is a typical battery draw. The car can sit over-night or even a few days and it will start right up. If I happen to use some accessories while the engine is not running it kills the battery. Auto-Zone was very quick to say the battery is good. But a 3 year plus old battery doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

 

Is it the bose system with factory AMP? That can draw a lot of power and kill even a new battery pretty quickly.

 

Yes it is, but the head unit was replaced with some kind of fancy HD radio.

Thanks, I'll look in to this.

 

are you sure the battery is dead? good first step is to clean the battery posts and battery cable ends with a wire brush, sometimes it takes a knife or the likes to scrape off the coating that can get on the lead. if the battery is not dead and the engine will not turn over it could be the switch system is not working correctly, maybe the vats wiring in the column is shorting and not allowing the ignition to engage. or the key slug itself is failing and not transferring the info from the key resistors. if part of the radio security system was left in, it may be messin things up, lol, i dont know much about that.