airgord Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 Hi, I'm airgord. New member and first time poster. I am having an issue on my new to me 1996 Legacy wagon. I've owned about two months now and up until now has been a pretty decent little car. I hopped in to go run some errands and the battery was flat, the annoying little key warning barely made any noise. I pulled the battery cables and cleaned and tightened them up (they looked okay and were already tight). I then jumped it from my pickups battery and it started but barely, after I unhooked the cables I jumped back in and put my foot on the brake and the engine died! After jumping it again I let it run for about ten minutes before trying to drive again, I kept the R's at about 1500 to let the alternator charge the battery a bit, stepped on brake (its an auto) and the engine died again! I bought the car from a buddy who had replaced the alternator sometime in the last year and he said there was a big drain on the charging system when the A/C was selected so he never used it and neither have I. The battery is less than a year old per the sticker on it. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublechaz Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 I had a problem with mine a while back where the brake pedal would kill it like that. Mine turned out to be the positive battery cable clamp. The head of the clamp was OK, but where the head joined the actual wire back inside the boot was corroded until it was barely there. I cut away the bad end of the wire and re-joined them with a new clamp and everything was fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airgord Posted April 7, 2019 Author Share Posted April 7, 2019 I had a problem with mine a while back where the brake pedal would kill it like that. Mine turned out to be the positive battery cable clamp. The head of the clamp was OK, but where the head joined the actual wire back inside the boot was corroded until it was barely there. I cut away the bad end of the wire and re-joined them with a new clamp and everything was fine. I'll give that a try. It looks like the original clamps too. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airgord Posted April 11, 2019 Author Share Posted April 11, 2019 Yep! That was the problem! I ended up replacing the cables and ends and the battery was so dead it was showing 10 volts. Makes sense why the brake lights would kill the car after it was jumped. Has anyone done the multiple ground wire project? I have some 12 gauge wire and terminals and I'm wondering if that will be big enough to be effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublechaz Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 I have a few extra grounds in mine. I think I used 8 gauge. First thing with grounds is to make sure that the big OE one is solid and not corroded. From there the upgrade isn't so much there to carry big currents from the engine to the body as it is to make sure that all of the engine is all the way down to zero. If there is a couple tenths of a volt from one part of the engine to another it can throw off sensor readings. I added an extra ground from each side of the intake to the ground points on the strut towers. There are some sensors on there and I have phenolic spacers, so there is zero grounding from the intake to the block. Even stock gaskets make an intake ground necessary. I also have an extra ground from the 5MT up to body and a couple from the block to the strut towers. I can't say the extra gounds made a difference that I could see, but I have to say I live in Arizona, so I don't have nearly the corrosion problem that most people have with the OE grounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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