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Parasitic battery drain in my 1983 244 dl

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Ollies244

New member
Joined
Jul 16, 2026
Edit: I forgot to mention that the battery is only about 5 months old… could be the issue because it’s a cheap one but I’ll get it checked

Hey all, brand new Volvo owner here, and I have a question about my 1983 Volvo 244 dl. It’s a Chrysler ignition and naturally aspirated.
( I feel for all Chrysler ignition owners. 200$ for cap and rotor almost made me buy a civic right there ;). )

I recently bought this little bundle of joy and soy based wiring for about 1500$ more than I should have and I’m running into some electrical issues with the battery drain. I’m a bit at loss (or in denial) about the potential source of the drain. I saw a thread about a similar Volvo but his problem didn’t sound quite like mine.

For reference, I have a multimeter to test voltage and I can literally watch it go down, about 1/100 volts per 3 seconds. I’ll come back a few hours later and I measure 2 volts. I have a few ideas but I would like to hear from those who have fixed this issue on the Chrysler Volvos before.

1. Alternator wire thingie : this was my first thought because of the speed of the drain. I inspected the wire and it looks to be just fine. I could be wrong because the electrical tape style wiring could trap oil, and this thing has a touch of gummy, oily dirt underneath so it could be that. But it didn’t seem bad and I’m also at loss as to how oil could just destroy a wire like that.

2. locks or door something: I notice a strong humming noise when jumping the car near the rear drivers side door. It’s really odd. I don’t hear it when running a low voltage charge or even at 10 amps. The locks are funny and they sometimes don’t work. But could they cause a drain this fast? Is it a common problem?

3. Wild card: The wiring near the lights is pretty rough, enough where I question wether it could just need a whole new harness. But I still don’t really think a drain this fast could be due to a few tiny wires.

You let me know though! If you have any idea what common issues are, please just shoot them at me! I apologize if this thread is already here or im asking a dumb question but all help is appreciated.

Thanks!

Also let me know where to get a harness if it comes to that, I’m not sure if the one Dave sells is right. LMK
 
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1. The alternator wire runs from the starter where it joins the battery cable. It goes under the crankshaft and then is fed through the alternator bracket. Along that path is common for strange shorts to happen. Be careful there is no fuse and that wire is hot all the time.
2 I think you are hearing the main fuel pump under the car. But yes the door lock circuit can get shorts in the wiring inside the door and door hinge. Also the key switch can break and get stuck in constant on or off for the locks.
3 You can buy wiring pigtails with the connectors and splice them in. I've never seen any headlight harnesses for sale. Usually pretty easy to fix with your own sourced parts.

Dave Barton will be able to match up your harness to one he can supply. There are only a couple of versions usually. Honestly a new harness will put you miles ahead when chasing wiring issues in these cars.
You measure the drain on the battery at with your amp meter between the negative post and the negative cable. Disconnect fuses one at a time till you get the circuit that is the issue. Then you can test each circuit on that fuse. If no fuses affect the draw it's a circuit that is live all the time like what I mention in number 1.
 
Thé fuse
dl242gt said:
1. The alternator wire runs from the starter where it joins the battery cable. It goes under the crankshaft and then is fed through the alternator bracket. Along that path is common for strange shorts to happen. Be careful there is no fuse and that wire is hot all the time.
2 I think you are hearing the main fuel pump under the car. But yes the door lock circuit can get shorts in the wiring inside the door and door hinge. Also the key switch can break and get stuck in constant on or off for the locks.
3 You can buy wiring pigtails with the connectors and splice them in. I've never seen any headlight harnesses for sale. Usually pretty easy to fix with your own sourced parts.

Dave Barton will be able to match up your harness to one he can supply. There are only a couple of versions usually. Honestly a new harness will put you miles ahead when chasing wiring issues in these cars.
You measure the drain on the battery at with your amp meter between the negative post and the negative cable. Disconnect fuses one at a time till you get the circuit that is the issue. Then you can test each circuit on that fuse. If no fuses affect the draw it's a circuit that is live all the time like what I mention in number 1.
Click to expand...
the fuse box is a good idea. Thanks!
 
You can find a volvo wiring diagram for a similar 1984 240 at ozvolvo.org/archive - search for "1984"

Assuming the newish battery is still good, it's probably good for roughly 30 amp-hours, which means it can supply 1 amp for 30 hours, or 10 amps for 3 hours. Draining it in a few hours means you're looking for a big drain.

I'll assume it drains with key off, so that eliminates a lot of circuits. As mentioned above, the alternator wire that runs from the starter, around the front bottom of the engine, to the alternator is a prime suspect. The insulation can get worn through going around corners and through clamps.

The other prime suspect is the wiring in the driver's door for the electric door locks - see https://turbobricks.com/index.php?threads/central-locking-switch-deterioration.323301/ . There's a 3-pin red/green/black connector over the driver's knees that can easily be unplugged - see the 4th picture down at https://cleanflametrap.com/keyless3_receiver.html

Just behind the battery is a flat black +12v distribution box that's connected to the battery with the smaller red wire coming from the battery post clamp. Inspect all the wires going into that distribution box for shorting and damage.
 
Disconnect the battery remove all fuses connect a test light from battery to battery cable.
Replace one fuse at a time.
Clock radio will draw power and light the test light.
Replace one fuse at a time check test light.
 
A drain on a old car like this should be cake to figure out.

On a modern car interference signals from a Roomba vacuum cleaner is known to sometimes "wake up" the data communication busses and cause a drain. I learned that one yesterday.
 
Hey all, I found the drain (maybe) I redid some of the wiring down by the headlight cuz why not and I can solder. That worked great! Another thing I did was disconnect fuse 8 and that completely eliminated the drain. That fuse doesn’t really do anything important for me, just lights and the clock (which I think was one of the sources of the drain). I would show pic of new wiring but file is too large. Thanks for all the help guys!
 
ZVOLV said:
A drain on a old car like this should be cake to figure out.

On a modern car interference signals from a Roomba vacuum cleaner is known to sometimes "wake up" the data communication busses and cause a drain. I learned that one yesterday.
Click to expand...
That’s insane
 
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