Bad Charging System ?

[RyderzUnlimited]

Okay, here is my current issue. My battery is dead, and
it's my second one I have replaced in the past year. But
the problem only occured after my h22 swap.

Since my swap, my AC/HEAT can be turned on even with
the car off. Say if your sitting in the car, keys are in your hand,
and you turn the ac/heat dial it will turn the air condition or heat
on. Does that mean I have a power wire somehow hooked up to
it ? I think even though I make sure the dial is on off. Its still drawing
power...

I'm confused. What should I be looking for ?

[benjiaccord]

Sounds like your hvac system has power...which is more than likely the reason for batteries going dead...With the car off, you can use a multimeter and start poking around in the fuse panels to see what's pulling power and trace it from there...

On a side note, that's an odd system to get power when the car is off

[RyderzUnlimited]

tell me about it... i unplugged the whole control panel,
and yeah the lights turned off. But the power to turn the air
on is still there. But it's cold as shit outside, and I don't
want to mess with it. I might have to take the fuse out or something
for now..

[TomQuick]

Is it ONLY the heat / ac that's getting power when the car is off, or are there other things powered that shouldn't be. Try other things like the signal lights, windshield wipers, rear defroster, etc. that should only work with the engine running.

If all the accessories that are only supposed to work with the engine running are affected, test your ignition switch to see if it is working properly. If it is only the heat / ac, then I would look carefully at the power wires leading to that to see if they have shorted to another power source, or have somehow been connected improperly.

[RyderzUnlimited]

it's only the heat/ac. it's weird because lastnight, i turned
the heat on, and the lights on the heating/cooling display
buttons wouldn't come on. But when I kept pushing a button,
it look like it would short out. It sucks, because the wires
around the steering wheel is a mess. I don't even know where
to start. Wiring is not my thing....

[TomQuick]

What wiring did you mess with during the swap? That would be the most likely place for a problem to occur.