It seems reasonable (to me) that if you put a car in the shop for a charging system issue that’s what they’re going to concentrate on. They may not have even paid attention to the check engine light.
A four year old battery may be at the end of it’s life. Before you spend any more time or money have the battery checked. Most parts stores will do a free check of the alternator and battery. My guess is that a weak battery is the source of your problems.
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The clicking was after the car engine finally turned off.
The engine light had come on when I’d driven it, as well as the battery light was flashing. It was obvious to me that it was more than the battery, being that I was losing power.
It must retain some sort of ‘memory’ in the warning lights, because the warning lights came back on when the battery was jumped after picking it up. Luckily it died in my driveway, instead of at the store I’d just been to on the way home from the mechanics shop…
Several people have told me he should’ve run a diagnostic, and that would seem logical to me, being that he wasn’t certain the alternator was the problem when I took it in.
Just now talked to the shop. The battery is fine, just older (need a new one soon).
They found out what the power drain was. It was due to an after market alarm system being installed incorrectly. The car had one previous owner before me, who’d installed it. The alternator was bad.
They haven’t been able to witness it still running after shut off, according to them. Maybe they reset the computer first thing? Not sure but they’re trying to get it to do it right now. They said to call back in an hour.
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This car was bought for me by my cousin, who was more a brother, right before he passed. I’m just not ready to let go of it yet, and it’s still a good little car.
I’ve always been a Chevy gal. I used to have a '76 Camaro (Spirit Of '76 Edition), 350 engine. That was one sweet ride! I wanted to be the first woman to win the quarter mile at National Trails Raceway. Unfortunately I had to sell the car before I could try.
In the shops I’ve worked in when an electrical problem existed we performed a thorough electrical test even if we knew beyond all doubt the problem was the alternator, battery, or whatever.
- Test battery. Charge if needed.
- Test alternator. This also means voltage checks along the current string.
- Test starter motor current draw.
- Test car for a parasitic draw. This test only determines if there is a draw. It does not include tracking that draw down as that could take 10 minutes or what feels like an eternity.
Just curious and wanted to clarify something. You state the shop mentioned a fast idle in reference to the delayed shut off. Dieseling is not that big of an issue with cars anymore but could this be what you are referring to? Turn the key off and the engine keeps on rotating for a few or maybe even 5 or 6 seconds?
I thought there should be more testing than had been done. Thanks for verifying that.
Yes, dieseling is what I’m referring to. It seemed to run longer at times than others, especially at first. It ran and sputtered, seemed like it wanted to almost backfire at first, then that smoothed out. Would that be the idle ‘relearning’ it’s speed rate?
For anyone curious following this thread, I just now spoke with the garage again. They said they removed the security system, being that’s what was causing the drain, and I’m good with that.
They did say the security system was also causing the dieseling, though it’d never done it before, so I don’t know. They said they couldn’t get it to do it now, and that it had nothing to do with the alternator replacement.
The car is ready so we’ll see, when I pick it up in a few hours.
The security system will not cause dieseling. That is generally caused by too high of an idle speed, an air leak in the intake system, an injector leak, or even a random carbon deposit coming loose which can glow red and trigger the fuel/air mix. Since this seemed to be intermittent I would tend to rule out the first of those.
I’m no fan of additives but in the event this could be related to an injector leak maybe some SeaFoam or Berryman B-12 in the gas tank might help.
Dieseling is not near the problem it was back in the days of carburetors. If you have ever seen the movie “Vacation” there was a good example of this when Chevy Chase arrives home with the Family Truckster. He shuts it off and it continues to diesel forever. This was an older movie/car and it was carbureted so there was a lot of truth to that.
I wonder if the security system has a flaw or if someone wired it up incorrectly. At least that problem is hopefully solved.
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This is good. Aftermarket security systems (and remote starters) frequently cause quirky electrical problems.
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I must relate to you my story of sentimental attachment to a car. I had an uncle who lived next door to me and was more like a second father to me. One Sunday morning, he got into his car to go to work. Monday morning my mother wakes me up, says “put on a suit, we have a funeral, your uncle died last night.” That was in 1968. The past couple years, I’ve been trying to find his car which may or may not still exist ( it was a 1963 Chrysler New Yorker 4 door sedan). I told my therapist of my sentimental quest. She said to me “why do you need this car? If you find it, it won’t bring your uncle back, or transform you into the 17 year old you were when he died.” She’s right of course. I have since stopped looking for the car. Please don’t be sentimental with the car. There are other, better ways of preserving your loved one’s memory. I’m glad the car is fixed!! And please throw away whatever wrench you used to remove the terminal with the engine running.
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I’m not an expert by far (else I wouldn’t be taking it to garages for major repairs), but I’ve a strong feeling the dieseling was something caused by a mistake on the part of the garage, and not the security system.
I’ve picked up the car, and it’s now running like a top. No dieseling at all! Whatever they want to tell me is fine by me, as long as I wasn’t charged for the correction and it’s all good now, though it does kinda chap me that they’d try to tell me that.
I saw that movie. lol Yep it was like that, only not as severe.
They said the alarm system had been wired incorrectly. I just hope the after market sound system wasn’t installed by the same person!
It has a remote starter on it as well. Hopefully they pulled that, too.
So sorry for your loss.
I can definitely relate to your quest for your uncle’s car. Your story reminds me of that of my cousins’ (the same one who bought this car for me). He had a ‘65 GTO back in the 70’s, which he street raced (safely). We called it ‘The Green Hornet’, because it had the prettiest paint job…a beautiful green metallic flake paint, black interior. It was never beaten in a race. When he first got it, he wasn’t aware the front end could lift on take off, it had so much power.
He sold it sometime later, regretting the sale ever since. I think it was five years later that car resurfaced, he happened onto it and bought it back. It’d had four or five owners over the course of those years. He set to restoring it in the condition it was in when he had it, dropping a new engine in first. Unfortunately he became quite ill and couldn’t do the work on it. He gave it to a family member who passed right after he did. That family members’ son now has it (hopefully still), but doesn’t really appreciate what he has. Cousins’ twin brother is trying to locate the car so as to buy it back, and keep it in the family.
While I know cousin would want me to have a reliable car that I don’t have to put a lot of money into towards upkeep, this one is still a good car. I think when the time comes, he wouldn’t mind my using it as trade-in…but I don’t think that time is now. I’m just not ready to let go of it yet, though I do appreciate your advice.
I think I definitely dodged a bullet with removing the terminal like that, and I’ve well learned my lesson!
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Good for you for sticking with it and getting the problems resolved, plus the bonus of ditching the faulty security system. Those aftermarket security systems are the source of frequent problems by posts we get here.
I would not worry about the dieseling unless it happened again and my gut feeling is that it will not.A random thought has come to mind since dieseling, batteries going dead, aftermarket systems, etc is involved. This is throwing mud at the wall but…
What if someone had wired that security system incorrectly (or the shop did something) which caused power to be provided to an existing wire which was not supposed to have power with the key off. That could lead to dead batteries and, depending upon the wires, possibly feed into the ignition wiring. In turn, that could lead to a spark being provided which led to dieseling until something else caused the engine to die.
Grasping a bit, but I’ve seen a number of equally or even worse electrical weirdness with cars.
If aftermarket wiring changes result in improperly fused wire, could cause car to catch fire.
Thanks for your kind words, and I thank you all for your help!
I really didn’t use the thing that much, anyway. Had I known it was causing the drain, I’d have gotten rid of it a long time ago.
That’s a good theory, but it didn’t ever diesel before I picked it up yesterday. ???
I’ve had that battery going dead a number of times prior, which must’ve been due to the parasitic drain and the alternator going bad. Do I have that right?
It does seem hard to explain. One idea, maybe what you are hearing isn’t the engine running. Could it be fans running in the engine compartment for example? They are often enabled to run even after car is turned off on some car designs.
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It was definitely the engine dieseling. The motor was still running, coughing, sputtering…I looked for it to fart, eventually. 
If it keeps occurring, esp if it occurs even if engine isn’t fully warmed up, your shop may need to do further diagnosis, checking for a phantom spark signal after key is “off” seems a good place to check. Do you hear any sort of humming sound coming from rear of vehicle when key is “off”? If so, fuel pump may be running on for some reason.
No sir, I don’t hear any sound coming from it after it’s turned off, now. I’ll keep an eye/ear on it for awhile yet. If anything comes up out of order, I’ll take it to my regular mechanic.
Thanks for the heads up!
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