Hi and Happy (and safe) new year to all.
I am an old codger and forget more than I remember so please help. I cant find my way around searching and havge spent all morning getting nowhere and need to be looking at my 2002 Tribute which \i keep in really good working condition but having replaced its battery (good make) twice in 2 years and I really feal that wasnt the issue as old one is still ok on another job.
Anyway being old and imobile we hardly use it (just hospitals and doctors etc) and it takes more I reckon to start even though it starts readily enough than it charges snd it is running out of battery power by third day.
I am going on but want to give a complete picture here. I put in the 2nd new battery and it started immediately and everything reads ok and feals ok but a couple of days later I desided to check the new battery by disconnecting it (neg) and putting my charger on it to see if it needed any - thats when all hell broke lose.
The alarm went off as I touched the neg charger lead so put battery lead back and it still sounded and due to my neighbours I cannot leave it doing that even though it should reset (shouldnt it) so I left it unconnected while I had a think.
A week later I decided to look at at it again (by the way I was a computer technician ten years ago so feal confident to have a go but knew I would have to get my memory kicked into life first).
I have now got BTN 2 fuse removed to silence everything and it started and dash lights are on but no power windows or door locks and alarrm is active as indicators are all going so wher do I go from here - I have a mazda Tribute factory circuit for it and my chilterns so am thinking to isolate the alarm if possible first in case it is affecting other things and then to narrow down problem by disconnecting stuff one by one until I see something chage but not sure where to start so I thought there is obviously expertise here that I should seek help from first. Failing all else I will disconnect the alarm somehow and rewire the things I need to get safe and legal on the road as we are (wife and I) both regular up the hospital and drs so need to do something urgently.
Please help - thank you..