Random electrical draw

[clbailey]

I'm trying to track down the source of my power draw. If the car isn't driven daily it drains the battery quick. I've got the battery tray off, but don't see any reason to open the harness up to see if the common bad splice/connector is corroding. The car electrically is all stock. 89k miles on an 01. Anyone have an idea why it would randomly just start drawing power enough to kill the battery in a few days? I put a new battery and alternator in thinking those were the causes, but it didn't fix anything.

 

[clbailey]

Gonna pull out the suspected bad wire in the GEM and see if that works. Wish I could find a new GEM instead, apparently they no longer manufacture them.

 

[01yellercobra]

Are you still using the stock stereo? Our 06 had an issue of killing the battery. If the stereo wasn't turned off before shutting the car off it would kill the battery in a couple days. Swapped to an aftermarket unit and it's been good since.

 

[clbailey]

Yep stock radio. Gonna give it some time with the wire outta the gem.

 

[jacker1991]

I had the same problem and had to pull fuses one by one. The radio one was the culprit so I checked my rear amps and one of them was causing the draw. Replaced the bad amp and haven't had a problem since. It seems the bad amp was doing something that didn't let the car "go to sleep" and was draining my battery.

 

[01yellercobra]

I had the same problem and had to pull fuses one by one. The radio one was the culprit so I checked my rear amps and one of them was causing the draw. Replaced the bad amp and haven't had a problem since. It seems the bad amp was doing something that didn't let the car "go to sleep" and was draining my battery.

That's what the issue it with the 05-07. Unless you turn off the radio before shutting the car off the amps won't turn off.

 

[jacker1991]

That's what the issue it with the 05-07. Unless you turn off the radio before shutting the car off the amps won't turn off.

Wow, that sucks. If turning the radio off fixes it, then that's not as bad though.

In my case turning the radio off didn't do anything(I turn off everything before shutting down the car, no idea why I do it)

 

[01yellercobra]

Wow, that sucks. If turning the radio off fixes it, then that's not as bad though.

In my case turning the radio off didn't do anything(I turn off everything before shutting down the car, no idea why I do it)

It worked for a while. Eventually it still drained the battery, but took a little longer.

 

[RX1Cobra]

Yep stock radio. Gonna give it some time with the wire outta the gem.

Hook a up a voltmeter to the battery and start pulling fuses. When the draw stops you know where to start looking.

 

[Charlington]

Bad Voltage Regulator leaking.
Make sure your Alternator is producing Less than 15V first. More than 15V will ruin a new or good battery quickly. Batteries going bad quickly is a sign of bad Regulator. ALternator making less than 13V also bad.

 

[jeason15]

Parasitic load troubleshooting;
This guide assumes that the car and all accessories are off. If you have anything on that draws more than about 10a, you could damage your meter.
1. Disconnect the negative battery terminal.
2. Connect red meter lead to negative battery post, and black lead to disconnected negative lead.
3. Shunt your meter (in other words, put the meter side of the red lead into the amperage hole on your meter. Most meters this is the hole to the left of the common).
4. Switch your meter to the dc amps function. Some meters combine ac and dc amps in the same switch position and auto detect.
5. At this point, your meter will be reading the total parasitic draw of your vehicle while powered down. This is what kills your battery. Any reading above .5A or 500mA (same thing) is considered a parasitic draw. Theoretically, the reading should be zero but due to the natural self discharge of a battery, and a phenomenon known as electrolysis, it won't be. You should be under a half an amp for sure though. If it is higher, continue to the next step, if it isn't, you are done, and you have no parasitic load. Reconnect everything and get your battery load tested.
6. If you are higher that .5A, leave the meter connected, and start pulling fuses, one at a time, until the amp draw falls below the limit above. It shouldn't be a cumulative drop, if you have a true parasitic load, one pulled fuse will drop it all at once.
7. When that happens, you have located the problem circuit. To further narrow it down, you will need to put the fuse back in, and disconnect the plugs at the components that are powered by that fuse. Again, you are looking to see when the meter reading drops back below acceptable limits. When you have found the connector or connection that causes the reading to drop, you have found your exact load and that component should be inspected and/or replaced.
8. If you disconnect all the components in the circuit, and the load is still on the meter, you could have a high resistance short to ground. To troubleshoot this problem, you will want to start with the connector closest to the fuse and work your way out to narrow down where the short is. When you have found the harness segment, then you can either replace that harness segment, or de-pin each wire one by one in the connector and re connect it each time until it drops again. Then you have found your specific wire and you can start doing a physical inspection for your short.

Hope that helps.

 

[boostedvert]

I had a draw on my 99. the draw was a major draw from the alternator. Also I know the radios and stock amps are often sources of draw.