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Weird battery drain.


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I hope that this is in the place to post some questions. So, I had a post going a while back about some bad grounds and a new battery. Solved all that, a new battery and new grounding, think the "big 3". It's all been fine for about 6-7 months, drove the truck at least once a week and never had a dead battery. But now, all of the sudden it's been dying in a day or 2 for the past month or so. Jump it, let it warm up and shut it off, or drive it. It's dead shortly after. I thought that it had to be a parasitic draw. As the charging is sitting at 14.4 or so, but the battery would be instantly 12.2 after shutting it down. I know that a fully charged battery should be about 12.6. So I started doing the old pull every fuse with the tester set to Amps and the negative pulled and my testing side. I "screwed up" and had the door open while I tested some of these fuses, but even then no drop in amps while pulling fuses. I started testing again with the door closed and noticed after about 30 second of the tester being connected the amps would start to fall to .01 on the tester and stay there, unless I pulled the tester off for a short bit and reconnect. It would then jump up to .76ish(more when I put the radio fuse back in for a bit) and 30 seconds later drop to .01. So it made me think that my draw is gone. But, if it is gone, why wouldn't my battery fully charge? I took the battery in and had them test it, they even tested twice, said that it was completely fine and I tested it at 12.6 when I got home. It has an aftermarket alarm/remote start that I disconnected(at the battery) about 2 weeks ago and I got new factory fobs to use with the factory system. I've even pulled the amp out, the stereo fuse is still out, I'm utterly lost. Also an other weird thing that's been happening with it, when I do get the truck started, the heated seat tries to turn it's self on, but will just sit there and click the relay for a 10+ minutes, with the lights in the buttons clicking on and off. I drive for a bit and it goes away. Anyone have any ideas what could be happening with my battery? Any ideas on how to test for sure that I don't have a drain?

In the video, I replaced the radio fuse and that's why it jumped over 1amp, I guessing it needed to charge the radio caps.

 

Edited by Solhays85 (see edit history)
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Shawn, mine did something similar, I did the same and pulled the radio fuse and it seemed that was the problem, then it came back and it is probably in the cluster, take apart the dash and unplug the cluster for a few days to see it goes away. If it does you will need your cluster rebuilt. I had gmgaugeguy.com rebuild mine and now no problems. I've read all kind of threads on here and the other truck forums and that seem like the more likely suspect.

Clay

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Interesting. Shouldn't I just be able to pull the fuse for the cluster? I know that my speedo is bad, but that seems to be the only thing that's out in the cluster. Not that it has anything to do with the power issue. Thanks Clay, I've been feeling under the weather since Monday, so I'll have to go out and see if the truck has drained the battery or not after the parts place as able to fully charge it. It's still strange to me that even immediately after warming it up, driving it and testing the battery that it was sitting at 12.2 but they were able to get it to 12.6. Good thing I've got a primary vehicle and not relying on this. 

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I think you can pull the fuse, but I wanted to be sure it was completely disconnected, but if you know you have a bad cluster that the first place to start. If you read my other thread about reduce power problems I'm having as, I'm going to be doing the Big 3 also and adding more ground straps. This spring I will clean and recoat all my ground connections.

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I'll give it a shot Clay. I'm losing my mind on this damn truck. Just little thing after little thing. Lol. I did my version of the big 3. When I got a new battery I got one that was both side and top post. Then I got the top post cables and clamps. Ran the new negatives to the body, block and frame. I then ran a cable from the positive to the alternator because chevy has that tiny little wire there so I beefed it up. This was all in addition to the factory wiring. 

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  • 9 months later...

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