Accessory Power when Key is Off

Has anyone had a problem like this?

I have a 1998 Durango SLT Plus. It all started when the heater blower motor stayed on after the key was turned off. Then I noticed that the little green lights on the windows and door lock switchs stayed on too but they are quite dim. I checked the relay power to on the blower motor and found that the relay is staying energized because the signal wire has 3 volts when the key is turned off. When I push one of the windows or door lock buttons it interupts the 3 volts on the blow relay and the fan turns off. After that the 3 volts is not enough to re-energize the relay so the blow motor stays off until the key is turned on again. I've also noticed that my daytime running lights won't come on anymore unless I turn the headlights on and then off again. When they do come on the seem dimmer that all the Durango/Dakotas I've seen

Near as I can tell, something is applying 3 volts to the accessory system when the key is off and I haven't found what it is yet.

Oh ya, the vehical and all it's accessory gadgets work perfectly fine when the vehicle is running.

If anyone can help, please, I have very little hair left.

I figured it out so I thought I better write it out in case some one else has a similar problem. Usually the daytime running light modual on Dodge trucks fry themselves quite often. When they do they tend to make the highbeams stay on and the only way to turn them off is to diconnect the battery or the daytime running light modual. So I've just found out, that is not the only way that they can screw up. The problem that I was having was because this modual was leaking power back on to it's signal wire from the accessory power. As soon as I disconnected it everything when back to normal (with the exception of the daytime running lights not working). This modual also controls the blue highbeam indicator on the dash too, so it won't work until the modual is replaced. It's located on the inner driver side fender.

Hope this helps others too...

Thanks Roadaxe - I just started to experience this problem and I wasn't looking forward to trobleshooting this. I pulled the fuse to the running lights on my 98 durango (3rd very small 20 amp fuse from the fender) and this shut the lights off - as you said - disconnecting the module works too.

Another friend has had "weird" electrical problems and found that the weather stripping at the front drivers side corner of the front hood was poor and caused unneeded extra moisture/snow to get near the fuse box.

Thanks for the fix!!


I figured it out so I thought I better write it out in case some one else has a similar problem. Usually the daytime running light modual on Dodge trucks fry themselves quite often. When they do they tend to make the highbeams stay on and the only way to turn them off is to diconnect the battery or the daytime running light modual. So I've just found out, that is not the only way that they can screw up. The problem that I was having was because this modual was leaking power back on to it's signal wire from the accessory power. As soon as I disconnected it everything when back to normal (with the exception of the daytime running lights not working). This modual also controls the blue highbeam indicator on the dash too, so it won't work until the modual is replaced. It's located on the inner driver side fender.

Hope this helps others too...