5Amp Current Draw with key off

[tblake]

So, a couple days ago went to drive the truck, it had sat for maybe a day and a hald without being started. Got in it, no lights, no nothing. Battery completly dead.

Got it running with a jump start, verified the alternator was charging. Good. Drove the truck maybe 8 miles to recharge the battery. Got home, had power to lights, but wouldn't start again. Brought the battery home, threw it on the charger.

The next morning went to put the battery in, used my multimeter and measured about 5A parasitic drain on the system. All doors are closed, all interior lights are off, and underhood light is unplugged.

I narrowed it down to the cable that runs to the underhood fuse panel. I the began to remove all fuses and relays one by one. None of them made any effect on the amperage draw.

Gave up for the night since it was getting dark, and here is where I sit.

How could the drain not stop if the fuses were pulled from the fuse panel? Is there any B+ wires that leave that panel that are not fused?

HELP! Cause a 5A key off drain is HUGE and will discharge a good battery overnight for sure.

1997 K1500 350 4x4

[brcidd]

Unhook alternator during amp draw test-- I have seen an alternator be warm 12 hours after engine shutdown-- has internal short cauing amp-draw..

[777stickman]

In my '98 diagrams, I could not see any unfused B+ wires coming out of the underhood box. But who knows?? Next step is to pull the fuses in I/P box. Hopefully you'll find something there.

There is the possibility of a wire getting shorted to ground before it's fused??

Good luck

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by tblake

So, a couple days ago went to drive the truck, it had sat for maybe a day and a hald without being started. Got in it, no lights, no nothing. Battery completly dead.

Got it running with a jump start, verified the alternator was charging. Good. Drove the truck maybe 8 miles to recharge the battery. Got home, had power to lights, but wouldn't start again. Brought the battery home, threw it on the charger.

The next morning went to put the battery in, used my multimeter and measured about 5A parasitic drain on the system. All doors are closed, all interior lights are off, and underhood light is unplugged.

I narrowed it down to the cable that runs to the underhood fuse panel. I the began to remove all fuses and relays one by one. None of them made any effect on the amperage draw.

Gave up for the night since it was getting dark, and here is where I sit.

How could the drain not stop if the fuses were pulled from the fuse panel? Is there any B+ wires that leave that panel that are not fused?

HELP! Cause a 5A key off drain is HUGE and will discharge a good battery overnight for sure.

1997 K1500 350 4x4

the alternator has diodes . when these fail you get this type of current drain...5amps is high .

as mentioned the alternator wire should be removed ...to determine if this is the issue ..

[tblake]

Ok today for a couple hours before work I messed with it. Alternator unhooked, starter unhooked. Both no change. I also unhooked pretty much every plug I could find (around the fuse box area straight to the back of the truck). Still no change.

What I did next was take apart the underhood fuse box. I found that removing the two large fuses made the draw go away. The reason it didn't before is because I removed them individually. Both removed together and problem is gone. Its the two fuses labled "Lighting", and "Battery". I looked up in the chiltons I have and Lighting is broken down to "headlamp panel dimmer switch, fog & courtousy fuses". Battery simply states "fuseblock busbar" and that is it. Are these two circuits tied to one another? I wish chiltons would give a little more detail.

I also removed the interior fuses in the drivers door jam one by one with no change.

Any one have any other ideas?

Please stick with me on this one, I just don't know what else to do next and really need to get this one figured out soon. 5A is WAY to excessive of a drain, it will kill the battery if I keep it plugged in and just keep charging it up.

Thanks for the help thus far. I will have more time to do some more testing tomorrow morning before work again providing the weather is good.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by tblake

Ok today for a couple hours before work I messed with it. Alternator unhooked, starter unhooked. Both no change. I also unhooked pretty much every plug I could find (around the fuse box area straight to the back of the truck). Still no change.

What I did next was take apart the underhood fuse box. I found that removing the two large fuses made the draw go away. The reason it didn't before is because I removed them individually. Both removed together and problem is gone. Its the two fuses labled "Lighting", and "Battery". I looked up in the chiltons I have and Lighting is broken down to "headlamp panel dimmer switch, fog & courtousy fuses". Battery simply states "fuseblock busbar" and that is it. Are these two circuits tied to one another? I wish chiltons would give a little more detail.

I also removed the interior fuses in the drivers door jam one by one with no change.

Any one have any other ideas?

Please stick with me on this one, I just don't know what else to do next and really need to get this one figured out soon. 5A is WAY to excessive of a drain, it will kill the battery if I keep it plugged in and just keep charging it up.

Thanks for the help thus far. I will have more time to do some more testing tomorrow morning before work again providing the weather is good.

On the alt unplug make sure you unplug the plug in and the batter wire to.

Strange on having to pull both fuses lighting and battery to stop the amp drain.
Also remember when testing for amp drain give the computers time to power down.
Sometimes 20 -30 minutes for power down.

Run that test on the lighting and battery fuse again.
The circuit that is drawing amp should show up on one fuse at a time.

I looked at Mitchell power feed and it does not show them very good.
The lighting fuse feeds the lighting stuff into other fuse boxes and switches.

If all else fails and you do not have a factory repair manual on the wiring and fuse power feed diagrams you might try a Online All Data DIY repair info sub.
http://www.alldata.com/products/diy/index.html

Also Mitchell on demand now has a DIY online subscription to Mitchell on demand.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by tblake

Ok today for a couple hours before work I messed with it. Alternator unhooked, starter unhooked. Both no change. I also unhooked pretty much every plug I could find (around the fuse box area straight to the back of the truck). Still no change.

What I did next was take apart the underhood fuse box. I found that removing the two large fuses made the draw go away. The reason it didn't before is because I removed them individually. Both removed together and problem is gone. Its the two fuses labled "Lighting", and "Battery". I looked up in the chiltons I have and Lighting is broken down to "headlamp panel dimmer switch, fog & courtousy fuses". Battery simply states "fuseblock busbar" and that is it. Are these two circuits tied to one another? I wish chiltons would give a little more detail.

I also removed the interior fuses in the drivers door jam one by one with no change.

Any one have any other ideas?

Please stick with me on this one, I just don't know what else to do next and really need to get this one figured out soon. 5A is WAY to excessive of a drain, it will kill the battery if I keep it plugged in and just keep charging it up.

Thanks for the help thus far. I will have more time to do some more testing tomorrow morning before work again providing the weather is good.

THE FUSE BOX SHOULD BE REMOVED AND INSPECTED FOR WIRE DAMAGE ..some have reported rodent damge with this type of issue..


need that wire diagram to make this easier ..

[tblake]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info! Much appreciated!

Although maybe not out of the woods yet I have some to report. I found a wire that the previous owner installed going to the fuse panel that he did not put a fuse in line with. I traced it back to where it rubbed a whole through the frame near the fuel straps because of course he didn't zip tie it up. The end of it just stopped, so maybe it was for a topper or trailer wiring or something. Either way I removed it in its entirity.

When finished, still dropping 5 Amps key off. WTF?!?!

Then I disconnected EVERYTHING, both door switches, Headlight switch, MFS, ignition switch, transfir case, trans connector, PRNDL. Removed all the fuses in the drivers door jam and went one by one down the line to measure the current draw on each. I found a list of about 10 of them all drawing this 'so called 5 amps'. The fuses ranged from trans fuses to transfir case to interior lighting. They were just all over the place, so I figured a bad ground, so I checked all I could find and came up empty.

Getting irritated, and it was clouding up, I bagan to button it all up and figued I'd bring it to the shop and just pay someone even though they would just do what I just did. Well, finished getting everything back together one last test on the batter posative cable and it showed that it was still dropping 5 Amps of current. Then I put the posative lead of the multimeter on the posative of the battery and touched the negative lead with my finger and found out that I also drop about 5 amps of current through my body. Go figure.

So I started the truck up, drove it a little and parked it. Today (1 day later), the truck started again, so either the battery hasn't been drained down enough to not start by the 5 amp draw that is still there, or else the 5 amp draw was never there to begin with and I have an issue with my multimeter.

That still doesn't explain the stone cold dead battery unless that one wire I found was the culprit and that I have been chasing a drain that doesn't exist since day one. (IDIOT).

Either way only time will tell I guess.

BTW, I am using a rather expensive craftsman auto ranging multi-meter. It has worked good for me since I bought it new, so I dont know.

[j cAT]

since I have worked in the electrical/electronic troubleshooting for many years the meters that have amplifiers in them to display read outs work good with voltages..

I prefer using my older meters with a actual meter movement to display ohms or current ...I want to see if it is fluctuating ..with the new style this is impossible to see at times ..

since your meter always indicates 5amps I would say it has a blown amp/resistor ...in that circuit..of the meter ..

the wire you found was probably the reason it drained the battery....

It could have caused the vehicle to burn up ! your lucky ....

[tblake]

I am indeed lucky. I wish if people didn't know how to add stuff safely to vehicles, that they would leave it to the pro's.

Day two, truck started right up. Knock on wood. I just feel like a dumb @$$ for spending two days tracing down an amp draw that may have never existed.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by tblake

I am indeed lucky. I wish if people didn't know how to add stuff safely to vehicles, that they would leave it to the pro's.

Day two, truck started right up. Knock on wood. I just feel like a dumb @$$ for spending two days tracing down an amp draw that may have never existed.

Well look on the bright side you found a bad wiring job that could have burnt it up.
And got all of the experience of checking amp draw.

Was you amp meter lying to you?
Good Luck

[tblake]

Truck is starting just fine. I would think if it really had 5amp key off draw, that the battery would be dead overnight.

I am thinking the meter was lying to me, but I have no other meters to use to check it.