• If you currently own, previously owned or want to own an Avalanche, we welcome you to become a member today. Membership is FREE, register now!

Parasitic battery drain.

mpfromdc

New Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2018
Messages
4
Battery died, 6years old. Replaced battery and unknown driver appeared on dash. Would turn over and start and then shutdown. Let it sit overnight and new battery was dead. Recharged it and same diagnostic on dashboard. Pulled radio fuse and truck has been operating normally. Put fuse back in and everything was good. Next morning battery was dead again. I had an aftermarket radio (Pioneer) installed 5 years ago and have never had an issue with it. Anything else running off of the radio fuse that could be causing this drain, since the only way the truck operates now is with the fuse pulled. I also have disconnected the radio harness as well. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
With this new radio install any other a/v equipment installed?
Amp? converter, adapter?
Start unplugging your mods first.
 
I have a steering wheel control module that was installed when the radio was replaced. I disconnected it back to the original socket connection and the battery still died. It has the original Bose speakers and amp. Does the amp still have power before that connection? Thanks for the reply
 
Search BOSE AMP on here as some have said it kills battery when she is going bad
Was not long ago either...
Check in these sections:
Problems: Basic Electric
Problems: systems
A/V: amps.
 
Thanks for the list of things to check. Started a sequential plugging back in one thing at a time and waiting a day to start the truck. Everyday the truck started and had no issues. Did a parasitic amperage draw test on the battery and after 10minutes of watching it go from 5.2 amps it went down to 43 milliamps which according to all the utube videos was normal. Reconnected everything and started the truck and everything is back to normal on day one. Will see what happens overnight and report back with results. Thanks again.
 
Reporting back on my issue. I haven't had any problems with the battery or the truck starting since I last reported at the end of May. I really believe that the problem was with the negative battery cable connection. I slid the boot down and wire brushed the end of the connector and the bolt that holds it to the battery. I don't have any other explanation as to how this problem was resolved. Thanks again for responding. Hope this helps someone else down the road.
 
I had a drain on my battery that would kill it if the truck was not driven for a few days.

It ended up being a bad instrument cluster.

I happened to walk by my 2004 EXT inside a dark garage and when I glanced inside the truck, I noticed a faint gibberish display on the cluster DIC.

Research showed this was a known problem back in the day.

There was even a factory recall way back then and the cluster in my EXT had a sticker on it indicating it had been replaced at some point.

I doubt that recall is still in force, however.

I opted to replace my cluster with an upgraded and repaired unit.

No more battery issues.

You can test yours by simply removing the cluster and see if your battery drain disappears.

Free and easy way to test.
 
Back
Top