2003 Yukon Speakers went dead then battery drained

[West 1]

My 2003 Yukon 130,000 miles on it acted up. I have had this truck a long time and it has been very reliable. I installed dual batteries in it many years back because I worked weekends up in Lake Tahoe in the winter and the extra battery power always allowed this truck to start even in very cold weather.

Last week I drove it, all was perfect and then the speakers quit working? This does have the Bose system in it but no AMP as far as I know. I had a 2001 Denali before this and the sound was better with the AMP option.
I did not worry much about the speakers going out all at once. The radio still lighted up, all controls except sound still worked, I could even change volume but no sound came out. No bid deal.

Two days later I went to drive this truck and it would not start, batteries were very close to dead? This truck sometimes sits for 2 months without driving and it always starts fine with dual batteries. Both were replaced 2 years ago so they are not old and both are rated 800 amp so this truck has plenty of juice normally.

So I charged both batteries on a slow charge for a full day. Truck started up normally, RADIO speakers are working again???

I checked the AMP draw and was getting 117 MA. I unplugged the only external device a phone charger plug, the MA dropped to 99 or 100 MA, kept bouncing between the two.

I think the truck should sleep with around a 50 MA draw? Is this correct?

I do have a trailer brake controller that has lights lit full time, I did not search for the fuse for this unit to unplug it so it was still active, maybe this unit is maybe 50 ma of this draw? The brake controller has been in place for over 5 years now.

OK, so my question would be is the 100 MA draw normal?

I suspect the speakers going dead and the battery draining are connected since they happened at the same time.

After a full charge It sat overnight, no charging done since yesterday. I had 12.7 V at the center console cigarette lighter on start up. Jumps to 14V as soon as the truck is started. Radio speakers were still working again?

I should share the instrument cluster failed about 6 months ago and I had it fully rebuilt, everything on it has been perfect since then.

I did replace the Automatic Heater control with a Dorman unit about 2 months ago and it seems to work fine. (the lights are too bright compared to the OEM unit)

Is there a common cause of this type failure? I do not wish to destroy 2 near new batteries with an amp draw issue.

Thanks for any experience you can share.

Mark

 

[strutaeng]

Yeah, 100 mA is high. You are correct it should be 50 mA or less.

You need to do voltage drop across the fuses to find out which circuit is producing this draw.

On your cluster, what did they fix? Stepper motors? The issue causing parasitic battery drains is the non-leaded solder that breaks down over time and starts causing this.

I believe the little radio controller at the rear of the console can also cause similar battery drains issues?

If you are in the cold areas and can get ahold of a IR camera, you can try that to see where your hot areas are. Obviously, do this with a completely cold engine, possibly with a battery charger hooked up.

 

[West 1]

Thanks, it does have the rear radio control but I have never used it, I will check it out. With the Amp draw at 100 MA I did remove one Fuse at a time in the under hood fuse box and did not find amp draw change. I did not do the fuse box inside the cab yet.

I still think the speakers failing and the battery going dead at the same time are related but no idea where to check next. Having dual batteries slows things down as far as battery drain checks.

If it is the radio I actually was looking forward to finding a new radio with the CarPlay options, that would be a nice upgrade.

I have not tried the IR trick, good idea.

Several months back all my gauges started going wacky, lights went out, only one or two actually supplied information. A local guy rebuilt it, installed all new stepper gauges, re soldered many connections. So far it has been 100% perfect.

 

[Fless]

Your brake controller should go to sleep after a while, but it may be awake for 10 or 20 minutes after the ignition is shut off; that's a safety feature. Check the mfr. specs on it.

The OE AUTO HVAC heads (if you have AUTO HVAC) can take 3-5 hours to fully sleep. IIRC they draw about 60mA or so while they're awake. I'm not sure about the Dorman units.

Pulling fuses can be counterproductive, as modules can interact with others. Use the mini fuse test points to measure voltage drop across them and use the PowerProbe chart to estimate the draw if there is any. Lots of good parasitic draw videos out there, use the forum's search tool to find "parasitic draw" threads.

 

[West 1]

I checked the voltage with he truck parked tonight, it had not been driven since last night. Voltage at the battery was 12.62 tonight. I will check again tomorrow. I did not check it when I parked it since they always read a little high right after a drive. As new as these batteries are I would expect maybe 12.8V at the battery. The radio speakers are still working, still not sure why they failed previously. Maybe the battery had drained but the car still started and it messed up the speakers? If I find the drain I will let you know the source. Thanks again for the consultation.