Battery Drain

[treehan77]

You can take them apart and clean them. Mines been fine for about 3 years. Kind of fiddly as it sis t made to be taken apart.

 

[ukemike]

My '02 Burb's battery drains over time. I checked every circuit in the car. You put a multi-meter set to amps between the ground and battery, then remove every fuse one by one until you see the amps drop. That circuit will be the one with the problem. For older cars the amperage when the car is off should be under 20milliamps. That's to power the clock and the remote locking receiver. On newer cars under 50milliamps is considered normal. Our GMT800s are right on the cusp of being a newer vs older car. But I was unable to find which circuit was drawing the current. Maybe I needed to wait for the accessory power to time out. I may try again.

Since I only use mine for towing my race car, or hauling stuff, it sits for weeks or months without being started. Even a tiny amp draw can drain the battery to the point where the battery is damaged. So I installed a battery cutoff switch. So when I park the Burb, I pop the hood, then lock the doors with the fob, then I disconnect the battery with the switch, and close the hood. My battery has lasted a year with no issues since then. Yeah my clock always reads wrong, and the factory alarm is not functional, but I don't care about those things. What I do care about is that when I need the thing, it starts right up with just a little hassle. Obviously this would be a lousy solution for a daily driver.

 

[RB123]

I have an 2003 Yukon and there are several things pulling power when ignition is off. So much it’s draining battery in 4 hours or so. Mechanic said the instrument cluster is bad but there is like 5 things still pulling power. Any ideals?

 

[treehan77]

Put a meter on voltage and leads on either end of every fuse until you find the ones that aren’t 0.0

 

[Fless]

@RB123 Note that if your Yukon has the AUTO HVAC module it can take several hours to go to sleep. It may draw 50-80mA by itself before it goes nighty-night. But that won't drain the battery in 4 hours.

Plenty of threads on here about parasitic draw and how to test. Use the Search function and the word "parasitic" -- without the quotes -- and you'll see more than you ever thought possible. Here's one:

2001 yukon electrical issue

Hello everyone, I bought a 2001 yukon slt. It has a issue in the mornings. I have to jump it every morning, it runs all day. Start stop off on all day. The battery is good and the alternator is charging, but in the morning it just won't fire up with assistance. Anyone have this problem. I...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

 

[Larryjb]

This little device has worked well for me:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MT4583U?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

By recording voltage continuously, you can see if your alternator is doing enough work to keep the battery charged. Note, you cannot rely on the dash voltmeter to give you an accurate voltage reading.

That said, I once had a no start problem which I though was battery cables and grounds. In the end, it also turned out to be a bad starter. The brushes had worn down to the point where it was not making good contact anymore.