Parasitic drain or starter?

[mossy oak]

It does have autoride. But like I said the battery draw is normal when I check it and today it didn't die so it's intermittent it seems. Thank y'all for chiming in. Means a lot to have folks around willing to help a newbie

 

[mossy oak]

Besides that, the fuse is pulled from the cluster and it was dead anyway. The cluster and fuse have been out for days for repair and it died after that. The draw is between 10 and 30 mA

 

[M1Gunner]

Funny you mention this, on my old 2000 Z, the plastic hinges had become brittle and wouldn't keep the switch depressed for the vanity lights above the visors (both sides, too). Drove myself crazy trying to find the drain. Couldn't believe it when I found it to be that. I stretched rubber bands around the visor to hold them closed! Lol

Damn it man! did you just happen to notice it or did you have to chase down the draw? someone who never uses those mirrors or visors would never think to check those either.

 

[HiHoeSilver]

Damn it man! did you just happen to notice it or did you have to chase down the draw? someone who never uses those mirrors or visors would never think to check those either.

I hadn't gotten to the point of pulling the tested out yet... It had happened a couple nights in a row, so I was just looking for anything that could possibly be on and it had gotten dark enough that I noticed a glow from up there, and was like no F-ing way...

 

[M1Gunner]

Ok so, just to be clear, now that the DIC is removed from the caddy you haven't had the draw, correct?

 

[mossy oak]

I have had the draw. I haven't seen it with the meter but the battery was dead twice when I left it sitting overnight. I haven't caught it going over 30mA with a meter since taking the fuse out for the dic but have had a dead battery at least twice

 

[rockola1971]

10-30ma draw is NOT killing your battery overnight. My bets are one of the following:

(1) You arent catching it drawing much higher draw overnight and its the BCM causing it. Bad BCM or needs programming updated.

(2) Its your battery. Sulfated or shorting cell(s) loading the battery down and killing it overnight. Charge that battery all the way up for with an automatic charger then let it sit overnight and check its battery voltage with a meter the next late morning. Should be around 12.5v or better. If its less than 12v then you have a load inside the battery and its most likely a shorted cell(s). Buy a new one in that case.

(3) You have an intermittent light that is not staying off because of a bad switch, maybe even a bad door switch.
(4) intermittent shorted terminal(s) on the ignition switch.

(5) bad/loose/corroded/broken ground strap behind engine block on firewall. This is where the BCM gets its ground and the BCM can do all sorts of crazy stuff when it loses its ground. CLEAN THAT GROUND CONNECTION NOW because if it isnt causing the problems now it will just be a matter of time before it does.

(6) Autoride is acting a fool. Disconnect power via the fuseblock and see if the problem goes away. If it does then troubleshoot the autoride system for the culprit.



And it aint your starter. The starter wont draw any power until the solenoid is passed ignition voltage at the switch terminal via the ignition switch.

 

[mossy oak]

It's funny you mention the ignition. There is a relay below steering column that was put in after market. I began cutting the under dash lights out and it looks like it was part of the lights. I cut it off with side cutters and shorted the wires past the relay and it began cranking so I know it was to ignition but it looks to me that they used the ignition wiring to power the lights via a controller but this was spliced into the ignition wiring. I pulled that relay out and it will not crank. Should I cut above the relay and splice it?

 

[mossy oak]

i replaced that relay and it then cranked so I wire nutted the ends of the wire past the relay and left it alone but...

 

[HiHoeSilver]

It's funny you mention the ignition. There is a relay below steering column that was put in after market. I began cutting the under dash lights out and it looks like it was part of the lights. I cut it off with side cutters and shorted the wires past the relay and it began cranking so I know it was to ignition but it looks to me that they used the ignition wiring to power the lights via a controller but this was spliced into the ignition wiring. I pulled that relay out and it will not crank. Should I cut above the relay and splice it?

You sure it wasn't the other way around, and was some type of remote starter setup?