Battery Drain

[Pawel]

Good day guys,
Well my factory batteries have been going dead if the truck sat over a week and as in dead the dome light and everything else would come on but the truck would not start...so I replaced them with some red tops that were 2nd hand from a buddy of mine, since I put those in it was about 2wks than went to drive it one day and truck was dead.
I load tested them and it said they were good so I did and amperage draw test and its showing 25ma(miliamps) is that too much? While I was doing this test I also had the alternators unplugged just to eliminate that
Also when I go to hook up a battery it's got a pretty significant spark.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

the truck is a 07.5 GMC 2500 duramax

 

[Longhorn]

Seems to be a real common issue with todays vehicles...I have a 2008 Dodge 3500, and a 2012 Dodge 3500, and the 08 will die in about 3-5 days. Been to the dealership, they can measure a draw, but cant tell me where its coming from. The ECM draws, the PCM draws and yet neither should kill a battery.

Wifes truck is a 2011 Expedition Max with air ride and it would die over the weekend in the garage, stumped us until one night Im working in the garage and I can hear a funny noise coming from it. Turned out the compressor will kick in and out to fill the air ride if the doors are unlocked. If we lock it, the flashing lights for the alarm seem to kill it, so in essence if we dont drive it every few days, its dead too. Needless to say we have a lot of battery chargers in our garage lol.

So...I know none of this helps really other than I feel your pain...

 

[Pawel]

Yeah kind of frustrating I guess maybe I need I drive my truck more or throw a trickle charger on when it's not being used.
The funny thing is that I have all the fuses and relays pulled and the alternators disconnected and still getting a draw....junk I tell ya lol

 

[Longhorn]

Yeah kind of frustrating I guess maybe I need I drive my truck more or throw a trickle charger on when it's not being used.
The funny thing is that I have all the fuses and relays pulled and the alternators disconnected and still getting a draw....junk I tell ya lol

Ya I dont know anything about GM but the dodge has a fuse block under the hood, and the draw is coming out of there, but they cant tell why. Can Tire has some sort of trickle charger you wire to the battery then there is a plug, so you would have to plug in but they are supposed to work well, but I havent had time to check into. We use cutoff switches on our other machinery and never an issue but I dont want to have to reset the clock and radio and all that jazz every time I start it. Sadly I just live with it...

 

[Pawel]

I'm gonna have to look into that crappy tire dooma hicky as well and possibly purchase one this weekend.
Or just trade the truck off on a new one lol

 

[Longhorn]

I'm gonna have to look into that crappy tire dooma hicky as well and possibly purchase one this weekend.
Or just trade the truck off on a new one lol

Haha thats why I got the '12...Just ended up keeping the 08 for the field.

 

[LBZ]

Good day guys,
Well my factory batteries have been going dead if the truck sat over a week and as in dead the dome light and everything else would come on but the truck would not start...so I replaced them with some red tops that were 2nd hand from a buddy of mine, since I put those in it was about 2wks than went to drive it one day and truck was dead.
I load tested them and it said they were good so I did and amperage draw test and its showing 25ma(miliamps) is that too much? While I was doing this test I also had the alternators unplugged just to eliminate that
Also when I go to hook up a battery it's got a pretty significant spark.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

the truck is a 07.5 GMC 2500 duramax

What sort of "goodies" as per your sig do you have on your truck? As in anything that uses electricity. 25mA isn't alot considering the amp hour rating on your batt should sustain that for quite awhile.
Never had a problem with my '07 dmax but the glove box light switch in my old powerstroke sometimes doesn't turn the light off and that drains my batts after a couple days. It draws about 500mA.

 

[SledMamma]

My Ford ExpeditionMax also developed this problem. I did some youTube research and figured out how to diagnose it. You have to start pulling fuses until there is no draw to figure out where it is coming from. It can come from the most random of sources: mine was a burnt out seat heater on the driver's side...

 

[papajake]

mine sits outside for a week without being started got a crappy tire 1amp charger you put on the dash and plug in to the lighter

 

[Pawel]

What sort of "goodies" as per your sig do you have on your truck? As in anything that uses electricity. 25mA isn't alot considering the amp hour rating on your batt should sustain that for quite awhile.
Never had a problem with my '07 dmax but the glove box light switch in my old powerstroke sometimes doesn't turn the light off and that drains my batts after a couple days. It draws about 500mA.

The only thing that would be an electrical add on is the edge programmer which I unplugged and LED off road lights.
I think I'll just throw a new set of batteries in and go from there

 

[tex78]

25 ma is pretty good for a new truck.

Is say its pretty close.

Do u have a phone booster or hands free in the truck ?


Just about every draw I've done in the last while has been that Friggin booster.



sent from my htc

 

[Pawel]

25 ma is pretty good for a new truck.

Is say its pretty close.

Do u have a phone booster or hands free in the truck ?


Just about every draw I've done in the last while has been that Friggin booster.



sent from my htc

As in pretty good do you mean excessive or within in spec?
And no booster or hands free.

 

[Summitric]

Easy test....... Hook-up the multimeter to the battery between the positive cable and positive battery post(disconnected) and start pulling the fuses 1 at a time(be sure to have a chart or write down each one you took out, so they can go back in the same place)....... This might help determine where the draw is, as to which circuit you'd have to start looking into.

 

[DaveB]

The GM has about 3 modules that power down at different intervals. You can do the test Rick says above....it will start out around 100 mAh, then in 15 min go to about 50, then by the next day go down to 25 or so. As soon as you open a door or do anything, the modules all pop back to life. I went through this with an 06 GM 1/2 ton and again with my 2010. My 06 had an aftermarket remote start and a wizzy stereo...so automatically most places just blamed it on that. My bud Pecos put his best guy on it and they had to leave it overnight for everything to power down, then they started pulling fuses...I have the list of little tiny draws somewhere...but it boiled down to: this is how it is. My 2010...factory remote start, factory stereo....with a add-on sub and amp. First winter I left it for 4 days: boom, no start. I was frickin pissed! Put an isolator under the hood, and added a second battery...no issues since.

This is the isolator I went with:
Painless Performance: Digital Power Manager

It will let the main battery get sucked dead, but when you hit the key, the reserve batt is still at full charge and she wheels over. I have NO accesories hooked to the second batt.

 

[LBZ]

I think Tex means good as in not very much draw for a new truck considering the electronics on them.
Starting with good batteries is a good starting point.
I wonder if you don't have a bad ground or poor connection somewhere between the batteries and the starter/engine block/fuse box/dual batt tie in connection somewhere or a bad cable..........
Measuring resistance between the starter terminal and batt on the ground side and the pos side as well as measuring voltage drops when cranking across connections is the only way to properly check for this.

 

[steveo10]

all of our new westernstars come stock with a isolation switch right by the drivers seat... comes really handy when i got to do some welding on the truck!

 

[shoppingcart111]

This is the isolator I went with:
Painless Performance: Digital Power Manager

It will let the main battery get sucked dead, but when you hit the key, the reserve batt is still at full charge and she wheels over. I have NO accesories hooked to the second batt.[/QUOTE]

DaveB, how much was this module and where did you get it? I want to put a second battery in my half ton for acc. and looking for something like that which is automatic in how it controls the two batts.

 

[Pawel]

Thanks for all the replys guys and gal it puts me in the right direction on what to do but I will definately start off with a set of batteries.

 

[TylerG]

lady at work here, had major battery drain from a faulty after market remote starter... do you have an aftermarket remote starter/alarm?

 

[SledMamma]

Easy test....... Hook-up the multimeter to the battery between the positive cable and positive battery post(disconnected) and start pulling the fuses 1 at a time(be sure to have a chart or write down each one you took out, so they can go back in the same place)....... This might help determine where the draw is, as to which circuit you'd have to start looking into.

Yup! This is exactly how I did mine. It was kind of a pain doing it by myself... Running back and forth between the fuse box under the dash and the battery to test it, but it worked. I highly recommend having an assistant fuse puller!!