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Battery Drain on 1999 Silverado

reevesjo

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reevesjo Enthusiast

reevesjo

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Newby, just signed in to see if I can get some help. I have a 1999 Silverado 2500, V8 6L. I rarely drive it. I replaced the battery, but it still drains down in about 3 or 4 weeks so that it will not start. For awhile, I just removed the negative battery connection and it was always ready to start when I re-hooked it. Then, in order to get a cheaper State Farm Insurance rate, they gave me a device to insert in the diagnostic receptacle to trace my mileage. So, I had to leave the battery cable hooked up.

 

My question: How can I measure the battery drain to locate what is causing the loss of charge? It was doing this before I added the monitor device, so it must be something else. I am not an EE, but I should be able to trace it with a little bit of help?? I have digital and analog voltmeters.

02suburbanZ71 Senior Enthusiast

02suburbanZ71

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I know you want to do this yourself but the best fix is to have a shop do a parasitic drain test

oldscsc Enthusiast

oldscsc

Posted
Posted

I know you want to do this yourself but the best fix is to have a shop do a parasitic drain test

This isn't a hard test to do guys. No need to run straight to a shop.

 

Hook up an ammeter in series with the positive battery cable (cable --> ammeter --> battery terminal). The meter will become part of the circuit.

 

Post back with your draw rating. You'll want to use the milliamps scale. Pull fuses one by one and monitor the draw rating until you observe a substantial drop.

 

When you see the drop, you've found the source of your draw.

02suburbanZ71 Senior Enthusiast

02suburbanZ71

Posted
Posted

Make sure when you do your interior fuses (you may have 2 or 3 fuse boxes) you make sure you keep your door sensor pushed in with a clamp so the trucks not drawing power to keep anything on in the vehicle

oldscsc Enthusiast

oldscsc

Posted
Posted

Make sure when you do your interior fuses (you may have 2 or 3 fuse boxes) you make sure you keep your door sensor pushed in with a clamp so the trucks not drawing power to keep anything on in the vehicle

These trucks don't have door jamb switches like the older trucks. The switch is built into the door latch itself. To make the pickup think the door is shut, you will need to manually close the door latch while the door is open.

reevesjo Enthusiast

reevesjo

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TIME OUT!! I THOUGHT THE BATTERY WAS NEWER THAN THIS! I noticed the tag 4/10, so it is almost 5 year old. I put the load test on it and it said "WEAK", of course. All tests suspended until I get a new battery, and then I will try again. I will mark this post as SOLVED. If I have further problems, I will repost. Thanks for all of the suggestions. Joe

Cosmic Charlie Enthusiast

Cosmic Charlie

Posted
Posted

My same thought - a 5 year old battery may struggle to stay charged in winter for 3-4 weeks ... I'll bet you'll be fine with a new battery

 

 

If you don't want to buy a new battery -

put a battery tender maintainer on the old one evey time you park it at home you'd be fine (though not convenient)

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