2011 Silverado battery drain

Fordsux · December 18, 2016

For 4 winters now my truck battery dies. When I take it to a dealer they tell me my aftermarket remote starter is the reason why before the technician even looks at the truck. My truck has had two new batteries (1 in December 2012 and 1 in January 2014) and right on schedule it needs a new one in December 2016. Once again I'm told, before any tests are performed, that the remote starter will be the problem. Sure enough, it was. The technicians report stated " suspect with the amount of accessories in the vehicle, even if they are not all used at the same time, causes a lot of draw charging system not allowing the battery to completely charge". The use of the word "suspect" is an assumption and not a fair evaluation of the real problem. The drain test the tech performed showed that the draw with the battery disconnected was 60 mA and with the remote starter disconnected the draw was 20 mA. WOW, a whole 40 mA from the remote starter. The math would suggest that with a 60 Ah battery this battery should last 1000 hours. I drive the truck 6 days a week, or more, and feel like I've been lied to to make me go away. This has caused me a great deal of inconvenience, and this time, an insulting price tag of $250.00 for the diagnosis. That didn't even include the extra $400.00 for a new battery, now that my warranty is over on the GM battery. Does anyone have any insights on what could killing the battery?

Doug_Scott · December 19, 2016

I am not sure how a remote starter (or anything else electrical) that for a year does not cause any issues, then start to create issues with the battery, and changing the battery magically fixes the remote starter from killing the battery over night. But then a year later, and it is back to killing the battery again. It does not make any sense that the issue goes away once the battery is replaced, and it does not cause anymore issues, until over a year later.

Ask the dealer to tell you what they did the last time to fix the remote starter. Obviously they must have done something, a new battery will still go dead overnight if the remote starter killed the battery overnight. Your truck is supposed to be equipped with something to help prevent any accessory from killing the battery. It should be shutting accessories off after 10 minutes. Every new vehicle will register a current flow from the battery to vehicle due to a few systems "waiting" for a signal from the driver's key fob, remote start command, etc. I always used a test light to check for voltage draws on a battery. Disconnect the negative terminal, connect a 12v test light to the ground cable, and use the probe to connect to negative terminal. If the test light illuminates, then you have sufficient current leakage to kill the battery over night. I doubt a 60mA leak will light up a test light.

Fordsux · December 20, 2016

Thank you Doug. I'm going to give them a call and thank them for fixing the remote starter, since I told them to close the hood because I wasn't paying for a new battery or a GM remote starter ($512).Since I picked up my truck from the dealer on December 16th my truck sat outside at -30C for 48 hours without being plugged and it started like it had a fully charged battery even though I was told they neither charged or replaced it.