Battery Drain - illumination ghost in instrument panel

wang3922 · February 19, 2017

I have a 2003 Chevy Silverado LS 1500 5.3L Gas Extended Cab Longbed and am having a weird battery drain issue. After sitting for about a week in 65 degree temps (or two to three days in freezing temps) my battery will be completely dead - like I can't even operate the door locks it's so dead. I started having the issue about 1.5 years ago and replaced the battery, but that didn't fix the issue...

A few months ago I went out and peered into the drivers side window to find that the readout on my instrument panel (where the odometer reading, hourometer and tripometer is displayed) was completely illuminated (see picture below). This was after it had been sitting for at least a full day. As soon as I unlocked and opened the door, it went out. I have seen this many times now. I've had the truck for almost 5 years now and the only thing I have done to it is the installation of a radio about 4 years ago. It all seems to function great, minus the battery drain. Ideas? I have the Ghost Busters on speed dial if needed.

UPDATE: I just did a parasitic battery drain test and found that it was pulling 0.25 A when sitting and would occasionally jump up to and sit around 0.6 A. I pulled the IPC/DIC fuse and it drops to 0.004 A. So, I'm getting warmer... I also pulled my aftermarket radio out and found an Access GMOS-01 harness. Could this crappy harness be causing the problem? Is there a way to test it?

Edited February 20, 2017 by wang3922

&CDFiXER% · February 20, 2017

Try unhooking the aftermarket harness from the factory harness and see what the drain is, perhaps something in the aftermarket harness or radio is bleeding voltage into someplace it shouldn't.

Always been your truck? If not, look for any thing that probably shouldn't be there, under dash electronics wise.

A wiring diagram can be your friend here, if nothing else as a way to explain everything attached to the fuse(s) you pull to stop the drain.

Coby7 · March 14, 2017

O3-04 had this problem, the delay shut off timer stays on. PM me and I'll show you it could be.

jrow8162 · March 22, 2017

Check the door latch too! There is a sensor in there that kills the power when you turn the truck off. Does your radio ever stay on when you open the drivers door? Mine did the same thing. Cleaning it all up seemed to help!

Coby7 · March 22, 2017

Instrument cluster doesn't have RAP supply like the radio. The cluster should shut ''OFF'' 25 seconds after pulling the key. Some 03-04 stay on but it's repairable. I get at least 2-3 a month with this problem. Like this one...this is an 03

Edited March 22, 2017 by Coby7

Dereck06 · December 5, 2018

I have this same issue, did you find a fix?

Coby7 · December 7, 2018

Check my post on Tuesday.

Coby7 · January 12, 2019

Did one last week for a forum member from St-John and just did an other one of these. This time out of an 04.

Copper migration on the backplane again. This one would half shut down, it would go from drawing 42ma to 21ma after 25 seconds but would not completely shut down.

So in the process of rebuilding, I make it a point of cleaning any copper migration that I can see. Copper migration is often the reason why the High beam indicator stays on a dim lit. Then I cover it up with Kutex just because it's practical, comes with a small brush, does the job and not cumbersome on my bench.

Did this one in blue as per customer request with all new motors.

Took me all of 45 minutes.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Coby7

carkhz316 · January 25, 2019

On 1/11/2019 at 6:36 PM, Coby7 said:

Did one last week for a forum member from St-John and just did an other one of these. This time out of an 04.

Copper migration on the backplane again. This one would half shut down, it would go from drawing 42ma to 21ma after 25 seconds but would not completely shut down.

So in the process of rebuilding, I make it a point of cleaning any copper migration that I can see. Copper migration is often the reason why the High beam indicator stays on a dim lit. Then I cover it up with Kutex just because it's practical, comes with a small brush, does the job and not cumbersome on my bench.

Did this one in blue as per customer request with all new motors.

Took me all of 45 minutes.

Do you use native 12V LEds? Otherwise, you must hide your resistors well! Great job!

Coby7 · January 25, 2019

I use 12 volt LEDs from

http://www.led-switch.com/12 volt LED.htm

brcisna · April 4, 2021

Hi Coby,,

Thank You for the photos. Curious. What do you use to do the copper migration cleanup with? I am having the exact scenraio you describe,,on an '03 Suburban... I can see with a magifing glass some somewhat white coloring aound some traces exactly were you have the red outline.

Thank You