2004 Sierra Electrial issue

[distra]

I have had a dead battery issue with my '04 Z71 Sierra SLT Crew Cab. Bought the truck in Oct '04 2wks later...dead battery. Dealer finally replaced the battery after 3 visits in Nov '04. The truck has been fine until last Saturday, went out to start it and all I got was "click". Jumped started it, took it to the dealer and they can't find any draws on the system. It seems fine now, but I am loosing confidence that it will leave me stranded. These trucks are too expensive to have these problems so early on. Has anyone else seen this?

[Yukon04]

If you are good with a multi-meter, check it yourself. The dealer is not the "see all, end all" to repair. They make mistakes just like everyone else. Put an ammeter on the batt gnd or feed line and check for current draw while everything is off. You should have no more than 20mA with the key out of the ignition. If you see more than that, start pulling fuses/relays until it goes away. It is a quick and easy thing to check.

 

And no...I have not seen this problem. Make sure that any modification you may have done to the vehicle are correct..

[distra]

If you are good with a multi-meter, check it yourself.  The dealer is not the "see all, end all" to repair.  They make mistakes just like everyone else.  Put an ammeter on the batt gnd or feed line and check for current draw while everything is off.  You should have no more than 20mA with the key out of the ignition.  If you see more than that, start pulling fuses/relays until it goes away.  It is a quick and easy thing to check. 

 

And no...I have not seen this problem.  Make sure that any modification you may have done to the vehicle are correct..

 

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Thanks. I'll give that a try. One queston, do I attach both leads of the meter to the neg lead?

 

Thanks again.

[71GMC_3/4T]

Power seats and the glove box light would be my first suspects, although it could be just about anything.

You can check the glove box light at night, checking to see if any light is leaking out around the edges.

If you have seat covers, or a sticky switch on one of your seats, it might be pulling power all the time.

If you use the current meter side of the meter, make sure you don't turn anything on, or you WILL pop the fuse in the meter if it draws over 10A typically. Like Yukon04 said, you will probably see some current draw from the radio memory, but that should be in the tens of milliamps at the most.

[asepgrad98]

to test draw, disconnect the negative battery terminal and hook one lead of meter to the terminal and one to the neg battery post.

[Yukon04]

Remember, to check voltage, you go ACROSS the meter

to check current, youu go through the meter.

Asepgrad98 is correct.

 

Typically, any more than 20-25mA is unacceptable.

40-50mA will kill your battery in a day or two

50-100mA will kill a battery overnight

[71GMC_3/4T]

Remember, to check voltage, you go ACROSS the meter

to check current, youu go through the meter.

 

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That don't make any sense to me... Instead of across the meter, I think you meant 'across the load'. And for current, you need to go through the meter, but use the Amperage jack on the meter, not the Voltage.

 

Voltage: Use the V setting and put your leads in the COM and Volt/Ohm jacks of the meter. You can measure the voltage of the battery, or you can put it in series with the cable and you'll see 12V if there is *any* current draw, as little as microamp class currents. You won't flow any current through the meter as it has a 1M or 10M internal resistance typically.

 

Current: Use the A setting and put your leads in the COM and A jacks of the meter. Beware, you will be limited to the fuse rating so you don't want to put it into a situation where it will try to flow more than 10A or you will blow the fuse inside the meter. Put the meter in series between the + post and the + terminal. If you use the mA jack of your meter, the dome light will blow the 400mA (typical) fuse, so use the 10A jack.

 

A lot of people will use a light bulb in series between the post and the terminal. The brighter the bulb, the higher the current draw. It's not very scientific, but it works great and you won't smoke a fuse in your meter. Those fuses are pricey and sometimes hard to find. Where I work, it's hard to find a meter with the fuses not blown since people don't understand how they work. Thank God for the fuses or we'd have a bunch of dead meters...

[roden001]

Personally, if I were going to check for current draw, I would put the meter in series between the negative cable and the negative terminal, as opposed to the pos side. It's safer, and you get the same reading.

 

Also, I've read that in late model vehicles, certain electrical components will 'turn on' to sort of 'boot up' when you connect the bettery after a disconnect. They can draw current for several minutes until things get set up. Since this disconnect/reconnect situation is exactly what you're creating when you disconnect a cable and insert the meter, it may pay you to leave the meter sitting there a few minutes to see if the draw goes down. Otherwise you may get a falsely elevated reading and go chasing down some draw that is not pathologic. I don't know if any of that is true, but it seems plausible to me. I'm no expert, though, so if anyone else knows different, call me on it by all means.