97 Sonoma Battery Drain

[freakinbox]

Anyone had a smilar problem where the truck kept draining the battery when it was off? When it's on the volt meter shows 14 as the charge so the alternator is working. I am looking for a way to get this problem fixed asap since my corolla's windsheild just cracked on both sides... so I need to get the truck on the road asap

[bobcat5544]

Anyone had a smilar problem where the truck kept draining the battery when it was off? When it's on the volt meter shows 14 as the charge so the alternator is working. I am looking for a way to get this problem fixed asap since my corolla's windsheild just cracked on both sides... so I need to get the truck on the road asap

 

 

To find what is draining your battery you will need to do this.

Get a volt meter that can read amperage.

Disconnect positive battery terminal

Turn the meter on and put it on the amperage setting. Then hook one lead from meter to the positive terminal and the other lead to the positive battery cable.

Make sure everything is turned off.

Look at the reading leave it hooked up for 10 min and then recheck it. If it reads more then 30 mA (0.030 amp) then you have a parasitic drain problem.

From here leave the meter hooked up and start pulling one fuse at a time. Each time you pull one look at the meter if the amperage drops below .030 then that is the circuit that is cuaseing the parasitic drain.

Now you have to find out every thing that is on the circuit and unplug one part at a time until amperage drops. once it does then you found your problem

 

NOTE: make sure when doing this all doors are closed. If there is a light under the hood then remove the bulb. If you don't then you will be chasing a ghost problem.

[freakinbox]

Thanks!!

[freakinbox]

Ok so I did what you said, although I am not very good at reading the meeter....

 

The CTSY (#2 fuse) PK LPS (#3 fuse) and the RDO (#13 fuse) all caused the meeter to jump higher than it could read.

 

Does anyone know what runs of those circuits? I want to check if it's the devices on them or if it's the wiring itself.

 

**EDIT**

So I found the owners manual and I found out what all those fuses control

 

#2 fuse (CTSY) - Dome Lamps, Cargo Lamps, Visor Vanity Mirror, Cigarette Lighter, Inside rearview Mirror Lamp, Overhead console Lamps, Golove box lamp, Horns, Horn relay, IP courtesy lamps, power outside rearview mirror, liftglass release motor, illuminated entry module

 

#3 fust (PK LPS) - Parking lamps, license plate lamps, electric shift transfer case module, underhood lamp, rear wiper, fog lamp relay, door switch lamp, ashtray lamp, headlamp switch

 

#13 fuse (RDO) - Clock, Radio battery, CD player

 

 

Now I know some of those don't apply to my truck, rear wiper for instance lol, but is the only way to check the fuses is to go through each thing attached to them one by one?

[Reignofernie]

You should make sure there isn't a ground shorting out somewhere. My S10 did this once, cause my ground to the battery was ate up and grounding out in the wrong place.