Help! Truck keeps draining battteries!

[MScheiper]

Left my 04.5 parked for a few days over Christmas and went to open the doors and the key fob did nothing. That's strange...Opened the driver's door with the key and there were no interior lights on. Went to start it and...nothing. Went and checked both batteries and they were down to 4.0 volts. Pulled both of them and tried charging them and charger said they were bad batteries. Went out and bought new batteries and installed. Started and ran fine. Then it sat for two days and of course... both new batteries were now at 4.0 volts. Pulled them out and charged them. They were so low that my digital charger did not want to charge them. Worked them back up with an old charger. Now both new batteries are fully charged and I installed them hooked up the negative cable and put a voltmeter between the positive post and the positive cable end before attaching the post to the battery. The meter read a 12.94 volt draw with nothing on! Truck started again and I ran it in the driveway for about 10 min. Only codes were P2509 and P0243. Turned off the truck and disconnected the batteries again. Now I am stuck...have no idea what could be causing such a heavy current draw with nothing turned on. Any and all help greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!

 

[SnoKing]

Reading voltage between a disconnect neg and ground is not what you want to do! You need a higher current amp meter or put a number 97 bulb in the circuit and start putting fuses until it goes out or dims considerably! Solder leads on the bulb or get a helper to just hold it to make contact! SNOKING

 

[MScheiper]

Thanks for the reply! Put an amprobe's transformer jaws around the wire and got a spike in amperage when first hooking up the battery, but then there was no amp draw if I left the battery hooked up. Ah electrical issues!!!#@$%!

 

[SnoKing]

The clampon amp meter may not have a low enough scale to show 1 or 2 amp draw. Snoking

 

[MScheiper]

That is a good point. I was also wondering if it could be my TIPM. My wipers have been acting erratically for the past few months when on the intermittent setting. Could it be possible that one of the circuits will not close power off?

 

[Prairie Dog]

That is a good point. I was also wondering if it could be my TIPM. My wipers have been acting erratically for the past few months when on the intermittent setting. Could it be possible that one of the circuits will not close power off?

No TIPM on 04.5

 

[MScheiper]

Good to know. Thanks!!

 

[Bob V]

If you take a length of wire and coil it up it can become an amplifier for the amp probe. if you make 10 loops in the wire and then put in series between the battery and the cable and clamp the amp probe in the loops it will read 10X the actual amp draw, 20 loops =20X.

 

[sag2]

Use a meter with a 10 amp scale. Pull the battery cable off. Connect a jumper wire from post to cable and then put your meter leads on post and cable. Disconnect the jumper wire only leaving the meter leads and now you will be reading the actual draw. It may start out around 5 or 6 amps and should drop in increments to around 50mA. This is a very general number, a newer (2012-2015) vehicle might be less than 5mA, older will be higher, very old (80's) vehicles will again be low. If your 10 amp scale will not read low enough, once the level drops low enough for the mA scale (assuming it does) attach the jumper wire again, change the meter scale then disconnect the jumper wire again. If you break the connection for even a split second with both wires it will wake back up and blow your meter fuse if you have changed to the lower scale.
Once you have a steady reading (killing your battery in a couple of days I'm guessing 1-3 amps) start pulling fuses one at a time until the draw goes away. I like to take a photo of the fuse box and pull and leave the fuses out until you find the draw or have all the fuses out. Use the photo to re-install all the fuses in the proper places.

This video shows a fairly good example and is not too long. The way he hooks up his meter you can blow the meter fuse, so connect the jumper wire first along with the meter leads, then disconnect the jumper wire. So you would need two vice grips on one end, either battery post or cable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5fjFHfFCs4

 

[MScheiper]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I will
try it out this afternoon when I get home from work and let you know what I find out.

 

[MScheiper]

Thanks to everyone for your help! Well, after hooking up the amp gauge, the truck was pulling 2.24 amps with nothing turned on. After pulling the fuse for the Vistronic fan, the amp immediately fell ton between 0.01 and 0.02 amps. What does the vistronic fan do?

 

[MScheiper]

Found out that the vistronic fan is the clutch for the cooling fan. Any ideas why it would draw so much current at rest? Would I have to replace the fan clutch or is there an intermediate module that controls the current to the fan? Thanks!

 

[Bob V]

Check for bad wires going to the fan.

 

[AllianceDiesel]

I would be looking for a shorted wire, the fan shouldnt be pulling any juice while dead. Check right where the wires bend in the metal bracket at the bottom of the shroud

 

[SnoKing]

So unplug the clutch electrical connector and put the fuse back in, and see if you have the load or not. Seems there would be a temp sensor somewhere that caused the clutch to engage! SNOKING

 

[MScheiper]

Unplugged the wiring harness to the fan. The red wire had a small "bump" in it. Will cut out possible bad section and resolider it up. But while I had the fan disconnected, I put the #19 vistronic fan fuse back in and heard a audible clicking noise. Similar to a solenoid click. Did it a few times to try and see where it was coming from. But then it quit clicking after putting the fuse in 5 times. Started up the truck and ran it for a while and turned it off. Did not throw any codes. After the system levels back out, I will test the amp draw again. Appreciate you guys keeping the thoughts coming!! Thanks!!!!

 

[AllianceDiesel]

Unplug the fan and see if you still have a draw. If you do than its upstream of the fan. I will have to check a wiring diagram to see whats all in the circuit

 

[MScheiper]

Thanks everyone and AllianceDiesel and all for the help. I will continue the battle tomorrow. Hey AllianceDiesel, noticed you were from Alliance, Nebraska. I lived in Chadron for five years while going to CSC. Love the panhandle of Nebraska. Miss it!

 

[MScheiper]

Well, after disconnecting the fan and putting in and puling out the fan fuse with the batteries hooked up, I pulled an amp test again. Draw settled around 0.01-0.02 amps. Been running it on and off all day and draw seems to be still around 0.01-0.02 when at rest. Don't ask me what fixed it, but all appears good (knock on wood). Guess it just needed an "electrical exorcism". Thanks to everyone for all your help!

 

[SnoKing]

Replace the FAN relay!!!!! Sounds like the contacts were suck closed. SNOKING