Parasitic Battery Drain

[YellowFever88]

My truck wouldn't start yesterday. Got a new battery installed, alternator is charging well. I had starting trouble with the new battery this morning, and don't know what to do to find the drain. Any suggestions?

Nothing is plugged into the chargers/cigar lighter. All lights are off, accessories are off.

 

[rottenronnie]

Hook a multimeter to the negative post and remove fuses one at a time until the voltage drops.

 

[VIPR PWR]

All newer vehicles have some sort of parisitic drain over time sitting will drain Down the battery .... another thing is how much you drive it ... quick short trips up the road to a quick stop and home will tend to not let the battery charge fully .. take the scenic route and run it longer ...
other than that do Ronnie’s suggestion

Check the underhood light with the hood closed ...

 

[Silver05]

Do you have an amp or capacitor drawing ?

 

[VIPR PWR]

As my luck will have it ..Today I went out to start the truck for a grcery run and click click click it went .. good thing I have a battery charger ... the battery was replaced about 4 months ago . This is the second time in a month that this has happened . I drove to advance auto parts to have them run their tests again .. guy told me everything was working and he could not warranty the battery unless the test showed it was bad .. I talked to the manager and said go ahead and put a new battery in it .. after I got home I used my volt meter to test it and see what the alternator was putting out .. battery read 12.5 volts , alternator at idle showed 13.8 volts with and without the a/c and radio on , ground leads were clean and tight . .. I did notice that the gauge on the dash was reading closer to 14 volts at idle . I did test the volts on the batter prior to charging it and it read 11.5 volts . The guy that tested it said all it needs is a charge .. same as the last time I had them test it .. makes no sense that everything is working within specs and the truck wouldn’t star twice now ... I see what happens in the next few days , weeks etc ... maybe even do a few more tests .
My thought was that the battery has a slight short and was ready to go completely out in the near future ..
I was also starting to have the radio sound not turn on when I started the truck again that I was saying in another thread .. the new battery went in and the radio fired up right away

 

[Slitherbeast]

What year is your truck?

 

[VIPR PWR]

What year is your truck?

Well if your asking me ,,, it’s an 2005 QC

 

[beastmode1]

My truck wouldn't start yesterday. Got a new battery installed, alternator is charging well. I had starting trouble with the new battery this morning, and don't know what to do to find the drain. Any suggestions?

Nothing is plugged into the chargers/cigar lighter. All lights are off, accessories are off.

I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago my battery was drained. dealer sold me a new one with a 850 Crank power this time as my old one was 750 Crank. My question for you is what type of battery did you buy? A mopar battery I bought was cheaper than the ones the part store were selling and a 3 year warranty was included with the Mopar one. It might very well be a battery like in my situation.

 

[Slitherbeast]

Please see post #2...... it is the most logical way to find the source of the voltage leak..... try to leave the doors either open or closed, then wait 30 seconds.... the yard lights will draw power for 30 secs after disturbed..... could be a stuck relay or faulty electrical device.

 

[RUSS0469]

My truck wouldn't start yesterday. Got a new battery installed, alternator is charging well. I had starting trouble with the new battery this morning, and don't know what to do to find the drain. Any suggestions?

Nothing is plugged into the chargers/cigar lighter. All lights are off, accessories are off.

Do you have yellow fever#88? If so I am a previous owner and I have something you might want! Does your truck run at 190degrees? I have the SCT tuner and didn’t take tune out before I sold it. I meant to but apparently it didn’t happen. I have tuner and will sell cheap! If interested call me 401 359 7786 Russ.

 

[rottenronnie]

Did you ever find the source of the drain?

 

[VIPR PWR]

Simple test for finding parasitic battery drains ....

Make sure everything is turned off ,Keys out of ignition, doors closed and hood light off etc
.
Make sure battery is fully charge and approx 12.6 volts .

Disconnect the negative battery cable .

Connect the test light to the battery post and the other end to the removed negative battery cable end.

If the test light lights up you have a circuit causing the drain on the battery.

Finding the circuit at fault ...

Leave the test light connected and lit up.

Start removing fuses and immediately reinstalling them one at a time (so you don’t mix them up)until you find the one that turns the test light off.

There it is the battery draining culprit ...

Find out which circuit that fuse controls reading the underside of the fuse box cover.

Now it’s just a matter of find out the problem with that circuit and fixing the problem ..

If the circuit that you find operates a non essential circuit you can just remove the fuse and stop the drain till you get it fixed .

Caution: Make sure all the essential things are still working ,,
All lights turn signals , head lights reverse lights brake lights, wipers etc .

My truck has a parasitic drain ,,, battery is sucked dead in 2 days of sitting ... I tracked down the culprit ... fuse #51 ( radio , hood light and cluster) ...
Okay , what the heck is CLUSTER ? I assume it’s the dash lights / instruments !
I checked all essential exterior and interior/dash lighting .. everything is working with fuse 51 removed .. hood light is off , radio I know there’s problem (had it for a while ) and has to be the main problem ... now after leaving the AREA 51 fuse pulled and closing up everything thinking I’m good to go I pushed the button to lock the doors on the key fob ,, didn’t lock , hmmmm , Opened the door hit the unlock button nothing , hit the lock button and heard a click like it was working .. tried the door lock button got the same click sound but nothing happened .. now I’m wondering if I manually lock the truck and key open the door is the alarm going to blast off and I can’t shut it off until I start the truck real fast .. neighbors would love me if that happened ..
So that must be or have something to do with CLUSTER ! The funny thing is , when I put the key in the ignition and push the key fob unlock and lock buttons they work !
Any ideas why ?
PS: I say remove one fuse at a time and put it back in immediately for a reason .. I pulled one of the relays and put I back in the wrong place needless to say when I was checking everything to see what works after pulling the AREA 51 fuse I found my wipers didn’t work ... put the fuse back in and they still didn’t work .. so I check the relays , and sure enough I put it in the wrong place .... Im freaking getting old and now senile

 

[Kiwi SRT10]

The stock radio uses power while parked up. I have to disconnect battery on mine if I park for any length of time

 

[Snake Charmer#04]

My 2004 2/door silver Ram SRT10, is covered with truck cover in my driveway. Just drop a New T56 Magnum transmission in it. Don't drive it much... Took the battery out, put the battery on a battery tender to keep it charged. So, that the battery stays fully charged when I'm ready to drive her.

 

[Wifey]

same for the Queen

 

[Wifey]

did this issue ever get resolved ?

 

[Kiwi SRT10]

did this issue ever get resolved ?

I just disconnect the battery because after 3 weeks the battery does not have enough charge left to start the engine.
The OEM radio is the guilty culprit in mine but I don't care I wanted that back in it and I have a solar panel sitting in the garage window that keeps the battery happy.
So it is not a real problem for me.

 

[AMS3]

I just disconnect the battery because after 3 weeks the battery does not have enough charge left to start the engine.
The OEM radio is the guilty culprit in mine but I don't care I wanted that back in it and I have a solar panel sitting in the garage window that keeps the battery happy.
So it is not a real problem for me.

I haven't experienced any battery issues, but then mine is a daily driver. Put a new 750 cranking amps battery in about 8 months ago, she fires right up.

 

[VIPR PWR]

My truck wouldn't start yesterday. Got a new battery installed, alternator is charging well. I had starting trouble with the new battery this morning, and don't know what to do to find the drain. Any suggestions?

Nothing is plugged into the chargers/cigar lighter. All lights are off, accessories are off.

Temp fix i use is a quick disconnect on the battery terminal .. i disconnect the battery when i return home plus its added protection against theft

i suspect on mine since my front drivers door speaker was making racket instead of music , that it might be the wires in the door jam boot broken ,, seems to be a common thing on dodge trucks . Second on mine the factory amplifier , pain in the ass to replace or third the head unit of the radio or wiring to it ..
i tried pulling fuses to the radio and such , but the fuse seems to operate other needed accessories .. loke power door locks , dash lights and gauges .. so the disconnect was the option for now .

 

[VIPR PWR]

I just disconnect the battery because after 3 weeks the battery does not have enough charge left to start the engine.
The OEM radio is the guilty culprit in mine but I don't care I wanted that back in it and I have a solar panel sitting in the garage window that keeps the battery happy.
So it is not a real problem for me.

Radio is the culprit you said ,, head unit , wiring or amp ?