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2004 Silverado 1500 Parasitic Battery Draw

17K views 19 replies 9 participants last post by  j cat  
#1 ·
I have a 2004 Chevy Silverado 1500 Z71 with a parasitic battery draw that I have narrowed down to a couple fuses.

My current draw after all doors closed, lights turned off, truck cooled down is 1.38A. When I pull the Radio fuse it drops to 0.7A and when I pull the IPC fuse it drops again to 0.3A. This is still well above where it should be, and so I have to wonder if something maybe is not working correctly upstream of the radio and instrument cluster? I don't know if maybe the BCM is shot? Or if these things are connected elsewhere? My first thought was the ignition switch, but I disconnected all the connectors around the ignition cylinder as well as the switch itself with no change in current draw. It is as if things are staying on when the truck is off. I also noticed a static shock when I went to close my driver door after hopping out of the car, so maybe I have a short somewhere to the chassis ground? I am wondering if I should just install a battery disconnect...

Any advice on things to try next or any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
#2 ·
the gm trucks have a shutdown current flow around .25 amps and lower. the truck shuts down then 15-20min and then see if the current ..
now you did a few fuses pull it out then the BCM could be an issue ..or see if the door switches are not working ..
look up the engine rear next to the firewall then the GM ground strap corrodes..
 
#3 ·
Last year I bought a 2001 Yukon that had a known about parasitic draw on the battery. It was a pretty new battery but if you didn't run it every day it needed a Jumpstart. There are tons of videos on YouTube that can give you a few places to check for grounds that have gone bad and for components that are known for issues like spedo-gage clusters experiencing silver migration from the lead free soldering. My eventual solution was to installing a 250 amp alternator, and a second battery under the hood and hook it up full time. Parasitic draw that overnight.
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#4 ·
my 2000 silverado I would not use it a week later then start it .. starts good .. I have the alternator 105amp and a 800amp battery ...
you should look up the shutdown current flow use a amp meter see if the current is over .25 amp/ 250ma ..then the battery are loosing the power ..

many have a high powered audio amplifiers your should install it .. with your high current power on the amplifiers ..
 
#5 ·
I went way overboard for a reason, I've installed a 3500 watt pure sine wave power inverter and a 3 battery bank. It's all charged by the alternator with a cyrix intelligent battery combiner. I can monitor the current flow and starter battery voltage. Check out the Victron Bluetooth smart shunt, coolest gadget ever 😎. I'll add some pics of that soon.
 
#6 ·
Well my 2003 Silverado, was solved (so far) by instr panel replaced/additional gnd strap FW2eng/new batt .... it was intermittently draining batt for years, each fix would last a week or so then start up again, this last fix was the second instr panel, its been good for last 5-6 weeks!, keeping fingers crossed lol.
But now ever since inst panel installed my bck up lights and middle tail lights don't work! ... bulbs good, fuses ok, so not sure what now?? maybe wiring harness to rear??🙄
 
#8 ·
Bad grounds won't contribute to a battery drain, poor grounds are opens and current won't flow through an open.
However, there is a possibility that an open ground could cause a data LAN hic-cup, if the LAN can't communicate a system shut down (go to sleep) the awake systems will drain the battery.

But, this condition should throw a trouble code, lighting the CEL.
 
#12 ·
Okay, as stated above, I have the identical problem as the OP. I was thinking the bcm was the issue, but now leaning towards the fuse box. Mice moved in there over the winter and left plenty "signs" behind. Corrosion on the underside of the fuse box? I'm thinking that replacing it would be a pain, but may need to be done. Any comments? Thanks in advance ~ Bob
 
#19 ·
I drove my 2004 1500 for a year with the dash cluster removed and everything works just fine. I just kept forgetting and procrastinating on sending it in to get fixed. Because mine didn't work anymore. Also didn't fix my parasitic draw... still don't know what it is. I was bummed it didn't go away when I removed the cluster initially.