2017 Yukon - Parasitic draw and other electrical issues

[ws6jay]

New guy here. Looking for some help troubleshooting a few issues with my wife’s Yukon.
1. The buttons for the heated/ventilated seats (both sides) stopped working. There’s a connector under the seat that I was able to unplug for a few minutes a few months back and that restored functionality, but now even that won’t work. Any tips on what might be the cause would be much appreciated. I have checked all the fuses, none are blown.
2. The rear windshield wiper and sprayer come on randomly, most of the time it’s like every 30 seconds while driving, but it can go a few minutes without doing it. It will wipe without the spray, and randomly spray fluid. I’ve resorted to pulling the wiper fuse in the rear fuse box and the rear sprayer motor fuse under the hood for the time being. Anyone had this issue or know where I should start looking?
3. This week her battery died, it was replaced last year, I had it tested at o’reilly’s and they were able to charge it and said it was good. I started diagnosing this with a multimeter and I have a parasitic draw of about 580 milliamps with all the doors closed and just the hood open. I’ve pulled every fuse in all 4 fuse panels. I’ve narrowed it down but I need some help getting closer to an actual fix. The DLC connector fuse in the driver side interior fuse box removes 200 milliamps of draw, not sure why an empty connector is drawing that much? The remaining 380 milliamps is strange, if I unplug the blue connector in the picture below at the battery distribution fuse block AND remove the 60amp fuse for the driver side interior fuse box, the draw goes away. Removing the fuse alone doesn’t eliminate the draw, I have to pull that blue connector out. I’m having a hell of a time figuring out what that blue connector goes to. Does anyone know?


Any help anyone can provide in troubleshooting these issues would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ws6jay]

Regarding the parasitic draw, I should also mention that I was able to confirm on my sister-in-law’s 2016 Yukon that her normal parasitic draw on that vehicle was only about 10-15 milliamps. So given that, I feel like the 580 milliamps draw we have has to be an issue and the cause for the battery draining. I’m no expert, so if I’m wrong and that’s normal please correct me.

 

[Fless]

That's correct; your target draw, fully asleep, should be 50mA or less. And it's typically less.

I'm not familiar with these as much as the earlier models, but sometimes the fuse for the DLC also feeds one of the 12v accessory outlets. Nothing plugged in on the console or dash?

Pulling fuses isn't always the best way to check circuits for current draw; have you tried using the test points that are on the mini fuses to measure the voltage drop, then converting that to amp draw? Ideally no fuse would have voltage drop, since having it would mean current is flowing.

I realize that doesn't work on the J-Case fuses nor the relays, but at best it would rule out (or indicate) those particular circuits.

 

[nemol]

New to the forum and hoping for some insight on my parasitic draw. Vehicle is a 2012 Denali XL 1500 6.2l with 96,917mi, purchased used and no rear entertainment package. The draw down to dead battery occurs over 4-7 days. I did a voltage drop test on the interior fuse panel, ran up and down the fuses about 5 times over the course of about 1.5 hours so I am pretty sure all modules were asleep. The number 1 fuse (rear seats) registered a steady 3mV reading on my multimeter and if I read my fuse chart (20 amp yellow fuse) correctly it corresponds to 9mA. I am also assuming rear seats means the 2nd row. Seat heat is working on both seats, as are the electric seat release switches. Ran through all the functions on the rear climate/sound controls and they appear to be working fine. I am wondering what all is on that circuit and if anyone has had a similar problem and fix? I have a trickle charger on it at all times now but would like to solve this problem. Next stop would be the dealer and since I just spent a buttload of money on paint correction and ceramic coating well....... I cringe at what they will do to my baby.

 

[Fless]

I would start by putting a DVOM inline with the negative cable, first on Amps, and confirm the actual draw with all modules asleep. That's without the trickle charger. Obviously don't start it or turn on anything that would overdraw the DVOM circuit rating.

Once you're below the limits of the mA selection on your DVOM, use that to get a more accurate reading. Hard to know what the full draw is without measuring it in-circuit.

 

[ws6jay]

Just wanted to update everyone so we can close this thread out and hopefully it will help someone in the future.
All 3 issues we were experiencing ended up being narrowed down to a pinched wiring harness in the driver side kick panel. Once we loosed up that harness and straightened it out, the issues disappeared. We had to repair a few of the wires and put it back in place where there wasn't so much stress on the wires.

The parasitic draw is gone, the ac/heat buttons for the seats are working again, and the gremlins in the rear wiper/sprayer are gone as well. All issues resolved!

 

[Tahoe14]

Good to hear and thanks for the update.