97 tahoe with electrical draw ( help )

[diesel1114]

good morning guys my 1997 tahoe has a 1 amp draw problem i checked it with a multimeter and i pulled all the fuses one by one,the draw stops when i pull the RADIO BATT fuse out,i thought it may be the stock radio amp so i disconnected the harness from the amp itself but theres still a draw,i then disconeected the harness behind the stock head unit and the draw stopped ,what else is tied in that fuse any help appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Donnie Yukonie]

Moved to the correct section this will net you the best feed back when posting on the forums

as for your question

Im Assuming you have a stock head unit? if so is this draw killing your battery and how fast?

 

[diesel1114]

yes stock head unit,it is killing battery.would stock head unit be the culprit?maybe shorting out?

Thanks

 

[SunlitComet]

the radio should be the only thing on the circuit. that circuit is used to retain the memory and clock settings. nobobdy has any real tech data on the radio but a 1 amp draw when the key is off is a bunch. my alarm system with 3 control modules with three sensors and 3 triggers and a kenwood h/u with nav and a boat load of other stuff on standby dont even use 1 amp. I think total is like less then .2 to .3 last time i checked.

 

[diesel1114]

So maybe the radio itself is no good and has a short in it?

 

[SunlitComet]

very likely. is it draining your battery bad?

 

[diesel1114]

worse when its raining out and truck sits.

 

[SunlitComet]

humidity level huh, and it is only the radio circuit for sure?

 

[diesel1114]

Yup the only fuse that stops the draw

 

[DallasTahoe]

My truck does the same thing, but only "occasionally", and I say that because I haven't been able to see any kind of common factors, except for my roommate setting off my alarm everytime he comes and goes, only two times a day, but my truck is not always at home, sometimes I stay at my girlfriends house for the weekend but I don't leave it without starting it for more than a day. Sometimes I can leave it alone for two or three days and its fine, and sometimes I can leave it overnight and its dead in the morning, but the times when the battery is dead is so erratic I cant pinpoint the drain. So my dumb question for the day is how do you use the voltmeter like you did to discover where the draw is coming from?

 

[SunlitComet]

you use the amperage measuring function. most if not all have two setting use the 10 amp setting first and place it between the the battery pos and the under hood power block power lug cabling that goes from it to the battery, start with the fuses on that block and measure the amperage change with each fuse removed. the ****-fuses except for one-three all feed the inside system so measure those individually too. doing all this may cause you to loose memory settings in your pcm and other vehicle modules and radios and such. the pcm will adjust it.self after some driving.

---------- Post added at 10:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 AM ----------

once you think you will measure less then lower setting on your multimeter use that setting for a more accurate amp draw. of course you can you inductive ammeters too.

 

[diesel1114]

disconnect the negative off the battery,set the multimeter to amps and place one prong of the meter to the disconnected negative terminal and the other on the negative post of the battery you took off the terminal from and see what reading you get.

Thnks