Looking for advice and recommendations. I've been trying to track down the source of a parasitic battery drain on my 2003 Yukon SLT 2wd 5.3L with about 180k miles. I'm the second owner, had it for about a year. Always garage kept (per the prior owner).
BACKGROUND: A year ago, I put in a new Optima Red Top. All was well for several months. At some point maybe 6 months ago, I started noticing that upon startup after sitting over night, I would crank the key and the starter would crank like it was turning over and I'd let go of the key and it would continue to crank for a couple seconds then the engine would start. I figured this was likely due to lack of fuel while the fuel pump started up, so didn't think much of it (and this may indeed have been the case? unsure if this is related to my parasitic drain issue). Then, about a month ago I came out in the morning to find the battery totally dead. No dome lights, nothing. Jumped it and it worked fine that day. Would start fine (quickly, no crank crank crank) throughout the day. Worked fine for a week, then it started dying over night every night. I figured bad battery, so I replaced it with a wet battery from Napa. Same issue with it dying over night (took 2 days the first time, since then it's every night). I also ended up replacing the alternator with a new ACDelco reman. unit only because the old one was really old and it was a cheapo from Advance. Got it for 20% off, so didn't feel bad about throwing that money at it to get a new one in there at this stage in the vehicle's life.
So, I started researching this problem and found it could be a lot of different causes. Since this is a second vehicle for me and I can let it sit, I figured I'd start pulling fuses one at a time, with the most likely culprits first. I'm not testing with a multimeter -- just pulling a fuse and letting the vehicle sit overnight or even longer to see what happens.
Maybe I got lucky, but the first fuse I pulled is the Driver Information Cluster, a 10A fuse marked IPC/DIC. So far, the battery has not drained, and it has been two days. I'm going to leave it a few more days just to be sure, then pop the fuse back in and see if it kills the battery.
IF this is actually the circuit that's killing my battery, what should be my next steps? Can I be sure it's the gauge cluster, or could it be something else? Any other fuses I should pull or anything I should unplug to confirm this is the culprit?
And if my gauge cluster is bad -- I've read and seen on YouTube (West Main Auto has a good video of a 2003 Silverado where this was the problem) -- where should I send it to get it cleaned up and repaired? The guy on West Main Auto sent his customer's off to a place called United Radio (locations in Syracuse and Atlanta), and they replaced all the lamps and stepper motors, and resoldered resisters, cleaned up the silver migration on the back of the board (apparently this is caused by using non-lead solder when the units were built in Mexico)... the silver migration is supposedly what causes a parasitic draw - it's a corrosion that grows, and they use acid to clean it up.
So, my two questions for you all are:
1. From my test of pulling this fuse, how sure can I be that I've found my problem, and that it's the gauge cluster? Do I need to check anything else, or is this fuse pull test a sure sign it's the gauge cluster?
2. If I need to reman./refurb./clean/service my cluster, who should I send it to? United Radio? I've also found GMgaugerepair.com. Anyone have experience with these? Are there others you'd recommend?
Thanks in advance.
Jon
BACKGROUND: A year ago, I put in a new Optima Red Top. All was well for several months. At some point maybe 6 months ago, I started noticing that upon startup after sitting over night, I would crank the key and the starter would crank like it was turning over and I'd let go of the key and it would continue to crank for a couple seconds then the engine would start. I figured this was likely due to lack of fuel while the fuel pump started up, so didn't think much of it (and this may indeed have been the case? unsure if this is related to my parasitic drain issue). Then, about a month ago I came out in the morning to find the battery totally dead. No dome lights, nothing. Jumped it and it worked fine that day. Would start fine (quickly, no crank crank crank) throughout the day. Worked fine for a week, then it started dying over night every night. I figured bad battery, so I replaced it with a wet battery from Napa. Same issue with it dying over night (took 2 days the first time, since then it's every night). I also ended up replacing the alternator with a new ACDelco reman. unit only because the old one was really old and it was a cheapo from Advance. Got it for 20% off, so didn't feel bad about throwing that money at it to get a new one in there at this stage in the vehicle's life.
So, I started researching this problem and found it could be a lot of different causes. Since this is a second vehicle for me and I can let it sit, I figured I'd start pulling fuses one at a time, with the most likely culprits first. I'm not testing with a multimeter -- just pulling a fuse and letting the vehicle sit overnight or even longer to see what happens.
Maybe I got lucky, but the first fuse I pulled is the Driver Information Cluster, a 10A fuse marked IPC/DIC. So far, the battery has not drained, and it has been two days. I'm going to leave it a few more days just to be sure, then pop the fuse back in and see if it kills the battery.
IF this is actually the circuit that's killing my battery, what should be my next steps? Can I be sure it's the gauge cluster, or could it be something else? Any other fuses I should pull or anything I should unplug to confirm this is the culprit?
And if my gauge cluster is bad -- I've read and seen on YouTube (West Main Auto has a good video of a 2003 Silverado where this was the problem) -- where should I send it to get it cleaned up and repaired? The guy on West Main Auto sent his customer's off to a place called United Radio (locations in Syracuse and Atlanta), and they replaced all the lamps and stepper motors, and resoldered resisters, cleaned up the silver migration on the back of the board (apparently this is caused by using non-lead solder when the units were built in Mexico)... the silver migration is supposedly what causes a parasitic draw - it's a corrosion that grows, and they use acid to clean it up.
So, my two questions for you all are:
1. From my test of pulling this fuse, how sure can I be that I've found my problem, and that it's the gauge cluster? Do I need to check anything else, or is this fuse pull test a sure sign it's the gauge cluster?
2. If I need to reman./refurb./clean/service my cluster, who should I send it to? United Radio? I've also found GMgaugerepair.com. Anyone have experience with these? Are there others you'd recommend?
Thanks in advance.
Jon
