Passenger Seat Draining Battery

[Aaron M]

Hi everyone I'm knew to this forum, but have browsed it for My problem and it seems everyone on here is pretty knowledgeable

So my problem is I have a 03 Tahoe LT 4x4 it has power and heated seats and pedal adjustments on it, I recently bought it for a steal and my wife noticed that the power seat on the passenger side wasn't working, so I looked it over and it was unplugged, both plugs were unhooked, so I plugged them back in the seat works perfect, so I thought maybe there's a reason it's unplugged so I messaged the previous owner and he said the seat drains the battery so he unhooked it? I've never heard of that so I left it alone, and sure enough I checked it this morning and the battery is completely dead, my question is has anyone had a similar problem and what's the fix? I thought maybe I have bad ground or a wire that has been rubbed bare under the seat and is draining the battery, it's a pretty sizeable draw I plugged it up at 9PM and less than 9 hours later the battery is dead,
Any help is appreciated!

Aaron

 

[Scottydoggs]

thats a good one for sure. you try unplugging just the heaters or the power to the seat to see which one is draining the battery? you could use a dmm to watch the power draw at the battery, plugging then in and unplugging to narrow down what one is acting up.

 

[Aaron M]

thats a good one for sure. you try unplugging just the heaters or the power to the seat to see which one is draining the battery? you could use a dmm to watch the power draw at the battery, plugging then in and unplugging to narrow down what one is acting up.

I'll have to give it a try, do you have any idea which plug is for the heated seat? There was a yellow plug which had only a few wires which seems like it would be the heated seat since the other plug was bigger and had alot of wires being the seats are 3 way power

Thanks again

 

[Tonyrodz]

I'll have to give it a try, do you have any idea which plug is for the heated seat? There was a yellow plug which had only a few wires which seems like it would be the heated seat since the other plug was bigger and had alot of wires being the seats are 3 way power

Thanks again

Usually yellow plugs are associated with airbags.

 

[Scottydoggs]

theres a load of stuff in the seat, yellow is airbag for sure. the other is likely the seats power, heaters generally have a thin black wire that has a in line plug near the seat cushions. they tend to follow the seat belt buckle side up to the seat.

some have a sensor in the seat that turns the air bag on and off depending if someone is sitting in the seat too. one more thing to check.

 

[Aaron M]

Usually yellow plugs are associated with airbags.

Good point I did notice it kept saying service air bag, I bet with it being unplugged it was causing that, could a pinched wire or a bare wite cause the power to drain that quickly? I just got the truck so I haven't has time to comb over the fuse panels yet, but the truck was defiantly neglected other than oil changes

 

[Aaron M]

theres a load of stuff in the seat, yellow is airbag for sure. the other is likely the seats power, heaters generally have a thin black wire that has a in line plug near the seat cushions. they tend to follow the seat belt buckle side up to the seat.

some have a sensor in the seat that turns the air bag on and off depending if someone is sitting in the seat too. one more thing to check.

Only those 2 plugs where unhooked, it was fine before I plugged those 2 up, after i reconnected them the battery was dead in less than 10 hours

 

[Scottydoggs]

id pull one or the other to see whats draining then.

when plugged in does the airbag light goes off? no warning from that?

you can also take the seats power controls off and unplug it. could be a bad switch. the seat heaters work? top and bottom? plugged in or not?

 

[Aaron M]

id pull one or the other to see whats draining then.

when plugged in does the airbag light goes off? no warning from that?

you can also take the seats power controls off and unplug it. could be a bad switch. the seat heaters work? top and bottom? plugged in or not?

I unplugged the seat left the air bag plugged in it still says service air bag but it's not draining the battery just the big black plug when plugged in drains it but the seat works as it should, with the service air bag can a damaged horn button cause that to come on? I noticed today right below the bowtie on the horn button it is cracked when I can see inside to the air bag?

I'm going to take the side off the seat and unplug the control and leave the big plug hooked up and see if it still drains the battery

 

[Scottydoggs]

your air bag cover is cracked, that can cause the horn to not work.

you have working radio and info buttons on the steering wheel? if you still have the stock radio the clock spring can cause both the dead controls and the air bag light.

both sides of the air bag you'll see a small hole, push a nail in both sides and the air bag unlocks, you can then unplug it and the horn wires. to replace the air bag.

the clock spring is under the wheel so that has to come off.

 

[Fless]

Be sure to disconnect the battery and let the truck sit for 10 or 15 minutes before doing anything with the airbags. You don't want them deploying when you're working on them.

Sounds like it's time to get a code reader that reads airbag systems; that can point you to the right airbag system/circuit to work on. Otherwise you're just groping in the dark.

 

[Scottydoggs]

i forgot that battery unhooking part. good call.


you can also try unplugging the yellow plug under the driver seat a few times, some times its a dirty plug.

 

[Aaron M]

Cool thanks for the info, unfortunately it doesn't have the factory radio any more so I cant verify if the volume buttons and stuff work, I know the mileage and info buttons on the bottom left work, so I definately need to get a code reader and see if I can verify what's causing the problems, I will get a can of contact cleaner and clean the connections and try the easy route first then get a little deeper into it. Thanks for the information and jumping on it quickly guys

 

[Aaron M]

The horn actually does work and I will be replacing the horn cover so I will probably take the wheel off and replace the clock spring any way, hopefully I can find some diagrams showing how that thing is replaced and what it looks like

 

[Scottydoggs]

clock spring is like 100 bucks or so. get it scanned before tossing parts at it.

the HU, your gonna want to see if its got one of them add on boxes installed to keep the wheel controls.

id think at night they would still light up if the clock spring is good.

the horn dont go through the clock spring.

heres a vid.

 

[mattt]

Subscribing as my 04 Tahoe chews thru batteries ever since I picked it up 2014.

Sometimes the power seat switch on the driver's side is reversed, push switch forward & seat moves back and vice versa. If yours does that too, that could be symptomatic of the seat problem.

 

[KBones]

I'd check the power seat and lumbar switches too. Maybe one is constantly making contact and sending power through it and draining the battery.