Parasitic Draw

[Cadillacmak]

My buddies 2004 Avalanche went into a death spiral last summer after one of his employees jump started it. No idea what took place but the radio, heater head unit, auto start (after market remote start) and the driver door controls all died. It also had a really bad parasitic draw that would kill the battery in about an hour. As I was replacing parts I pulled the radio out and it burned me, the side of that was HOT. Got everything fixed and the parasitic draw was gone. If you have a parasitic draw, might want to pull the factory radio out and see if its trying to identify as a toaster.

 

[someotherguy]

Couple decades ago I bought a '96 GMC C3500 extended cab dually, to build into a wrecker. Not quite the same symptoms but it had a parasitic draw that would run the battery down over a few days. I later noticed that the clock display on the stereo stayed on even with the key off. Pulled the stereo out and same thing - was VERY hot. I didn't care for the factory stereo much so I got an install kit and hooked up an aftermarket unit, no more issues.

Good thing it seems for both of us it was just the stereo itself, instead of some other RAP (retained accessory power) issue that could be caused by a bad BCM or something. ('96 didn't have that feature anyhow.)

Richard

 

[ORVietVet]

Parasitic draws can cause hair pulling and baldness. At least with codes, you get a starting place. With draws, anything sitting above the tires is suspect.

 

[Cadillacmak]

Couple decades ago I bought a '96 GMC C3500 extended cab dually, to build into a wrecker. Not quite the same symptoms but it had a parasitic draw that would run the battery down over a few days. I later noticed that the clock display on the stereo stayed on even with the key off. Pulled the stereo out and same thing - was VERY hot. I didn't care for the factory stereo much so I got an install kit and hooked up an aftermarket unit, no more issues.

Good thing it seems for both of us it was just the stereo itself, instead of some other RAP (retained accessory power) issue that could be caused by a bad BCM or something. ('96 didn't have that feature anyhow.)

Richard

I did the same thing for his, installed a Kenwood I had laying around using a kit from Crutchfield. He likes it and it didn't cost him much.

 

[Cadillacmak]

Parasitic draws can cause hair pulling and baldness.

Glad this one was easy!