Big parasitic draw and already tested all circuits

[hekg]

Ahhh ok got it. Thanks for the tips guys. I guess I'll have to pick up a meter that can read dc amps and start there and report back.

On another note, when I charge the battery or if I jump start the truck with another car or another battery pack my truck tries to start then turns off immediately. I have to repeat this process about 5 or 6 times for it to finally start but I still have to hold the rpmps at around 2000 because if I let off the gas it'll stumble and stall again. After a few minutes it'll be fine on it's own.

This is something that never happened until my battery started dying so frequently. What would be the cause of the truck having such a hard time starting even after fully charging the battery?

 

[Bone Shaker]

Just F Y I my dome light switch had a little piece broken off. Not enough to activate the lights but would cause a draw. Remove all interior light bulb and see if this stops it. If so replace them one at a time and wait a couple of days before you install the next one. It worked for me. I know it is a royal pain. Good luck

 

[hekg]

Just F Y I my dome light switch had a little piece broken off. Not enough to activate the lights but would cause a draw. Remove all interior light bulb and see if this stops it. If so replace them one at a time and wait a couple of days before you install the next one. It worked for me. I know it is a royal pain. Good luck

Thanks will do!

 

[stutaeng]

Actually, you can check for "voltage drop" at the actual fuse. For a given fuse size and a known voltage drop, one can calculate the amp draw. Some places online have a table. Lookup South Main Auto. He's got a few videos where he shown this.

I'm sure OP can figure it out...

https://us.autologic.com/news/testi... draw test is,using voltage drop across fuses.

 

[RawbDidIt]

Ahhh ok got it. Thanks for the tips guys. I guess I'll have to pick up a meter that can read dc amps and start there and report back.

On another note, when I charge the battery or if I jump start the truck with another car or another battery pack my truck tries to start then turns off immediately. I have to repeat this process about 5 or 6 times for it to finally start but I still have to hold the rpmps at around 2000 because if I let off the gas it'll stumble and stall again. After a few minutes it'll be fine on it's own.

This is something that never happened until my battery started dying so frequently. What would be the cause of the truck having such a hard time starting even after fully charging the battery?

Could be time to replace the battery. You may not have a draw, and the battery may be the culprit, or the draw could have killed your battery. Test for draw first since it's likely the draw killed the battery, and you don't want to kill the new one, then once it's confirmed you don't have a parasitic draw, test the battery by disconnecting it and charging it fully, then testing voltage across the terminals every few hours fully charged. It should be running at about 12.6V fully charged and stay there for weeks/months with no load, if you're experiencing voltage drop with no load, it's a bad battery.

Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk

 

[stutaeng]

Yeah, definitely get the battery tested. Most auto parts store can test with a gadget that loads the battery and for free, why not? If it is bad of course, you are likely to buy it from there.

When I bought my K3500 a few years ago the battery was bad and I went to Autozone, not my preferred place, but that was the closest place. Well, they only had the cheap batteries with a 12 month warranty. I'm used to buying batteries with 3 year warranty, so I took a gamble. The battery lasted like 18 months and then it would not hold a charge. I would charge it overnight and just down the street at the gas station truck would not start.

After a few days I was also thinking something was draining the battery. Finally I took it to AAP and they told me bad battery. So check your basics. The same gadget can check alternator and I think starter?

 

[RawbDidIt]

Yeah, definitely get the battery tested. Most auto parts store can test with a gadget that loads the battery and for free, why not? If it is bad of course, you are likely to buy it from there.

When I bought my K3500 a few years ago the battery was bad and I went to Autozone, not my preferred place, but that was the closest place. Well, they only had the cheap batteries with a 12 month warranty. I'm used to buying batteries with 3 year warranty, so I took a gamble. The battery lasted like 18 months and then it would not hold a charge. I would charge it overnight and just down the street at the gas station truck would not start.

After a few days I was also thinking something was draining the battery. Finally I took it to AAP and they told me bad battery. So check your basics. The same gadget can check alternator and I think starter?

I don't like the auto parts store tests unless I know the people at the store. Some of those guys/gals are very knowledgeable, but the majority of them prefer you to fire off the parts cannon and have very little knowledge of diagnostics. I've had bad batteries test "fine" because I had just charged the battery to get to the parts store. Maybe they're better now, but I prefer to do my own tests, a multimeter is cheap and useful for so many things, it pays for itself the first time you correctly diagnose something and don't buy the wrong part to fix the problem.

Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

Ahhh ok got it. Thanks for the tips guys. I guess I'll have to pick up a meter that can read dc amps and start there and report back.

On another note, when I charge the battery or if I jump start the truck with another car or another battery pack my truck tries to start then turns off immediately. I have to repeat this process about 5 or 6 times for it to finally start but I still have to hold the rpmps at around 2000 because if I let off the gas it'll stumble and stall again. After a few minutes it'll be fine on it's own.

This is something that never happened until my battery started dying so frequently. What would be the cause of the truck having such a hard time starting even after fully charging the battery?

Every time your battery craps out it kills all the adaptive learning. In a perfect world everything is working so well it would run just fine as it relearns everything. In the real world things wear a bit and nothing is working 100% like it should and it takes the computer a little bit to relearn what it takes to get everything running right. If it continues after you resolve the battery issue then you need to worry.

Have you tried charging the battery and leaving it disconnected overnight? Sometimes it's just a craptastic battery.

 

[Hipster]

Check alt output across the battery terminals with it running. You should see 14.5v give or take If you see less you have a blown diode in the rectifier or other short/draw inside the alt. 13.5v will keep idiot lights off and stay running but not enough to keep it running and bring the battery to a full charge. A bad battery will overwork an alternator and kill it and a bad alternator can kill a battery so oftentimes both need replaced at the same time. Different types of batteries have slightly different guidelines but for the most part discharging them past 50% repeatedly severely shortens their life and their amp capacity. That's been done. You can have 12.6v across the terminals but little amps.


I would check alt output voltage and disconnect the battery overnight as Knuckle suggests before chasing a problem that might not exist.

 

[hekg]

Wow had no idea that it could get this potentially bad if in fact my battery could've damaged my alternator and vice versa.

The adaptive learning with the computer does make sense because once I get the truck running fine I can turn it off and back on throughout the day with no problems. It's when I unplug the battery at night then return in the next day or couple of days to reconnect it that I have the starting issues once again.

I'll definitely post my findings and hopefully get the thing fixed soon because what a PITA it is to have to run out of the house for an appointment or something really fast and the battery is completely dead yet again. Since the starting issues appeared my wife's constantly saying "get rid of that truck!" and I say "no way ... I love this truck! It's just a bad battery!" but of course she doesn't get it and I have to hear her disparaging my baby which sucks! lol