Power after ignition turned off.

[MIKE BROGDON]

I am grateful for all the help and advice so far and step by step I am bringing my truck back to life with every little issue (most caused by previous owners).

I have a 1994 K1500 Z71. The issue is I am still getting power to my radio, electric windows, and windshield wipers even with the key out of the ignition turned off. I'm thinking this maybe because something may be wired directly to the battery? I'm not too savvy when it comes to electrical. If this is the case what would the best way to locate and fix the issue? Thanks guys

 

[badazzbulldog]

if you open the door does the radio shut off?

 

[jkeaton]

How is the ignition switch and key? Mine does that because I can take the key out with it still in the accessory position. I figure something is wore out but I just make sure I get the switch to the OFF position before removing the key.

 

[MIKE BROGDON]

I have to manually turn the radio off with the door open, the same with windshield wipers. The ignition and key seems to be pretty tight. It actually takes a pretty good turn to roll back to accessory.

 

[Dr.Zoom]

My first thought is that someone wired the radio straight to the battery and tied it into the factory harness and that it is now powering those other things also.

Is there anything extra wired to the battery?

Aftermarket radio or factory?

Have you pulled the fuse for the radio and it still has power?

 

[Justin S]

If its wired in straight to the battery, there's a good chance you would see random wires hooked directly to the battery and/or to the fuse panel. Just curious, does the blower motor or HVAC controls work as well? If they do, I would think ignition switch, otherwise someone might have run those things to a wire or fuse that gets power at all times instead of switched.

 

[MIKE BROGDON]

DR. Zoom, the only extra thing attached to my hot battery wire is a small gauge power wire that goes to like a 350 watt amp. It has an aftermarket CD player, a pioneer it think. Its crappy and outdated and I do plan on replacing once I get this bug figured out. I have not tried pulling the fuse yet, but I will in the morning when I get off work. If I pull the fuse and I no longer have power to windows, windshield wipers, and radio with the ignition off, does that mean somebody tied those fuse wires to the factory harness?


Justin S, I have not looked behind the fuse panel on the interior near the steering wheel yet. I will also do this in the morning. The only thing that is extra on the front of the fuse panel was an add-a-circuit I installed for a cigarette lighter port. When I went to replace the cigarette lighter port, I could not locate the wires going to the old one anywhere under the dash. The constant power issue was still happening before I did the add-a circuit. The blower motor and HVAC does work. Both will be getting some work done this weekend. My blower motor makes a loud ticking sound on high so I am going to replace it along with the fan assembly. Also my Blend door motor is shot too and is also getting replaced this weekend. When I turn the key on it knocks for 30 seconds, and does the same when I turn the key off.

I will take some pictures in the morning and post to this thread of what I find and hopefully fix this bug. Thanks for the replies gentleman.

 

[Justin S]

i only asked about the blower because if the ignition was still thinking it was in the on position, that too should have power with the key out, along with your gauges but since they don't I'm guessing its cobbed wiring. Since its an aftermarket CD player, I bet they just hooked both the red and yellow wires to a hot at all time wire. The yellow is supposed to since its for radiio station memory, but the actual unit power, the red wire, is supposed to be switched ground. As for the windows, my guess is there is a broken wire going to the door and they just jumped it instead of fixing the actual issue somewhere. No idea as to the wipers, but thats just my internet diagnosis guess haha

 

[MIKE BROGDON]

I will look at the wiring harness and see if they jumped wires in reference to the CD Player. I will also see if somehow they rigged the windows and wipers into the same wire and find a diagram and see if I cant get it right again. Generally, how much of a pain is it to retrack these wires and figure out where they originally went?

 

[Justin S]

If you get Chilton or Haynes manual they would have OEM wiring diagrams in the back. They have them at Autozone or Advance Auto, or you can sometimes find them online, and print them out. It shouldnt be too hard, but it really depends on why they did it in the first place, and what is actually wrong. The fuses are also labeled individually, so you would know which ones are meant for what. I work for a Kia dealership and have to diagnose wiring issues on the newer cars quire often, so these older trucks seem so easy to work on to me, but I can understand if you don't have much experience with wiring where it would be difficult. It takes time to learn. My suggestion would be if you don't already, get yourself a cheap multimeter and a test light, if you want to diagnose it yourself, you will need a wiring diagram and those two things to be able to figure it out.