s10 battery draw

im looking at a 2004 S10 extreme blazer for a friend, and the battery is going dead on it all the time. sears checked her battery and its ok. i had an ammeter on it all morning in the garage and when the vehicle goes to "sleep" i read 15 milliamps. what is the limit for this truck? i work on bmw's and we wllow 30 milliamps max after sleep mode is assumed.

also, anybody here know any common causes for draw on this truck? i heard somebody say the radios are prone to problems, and my friend did say that if she turns off the radio before shutting off the truck and locking it, the battery will not drain

Reply to
bbeyer via CarKB.com
Loading thread data ...

That seems to point to something...

I had not heard anything about the radios though. Never heard there was any problem with them. It might be worth checking to make sure the radio is turning off when the doors are opened.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Reply to
HLS

Please disregard the previous blank message.

I have had a lot of problem with GM as far as running down the battery with spurious current drain.

Some of those GM radios keep running, even though you turn the key off, until you open the door. Something afoul there might be a first guess. Maybe it isnt turning completely off, for whatever reason, every time.

Other things I have found are defective seat belt tensioner system, defective tail light switch, defective light switches to handle lighting like mirror lights, glove box lights, etc.

You can use a peak current recording VOM to see if this is happening when you arent really looking. Or just remove fuses and do it by trial an error until you find the right circuit.

PITA.

Reply to
HLS

but as far as door handle switches, does the s10 even have any wiring going to the handles? or is it just the door jamp pin switch that signals the door being open? as far as the radio goes it seems like that pin switch is what signals it.

Reply to
bbeyer via CarKB.com

As far as I know, the signal from the interior lighting system, from the door switch, is used. It would not make sense to do it any other way, I think.

The battery drain will have to be above the 15-30 milliamp level to cause much trouble as far as battery discharge is concerned.

These can be darn frustrating things to find sometimes.

Reply to
HLS

Hi!

No, at least not for that purpose. The pin switch being released when the door opens turns the radio off.

You can test this (with enough hands!) by leaving a door open, pushing down the pin switch, turning the key off and noting that the radio will still be playing.

Whatever controls the power going to the radio before the doors open is external to it. I installed an aftermarket radio in my '03 S-10 and it stays on until the doors are opened, just like the factory set did. I used nothing but a wiring adapter that goes from "GM radio plug" to bare wires and the factory radio is completely gone...it was not relocated elsewhere in the vehicle.

William

Reply to
William R. Walsh

Most everything goes through the computer now. Switches no longer go directly to the accessory, but they tell the computer they are no in a certain position, therefore some instructions should be sent to some accessory

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

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