Hey guys, I've been having trouble for a couple months with my truck batteries getting drained if I don't drive the truck for 3 or 4 days. With the engine off, doors shut, all lights off, and the key out my current draw is right at 6 amps. Just wondering if anyone knows what is the normal current draw is with the engine off and the doors shut with no lights on and the key out.

 

After everything has timed out, Dodge's spec for ignition-off draw has always been 30 milliamps (.030 amps). I can't imagine what would fail to cause a draw as large as 6 amps. You might want to let everything time out for an hour with the ammeter in place (and a jumper in parallel with it), then remove the jumper and measure the current at that point to see where it's at. It won't be accurate immediately after shutting off the truck, closing the doors, or opening the circuit to put the ammeter in place.

 

with the amp meter in place remove the big red wire from the alternator. if the load go's away you have a leaky diode. if still there, pull one fuse at a time to isolate the draw

 

6 amps is a lot, do what carl48 said.

 

Thanks guys... gonna try what carl said the next pretty day that I have time.

 

No luck. This time when I hooked the amp gauge up it was reading 4.5 amps. Disconnected the radio amp, alternator, and pulled fuses one by one with no variation on the gauge. Any other ideas?

 

I'm trying to remember how all the cables were routed and which loads came directly from the batteries before I moved my batteries. I think you can unbolt the cable that feeds the fuse/relay box and try to narrow it down a little more. Have you tried pulling the relays as well as the fuses? I also think the ECM and grid relays come direct from the batteries, too. I'm like a pitbull on stuff like this. I found a trunk lite stuck on, in a friends car one time. Craig

 

this may sound dumb but you did leave a cable off of the battery on the passenger side while you were doing the test on the driver side. use a 194 lamp instead of the amp meter just to make sure it is ok. i think my 03 is like my 04.5 up and there is two plugs on the ecm. disconnect both positive battery leads then remove the connectors and connect the positive lead through the amp meter or lamp and see if load is still there. after test remove the battery lead before connecting plugs.