Cycling Amp Draw
 

Went out to start truck yesterday and batteries were too low to crank. Voltage was at 8 after sitiing for three days. Charged both batteries and truck started fine with a CEL. Shut down truck and checked, code U1404 (never heard of this). Disconnected batteries and CEL reset. Checked for current draw on batteries and I have a cycling 1.0 to 1.5 amp draw. It will draw for about 15 seconds and stop for a minute than comes back on. No lights are on nor is anything plugged in. Anything I added to the vehicle electrical system was isolated and I still have the same draw. Hope you guys can help or I am going to have to wait until Wedsneday to even get the truck in to the dealer. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Pretty hard to determine what is going on. There are many systems that continue to run up to 30 mins after shut down.

Checked it the next morning, still same cycling draw. Disconnected batteries and they are holding their charge, so it has to be that continuous draw that is killing them.

You could try pulling individual fuses to see which circuit is pulling the main load. Isolate the circuit and investigate it to find out what is on.

Have you done any electrical mods?

Do you leave the key in the ignition?

Check the cig lighters. Make sure there are no coins in them.

Did you leave a CD in the player? It may be cycling.

I dunno, just trying to think of things. [duhhh]

I notice on cold mornings, when the grid heater is needed, that I see this occasional draw for the first few minutes. Any chance that's it?

Chuck

I wouldn't think so, as I think he's saying he measured 1 amp draw with the truck off. The grid heaters draw way more than 1 amp, and shouldn't be on at all with the truck shut off.

The way it cycles is strange, almost like something is shorted and a circuit breaker is tripping, cooling down and resetting... If you listen closely, maybe even with a stethascope (sp) to the dash, can you hear anything?

The other idea about pulling fuses one by one until the draw goes away would be the other logical way to proceed.

Your right Jeff, the draw is constant(cycling) with the truck off, if it comes down to pulling fuses it is going to the dealer as it will be something they need to fix. I was just woundering if anybody else had expierenced this and if it is something simple I could fix without leaving the batteries disconnected all the time. Thanks for the replies guys.

Change to the change. I ended up pulling fuses and it is fuse#10. It is marked as follows; TOD-CCN/RADIO/UNDERHOOD LAMP/WCM/SDARS/HFM. Any idea what all that stands for and can i run it with that fuse removed.

Other than under hood lamp and radio, I don't know what the rest of that means.

I guess you wouldn't know if it will run without the fuse until you try.

At any rate, at least you could pull the fuse when you shut the truck off to keep from killing the batteries, until you can get it in to the dealer and let them fix it under warranty.

my 06 is at the dealer right now for the same problem. dealer found constant draw from the gauge cluster. waiting on new gauge cluster from DC for almost a week now.

Tom

At the dealer for two days now, they still can't figure it out.[dummy]

Here is an update, it has been a week and they finally said it was the cluster, which is what I suggested when I dropped it off. Have to wait until tommorow to see how long it will take to get. They were trying to link it to something I did and I told them to take their best shot!! The tried and it finally came down to the cluster.

Thanks for the info. My truck does the same thing.
Let us know if this actually fixes the issue.