I have a 1999 Blazer which I have owned since 2008. It has started having a battery run down problem.

I located the problem to fuse #19 which is the radio and the instrument cluster. I removed and disconnected the radio and still saw almost a 1 amp draw on the circuit. Disconnected the instrument panel connector (the one at the top center), and lo and behold, no more load on the circuit. Of course this also made all the gauges not work.

I do have a 2-way radio that is in the car (wired directly to the battery and not connected to ANY other wiring )which has a case of alternator whine. Could a bad alternator be the source of my phantom draw? Or am I looking at buying a new cluster? Everything else works fine aside from the almost 1 amp draw.

I do have a strong electronic background so removing and testing things is not a problem

Thank you for any help.


Howard

 

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