This is actually my main problem right now, and i'm not really thinking i'm gonna get a good solid answer on it since its such a generalized issue. Figured there's no harm in trying, though, right?

Not for sure if this is the right spot to post this either, so please move if need be.

I own a '03 extreme fully loaded and as far as I know everything is stock.

I just went today and had my battery replaced. The reason for doing so is because my old battery was constantly dying on me. on average i was getting a jump about twice a week. about 3 months ago i went up and had it charged up all the way, and the guys there said I had a drain on the battery.

I'm a pretty stubborn guy and won't pay to have someone else do something that i'm fully capable of doing. This is the first vehicle i have owned and am learning...albeit slowly...and I'd rather not have to deal with this again in 3 months. batteries are expensive.

Has anyone else had this issue with this particular model and figured it out?

If not, then how do I go about getting it figured out myself?

Oh yea...ps...I went today and had the charging system checked and they had told me that aspect of the electrical system is fine.

I appreciate your time.

 

the best way (but not the most fun) is to buy a battery charger and the once fully charged check volts with the car off. then pull a fuse before you put it away for the night. in the morning, check the batt voltage, if it dropped by alot then the fuse you pulled wasent the circut drawing the voltage down, do the same process every night until you find that the battery voltage is no longer droping. let me know which circut (fuse name) is causing the battery to drop and i will tell you what to check next. this could be a long process but it works.

 

this is a great idea if you want it to take a month and spend a hundred bucks(but hey it would work )...you could also just put a multimeter in series with the negative battery lead and pull the fuses one by one until you see the amp draw drop. This is what i did, however make sure you give your vehicle about 20 minutes for all the electrical systems to shut down.

 

Ditto. You can test at the fuse as well to get what each circuit is drawing. Remove the fuse and put the leads into the terminals that the fuse fits into. Remember, some devices may take a minute or 5 to go their lowest power state.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys.

What do I do when I find the fuse thats making my life miserable? Or is the action to take dependent on whatever fuse it might be?

 

Well it will be dependent on which system it is but in general you have to test the indevidual parts of that system for draw. Also, Kyle I believe the cluster takes 15 minutes to shut off fully not just 5

 

Pull the negative battery cable put a test light in series with the ground cable (That is put one end of the test light on the battery cable and the other end on the battery) if it lights up you know you have something draining your battery.Start pulling fuses. When the light goes out you can start there. Find out the circuit that is causing the problem and then start there. I would put the fuse back in Mark the one you pulled and pull the rest of the fuses and watch the light and if it shut off again mark the fuse and continue until you have checked them all. Find out the circuits that shut the light off and go from there. That will get you close to your problem and will not take months to do. Hope this helps.

 

The test light method is ok... Better to know what the draw actually is though. Multimeters are not that expensive.

And BlazerGuy, did you have your door open or closed? This can affect various components time to lowest power state. My '00 Bravada was down to 0.035A (35mA) draw after just 5 minutes after I got done searching down and squashing the draw that had.

 

I had the door open because i was pulling the fuses from the interior fuse block. and i second you on just going ahead and getting a multimeter, it helps with diagnosing because you know what can and can't draw certain amounts.

 

i had the same prob my draw is 0.85 an i found the source #19 fuse but not sure what all is on that one so i will have a good time finding out lol