S-10 Battery draining

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S-10 Battery draining

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Chevrolet Forum >> Chevy Trucks, Vans & SUV's >> S-10 & Blazer >> S-10 Battery draining

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S-10 Battery draining - 12/3/2007 8:29:58 AM

av8rkirk

Posts: 4
Joined: 10/26/2006
Status: offline

I have a 2001 S-10 Extreme. In the past 6 months I have had to purchase 2 new batteries. The batteries have all been disharging somehow and eventually will not hold a charge. The Alternator output is fine but this seems to be happening on a more frequent basis now. I just bought a premium 750 cold cranking amps batterie and I notice it is getting week. Something odd started happening about the time this started. I notice in the morning when I go to put the key in the ignition that the Hi Beam indicator light is on dimmly even though the Hi beams are not turned on. As soon as I start the truck it goes off. Any ideas?

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AV8RKIRK

Post #: 1

RE: S-10 Battery draining - 12/3/2007 9:44:38 AM

EvansBlue

Posts: 2379
Joined: 7/12/2007
From: Princeton, NC, USA
Status: offline

Yeah I do. When the vehicle is completely shut off, with the interior light override on, do you see a slight illumination to any of the instrument panel lights? If your gear selector (PRND321) is lit up ever so slightly toward the 'P' or if any of the indicator lights glow slightly, its a short in the circuit and is indicative of a problem with the gauge cluster. Its really easy to change, but I think you may have to get some dealer advice on changing it because I'm not sure if the vehicle records mileage in the cluster or in the computer.

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2000 Blazer LS
1981 Z28 Camaro
1994 Toyota truck

(in reply to av8rkirk)

Post #: 2

RE: S-10 Battery draining - 12/3/2007 8:20:45 PM

golfer

Posts: 610
Joined: 10/8/2006
Status: offline

And if it's not that:

This is referred to as " parasitic drain " , all modern vehicles will normally have a small amount of parasitic drain for the various electronic control modules and constant memory for things like stereos, etc.

The test for this :

With a Multimeter set to DC amps , without the key in the ignition, doors closed and everything OFF

1 - disconnect the Negative battery cable
2 - attach one lead from the meter to this negative cable
3 - attach the other meter lead to the negative battery point

wait a few minutes for the reading to settle ( this is for everything to re-initialize ) and observe the reading, which should be somewhere in the ball park of .010 (milliamp) to .020 (milliamp). [ 1 amp = 1000 milliamp and 1/2 amp = .500 amp or 500 milliamp ]
This will depend on what accessories your vehicle has.

If you find a high reading , for example .500 amps ( 500 milliamp ), you can do one of two things to locate which circuit is responsible for the high draw.

#1

- leave everything connected as mentioned above
- remove one fuse at a time and see if the reading drops significantly

just remember to shut the door or disable the interior lights so they aren't on.

#2
- reconnect the battery cable
- pull one fuse at a time
- place one lead of the meter on one terminal of the fuse socket
- place the other lead of the meter to the other terminal of the fuse socket
- observe and record the reading

This will direct you to which circuit has a problem.

(in reply to EvansBlue)

Post #: 3

RE: S-10 Battery draining - 12/13/2007 3:05:13 PM

Ebmo

Posts: 4
Joined: 1/16/2007
Status: offline

My insurance company force me to get a Mobilus system ( similar to On Star) Those systems that help the police find your vehicle if it gets stolen. Well for two years everytime my s-10 was idled for 3 to 4 days, the battery was drained. I replace the battery eventually but the problem resurfaced. In the winter, it was worst. Then I got a call from Mobilus asking me to bring my truck in to replace the electronic gismo. It appears that they had many problems with consumers with battery drainage. I could not get them to pay for the battery replacement but they lost a customer. I removed their system and never had problem since. My insurance company agreed.

(in reply to golfer)

Post #: 4

RE: S-10 Battery draining - 1/6/2008 1:01:30 PM

2JZR32F10Caddy

Posts: 1
Joined: 1/6/2008
Status: offline

Hey, I came across this same problem of my battery kept draining on me over night. Well, my s-10 happens to be a 96 though. I found the cause of the problem one night when I went to get something out of my truck. My drivers side sun deflector in the truck has a mirror and a light on it. Well the material around it is coming loose. I noticed the light is hard to see unless it is dark out. Well, I had to replace the sun deflector and bam, my problem was fixed. I am pretty sure this isn't the case for yours though. I thought this might be able to help somebody else out one day!

(in reply to Ebmo)

Post #: 5