Help locating a battery drain

PC PaiN said:

Driver side amp is my draw. Does anyone know for sure if it's the amp or can the radio be faulty and sending a signal to this amp to stay on?

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Swap the subamps. If the problem follows the subamps, then you know.

If not, it is the head unit.

Hahaha... I'm not even going to mention what I think it is... ;-)

Still Having Problems

All,

Still have not solved this, I am probably going to the dealer on this one. I did unhook the radio head and the amp draw was still there. Right now I am just pulling the fuse under the hood.

ejbrandt said:

WM,

My car is a 2001 GT Conv. Looking at the battery junction box (fuse box under the hood) it is the 40 amp fuse marked I/P. It is next to the fuse marked IGN SW. What I have done so far.
-Put a new battery and fully charged that
- Hooked an amp meter in series and it reads 3.05. When I pull the I/P it goes to less than .5
- Put the I/P fuse in and pulled all fuses one at a time from under the dash
- unplugged the rear window defrost, the amps in the trunk and the alternator
- I plan to unplug the radio

So I am not sure if I am doing something wrong or it takes a while for the readings to register?
The car has no mods
I see in the wiring manual that the I/P is listed as instrument cluster and PCM

Click to expand...

Hello

I now the thread is a bit old, but I have the same problem with my 2001 Cobra. First I thought, the battery drain was caused just by the GEM, but a 516mA draw couldnt be just from the GEM. After i took the 40A PCM fuse out of the fuse box, the draw dropped to 0.0017mA. Then I some checks with the GEM and my radio and now the GEM has a draw of 165mA and the radio (Pioneer 2DIN Avic-F20BT) ~360mA. I found a thread in another forum, where they disconnected a pin of a black 12pin connector which is connected to the GEM. I did that too and the draw of the GEM dropped to 114mA. But the PCM still doesnt put the car in sleep mode. I also disconnected my radio from the harness and I still had a draw of 200mA. Possible that one of the Mach460 amps in the trunk cause this draw?

Any suggestions? I dont have any other aftermarket stuff in there.

IMO trouble shooting a parasitic by starting out pulling the 40 amp PCM fuse is not very useful. The only way this is useful is IF this the ONLY fuse that has any effect on the draw. IMO it's far more useful to narrow down WHICH feeder fuses also reduce the draw.

OBTW, I have helped several people with parasitic draws that turned out to be a bad electric seat switch.

BUT for the 2001 model year the radio fuses are listed in the Ford service manual as F2.6, F2.27, and F2.32.

For the 2002 model year the radio fuses are listed as F1,15 and F1.13 from the BJB and F2.9, F2.27, F2.6, and F2.32.(CJB).

Since the odds favor the radio as the cause, focus should start there.