I've got a 2006 Dakota Quadcab 4X4 with the 3.7L V6. (131K miles) The battery drains completely if the truck sits for 2 days. I checked the current draw from the battery with an ammeter and something is pulling 1.2 Amps when the truck is in "sleep" mode (all doors shut, no key in the ignition). I started pulling fuzes and rechecking the current draw one fuze at a time. If I disconnect fuze 6 (Radio), the current draw drops to 180 mA. No other fuze has any effect on it.

I took the radio out, re-checked the draw, and without the radio, it is still pulling 0.85 Amps. The same fuze powers the Front Control Module (FCM) on this truck.

I am starting to supect that the FCM is causing this problem, but I don't want to experiment with a $700 part. All functions associated with the FCM seem to work. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Thanks.

Bought the truck used, was used as a security vehicle at the local airport. I removed all the additional wiring for lights, etc, but there is always a chance there are more hidden ones.

 

Nope, that is the first I've heard of this. Did you buy your truck new? If not, I would start looking for some home brew hidden wiring. When we first bought our Ford Explorer 10 years ago I had a similiar problem. The previous owner had a direct current 12v wire to a ac/dc converter that stayed powered all the time.

Good luck man.

 

Mine did that... I pulled my aftermarket radio, put factory radio in, and bought a new battery, since constantly drawing on the battery killed it...

 

I just purchased this exact truck and I'm having the same issue. This truck is bear bones basic, power nothing, original radio. We read that the Alternator might have been a cause from a bad diode to keep pulling energy from the battery. The battery still went dead. I used a multimeter fuse by fuse to see if anything else is pulling power, it looked like the AC clutch was pulling power, so I have that disconnected to see if it goes dead again.

Was your issue ever resolved?