My dads truck has been killing batteries. So i hooked my mulitmeter up to it the other night and its pulling 1.5 amps when alarm is set and all doors closed. started pulling fuses and when i pulled fuse 51 (cluster, underhood light, and radio) the draw went to 6mA. So I unpluged the radio, no change, unpluged the underhood lamp, no change, unplugged the back of the cluster and draw went away. Now according to the wiring diagram those are the only things on that circuit. Im gonna have my dad get a new cluster ($650 gamble) but just wondering if any one else had the same issue? Thanks.

 

draw shouldnt be more than 35/40mA

I know the cluster along with the interior lights/radio are programmed in the ecu to turn off when the door opens OR after the key has been turned off for a few minutes. Maybe it's possible that the ecu isn't cutting off the power to those properly? I would rather install a delayed turn off timer for the cluster rather than paying $650 for a new one. It's a cheap fix. I have not done this before so your on your own.

 

I'm having some of the same issues. Part of the problem is something goofy happened with my radio and even with it off it was drawing over 2 amps by itself. After unplugging the radio, I'm still drawing 1.8 amps with the 51 fuse in on a fully charged battery. If the battery is low, it will ready about 20mA lower. With every single fuse in the block unplugged, my truck is still drawing 80 mA. I guess the diodes in the alt or somewhere power isnt fused? Not sure, I havent checked that out yet. Sooo, I don't have an underhood lamp. The radio is unplugged. Now I can unplug the fuse, start the truck, and the instrument panel works fine. What doesnt work are the power locks, the keyfob, the obdII port, and thats all I've found. The gauges on the cluster still work fine. A few months ago though, my horn randomly went off and wouldnt shut off untill after I hit the steering wheel hard. I pulled the horn fuse and never really thought about it. I'm thinking that my problem may be with a faulty horn switch in the steering wheel but I've still got some troubleshooting to do to see what is really causing this battery drain.

So in recap, my non-fused power draw is 80mA. Fuse 51 in place, 1.08 amps. I can live with the 80mA for now, but I really want to figure out what is drawing a full amp continuously off that fuse with the truck off.

 

Ok yea i understand what your saying there. But if fuse 51 is the only thing that kills the current draw, and even if the pcm is keeping the cluster awake, im thinking when i would have pulled the fuse to the pcm, the current draw would have went away also? Fuse 51 is the only way the current draw stops, or unplugging the cluster. Thanks.

 

My head is starting to hurt.Just a thought, Would you consider a electrical mechanic at this point? I know diy is a preffered way but it seems a pro would be able too tell exactly what is drawing cheaper than a 650 dollar parts bill. imo.

 

My 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 was having the cluster battery drain issue for months. Also the horn stopped working. After months of research and trying to figure it out, I saw so many people changing out everything, from the cluster to the entire fuse box and wires and were still having the same issue, I finally found on a thread that changing the clock spring fixed the problem for someone. I ordered one on eBay for $37 with shipping, and it fixed my cluster battery drain and horn.

 

Glad you pulled this one out of the cobwebs. I had one occurrence where my horn just start blowing while I happened to be mowing grass one day last year, I had to get the keys and hit the horn pad. And occasionally when I open the door to get into the truck the wipers will take a sweep. I let it sit for a couple months and now have a really dead battery, so I assumed it has a parasitic draw... seems a clock spring is in my future. Thanks !

 

Yes of course, I felt obligated to share after having a headache from it for so long. My horn actually randomly went off months back, and I had to take out the fuse for it to stop, then it just stopped working when I put it back in. Putting in the new clock spring got the horn working well again, also fixed the cluster parasite issue I was having.