Hello

I recently had a remote starter professionally installed in my 03 ram 2500, 3 days later my battery was dead when I tried to use it. I have since taken out the 2 fuses that go to the remote starter to see if that was creating a drain on the battery, next morning same thing, no power. I have load tested the battery and checked my charging system and they came up fine. When I disconnect the positive terminal on the battery and touch the cable to the post the transmission relay clicks, is that normal? I don't know if that relay is draining my battery because it seems like it has constant power to it if it clicks when I touch the battery, please help because it sucks having to jump start my truck every morning.

 

I recall a thread somewhere in here elating to possible improper installs and or a faulty relay. Try a search.

 

what engine?

 

5.7 hemi

 

Test the current draw. IIRC, it should be .25A with the key off.

 

Why does that make a difference?

250mA, really? That's high. I think you meant .025A which would be 25mA

A Bypass modules can draw a good amount by themselves even in standby

It's not uncommon to see vehicles draw 50-60mA while at rest.

Mine fluctuates from 61mA-88mA the first 10min. I havent had the need to wait 20min to let things settle down as 61mA is fine by me. My battery will last 3 weeks and still have enough to start up. 4 weeks and its dead.

unhook the positive terminal and let your truck sit for 20-30min. Then do a parasitic draw test.

 

When you connect the terminals it is normal to hear things click and power up. There are things that use power whether you have the key in or not.

You obviously have a power draw other than the remote starter. If nothing else, pull one or two fuses at a time and leave them out and see it if helps. If not, put them back in and pull another couple to narrow it down

 

Because different engines have different requirements for installation.

Some require different resistors, and/or different wiring configurations.

For instance, I've seen this issue on diesels b/c they require a few other wires to be tapped into to sense when the ready to start light comes on, as well as sending signals to begin the warm-up process....

Since he's got the 5.7L I am going to lean more towards the idea that the installer may have not installed the bypass correctly or did not put the resistors in place at all, which causes current draw issues.

I am betting that the installer used the heavier gauge blue wire for the ignition #1 circuit, instead of the blue 16 AWG wire, that, or he swapped the red/white 16 AWG wire for the IGN #2 wire..... But where he went wrong I bet is that he tapped into the WRONG RED/WHITE 16 AWG Wire for the IGN #2 circuit, b/c there are two in that harness... One is a constant 12V+ Power Supply and the other is Ignition Dependent (aka 12V+ IGN).

That is the MOST common mistake on all Dodge Vehicles, most mainstream install services even have notes in their system that tells the installer to check and double check for 12V IGN at those Red/White Wires....

Check this site for more install instructions diagrams and notes...

http://www.bulldogsecurity.com/bdnew...ngdiagrams.asp

 

Thanks everyone for your help, it turns out that the light switch that controls the interior lights is no good, it just happened to be a coincidence that this all happened 3 days after I had my remote starter put in. I took it back to the installer and they checked everything over and found that the switch was faulty. I actually pulled the fuse for the interior lights last night and this morning sure enough the truck started right up, so now i'm on the look out for a light switch. Thanks again for the help.

 

Sweet. The most frustrating part of a problem is figuring it out!

Are you speaking of the dash control switch that operates the headlights and dimmer function? If so, I think your installer burnt your switch out on you! If you don't use a Relay on the parking lights trigger with the older bypass units, you risk burning up the switch. Which I think is what happened. You also need a resistor inline for the parking lights circuit or the same thing will happen!

---> Do you know what bypass module they installed? Please find out!

Izero, I forgot about the diesel crowd..lol
Also, just FYI..07+ Rams only have 1 IGN wire. A 1k pull down resistor is used on the main IGN wire for the bypass module to allow the MUX circuit to properly activate.
Also, parking light trigger wire for older trucks 2005-prior:
220 Ohm for only parking lights
440 Ohm for Parking and Fog
1130 for all
2007+ only work with the 1130 Ohm resistance value. I tried the 250 and it did nothing. I used 1.2k and it worked just fine. I'm not sure about the 2006's though? I JUST tried these values this afternoon on my own truck. I had my unit warranted and just threw in the brand new replacement. ProComp by CodeAlarm. Used my 6yr old bypass module because it works great XK532. I did NOT have to do any reprogramming of it either. Even after it had been unhooked for a couple weeks. Only thing I had to program was my Tach.