I have a 2004 Quad cab with the 4.7 engine.
I also have an after market auto start/alarm works great.

Here is my problem
Last 5 months I replaced the battery 3 times no charge under warranty.
Well the battery keeps going dead enough not to start the truck.
So the weather here in Boston was good today.
So truck would not start yesterday dead 3.5 volts in battery.
I went and bought another battery this morning and got my test light and did some probing.
Also used my fluke digital meter.
I put meter on dc amp and neg on positive terminal and the positive of meter on the positive post of battery. I get a draw of about 5 volts.
Next I tried my test light same hook up and I get the light is lit not bright but lit, also it is pulsing. on-off-on off continuous.

I pull the fuse cover in engine bay and start pulling fuses and relays 1 at a time.
I get to fuse 51 and light goes out. It for the dash cluster-radio.

Radio works fine Cluster works fine I did the cluster check holding in odometer and turning on ignition and it did its test mode no problems.

****I put fuse back in with light hooked up and I get inside truck and the red light on dash is blinking and i can hear it under the dash.
remember this is not full volts but with the test light in series with the cable and battery.
****Is the red light for the factory alarm. Can it be disabled. When I got this red light to stop blinking the test light lit bright.
Its not my auto start as I disabled it while doing the testing.
I removed my rear lights thats not the problem.

Seems its with fuse 51 for the cluster and radio.

Would anyone have any ideas of what it might be of if they had this problem with fuse 51.

So bottom line i'm drawing 5 volts some where with the 51 fuse circuit.

I have to keep starting truck every 2-3 days for the battery to stay charged.

Please chime in with any help

 

Here is an update to my problem.

I still cannot find the problem but I made a fix for the meantime until I can trace out what is causing the draw on fuse 51.

I made a relay circuit with a 20 amp fuse and installed in place of the fuse 51.
I wired it up so it takes fuse 51 out of line when engine is off. Wired everything inside the fuse box. So when I shut of the engine fuse 51 is disabled and when I start the engine fuse 51 is engaged. This way I won't have to start the truck every 2-3 days to keep it charged.

I was going to put a switch in the dash to do this but might of forgot to switch fuse 51 out of circuit. This way just shut engine off and all is good until I start truck back up. This will give me time to find the real culprit that is causing the drain on the battery maybe some day when i feel ambitious to find the problem.

 

Back to my electrical problem.

Would anyone know what connector and wire/pin # supplies the power to the cluster panel. I'm looking for the one that comes from the FUSE #51 circuit. I think I found my problem and need this info.

thanks

 

I have the same truck and had your same issue. Pulling the fuse would allow my truck's battery from draining, but I had to pull it every time that I was gonna let it sit for a couple of days. Pain in the rear.

I know this is going to sound odd and I didn't think it would be the issue either until I tested it, but the radio had some internal issue and was pulling the power during shutdown. I had the factory radio with no mods at all. I removed the dash around the radio and unplugged everything from the radio and my problem went away. I drove like that for a couple of months and let it sit for a week or more at times with no problem

I re-hooked the cables to the radio after that and my problem came back. I couldn't let it sit for more than two days w/o it draining the battery. It was a brand new battery also.

I removed the factory radio, bought an aftermarket radio and install it; my truck has had no issue since then. That was about two years ago.

Hope this helps. You can give it a try by unhooking your radio and see if it solves the problem.


DK

 

I have put a relay in for now that disconnects the fuse when I shut off the truck and then when I start truck it puts the fuse 51 in circuit so I dont have to keep removing the fuse 51.

I'm waiting for a used PCM and FCM should be here today or tomorrow.
Then I will spend a day to see what my problem is.
1 i will disconnect the radio and see if that is the problem.
2 i will disconnect the dash cluster and see if that is the problem.
3 No under hood light

Above is what fuse 51 controls.

If no results I will replace the FCM front control module
then the PCM fuse box under the hood and see if either will help with the problem.

thanks for your info and will remove the radio first hope that will help would make it easy fix

 

Today I was able to change out my pcm and fcm with a used one and the same results. No overhead console outside temp its stuck on -40degrees.

I did change the sensor last weak with a new on so its not that.
I also have the dreaded fuse 51 power drain and have that fixed with a relay circuit for now that cuts out the fuse when truck is off. Will kill battery in 2-3 days if left in!!!
So in replacing the fuse box I have the same symptom with the overhead temp. -40 i checked both pins on sensor connector no shorts and no shorts to ground.

If I put a short across the 2 pin outside connector the inside display reads 130 degrees so the circuit is I think working ok but no correct temp display.

I also took down the OH console and all wiring seems ok.
Also took my fusebox apart and checked for corrosion and completely clean nothing. I checked all solder joints all looked good.
So its not in the fuse box or the fcm.

My question is what else would affect the OH temp display to not show correctly. I checked the wiring on the connectors on the bottom fuse box nice and clean all good.

Everything in truck works great except the OH temp

 

You mean 5 AMPS, not volts correct? Are you waiting for the BUS to go to sleep before you take a reading. It could be up to 5 or 6 minutes.


I posted all of Fuse 51 ckt. You can isolate those one by one.


FYI.........I have seen these trucks pull a draw THROUGH the cluster VIA the seat belt switch before, due to the switch being a hardwired input TO the cluster.