2011 Dodge Avenger Express Battery Draw
So I've got this Avenger with a battery draw. Had a 900 mA draw from cluster. Replaced cluster and rechecked. All good. Comes back a week later with battery draw concerns. Found 260mA draw from cluster. Replaced cluster again and rechecked all good. Let it sit in the lot for a day and rechecked. All good. Let it sit another 3 days and rechecked. All good again. Released car to the customer and it came back today with a dead battery. I am currently charging the battery and will check it later.
I am finding the source of the draw by using a parasitic load tester, pulling fuses, and verifying by unplugging the cluster. The second time I had all of the data line connectors unplugged from the cluster and unplugged everything on the LIN bus line to make absolutely sure. We are getting the clusters from Dodge. Appear to be remanufactured and I'd guess preprogrammed. Have not been programming them.
Anyone ever run into this? A string of bad clusters or am I missing something?
Look for an input to the cluster that may keep it “awake” steering wheel controls etc.
Pulling fuses on todays vehicle is a poor if not unusable way to isolate draws. Too many modules get either woke back up or possibly exhibit conditions they normally would not if power had not been interrupted. Much better to use a voltmeter on each fuse and check for any voltage drop. Check out some videos on using this technique.
I've never thought about disconnecting communication wires to isolate the draw. Very interesting! You can be sure nothing is “telling” the cluster to “stay awake”. I'll have to remember that. Thanks!
I agree completely Tim. The cluster’s battery drain may be an effect rather than the root cause. This may be impractical for a standard inductive ammeter (an expensive micro ammeter might have to be employed) but the current draw on the leg of a bus circuit leading to a “blabbering module” will be higher that the current draw leading to a leg of a bus circuit that is connected to a good module…
I’ve not ran into this particular issue on this vehicle but do recognize the common nature of FCA vehicles with data corruption from clusters. As Tim mentions in his post, the cluster may be getting woke up as an effect and not the cause of the root problem. Have you performed an all module / all DTC yet? There will be lots of U-codes and B-codes right after a battery run down (naturally) but…
That is great!! What a way to quickly and accurately tell if a draw is occurring right now! Thank you for the tip. As an aside, do you ever use a micro amp clamp to snoop out jabbering modules? That would be a cool technique to learn! Thanks again Mr. Hobbs!
What about this? Have you considered the cluster may have corrupted data like Mr. Hobbs talked about? I am out of my element here, but I wonder if a simple programming might solve the problem? Just thinking out loud here.
I have seen too many issues show up by pulling fuses as a testing method. For example, I recently had a GM product that would not show the excessive draw until the vehicle had been started and run for at least 20 seconds and then shut off and waiting 20 minutes for the modules to go to sleep. Just turning the key on and then off again would not cause the excessive draw to show up. Pulling fuses…
Have you checked the center console ajar switch? There is a switch in the center console that will sometimes keep the instrument panel cluster “awake”. Unfortunately the only way I've confirmed this previously has been with a CAN Bus analyzer through the factory tool, but you can also use something like P-can view to do the same.
I did unplug the center console switch and the draw was still present. Checking it out this morning with an amp clamp and doing voltage drop across fuses. Have only a 10mA draw and no voltage drop on any fuse. I don't think anything is waking the cluster up because I had all the data lines unplugged last time. Rechecked by unplugging the cluster and seeing the draw disappear then plugging it…
Which connector did you disconnect? I believe the LIN bus wire is on connector C3 according to the SI. As others have mentioned, I believe the cluster being the source of the draw is actually the symptom not the cause. I would review the schematics, specifically any “enable” or “wake up” signal wires. I did notice there is a wire labeled UGDO WAKE UP signal
Disconnected them all in reverse sequence (c4,c3,c2,c1). Waited in between each connector for some kind of time out to potentially happen. C1 made the draw disappear. It has the Batt FD fuse.
Have you looked at pin 2 of C1 on a diagram? It powers like 5 different components. One of those could be a culprit. Some modules will still output ref voltage key off depending on the systems involved. In this case one of those components could be shorted or not in there “off” state causing the cluster to not go to sleep. Are you 100% interior CAN is asleep when the draw is occuring? Scoped it…
Yes I did scope the CAN last time with the 260mA draw. It was asleep. I forgot to mention it. The only option this car has from the C pin 2 connector is the center bezel lamp. It was unplugged last time as well.
Charged the battery for a day and it failed the load test. Replaced the battery hooked up the parasitic load tester, then went for a drive to make sure everything was awake. Left the meter on it all weekend with no draw found. This is the second battery I've put in during the draw situation.
What if the customer is doing something to the vehicle? Seems like it's good with you but when you give it back, the battery dies. Are they installing something? Doing something different with the vehicle? Just some out of the box thinking here.
This doesn't have a remote start installed does it? or a GPS device under dash somewhere?
What sort of parasitic load tester are you using?
No aftermarket anything. Parasitic load tester is a battery cable with a disconnect.
Customer is leaving the car for the week so we can keep checking it. Thanks for all the replies.