2004 Jeep Liberty - Battery Drain; Radio/BCM? Please help!

[jeepNik]

Hi; this is my first post here, please allow me to be as detailed as possible:


*Bought a used 2004 Jeep Liberty Limited
*Had a dead generic battery right from the start; Replaced battery with an Auto Zone Duralast Gold battery
*Jeep had an Alpine aftermarket CD/MP3 player; in experience, these could easily drain battery is not wired correctly sometimes; removed Alpine, ordered Chrysler stock radio
*Left jeep overnight, battery drain within 8 hours; can't start; clicks; Had to jump start it from other vehicle to turn ON
*Looked for parasitic draw on battery, couldn't find anything right away

*Took out the #21, 10 Amp fuse from inside the vehicle for the radio, battery drain stopped with the fuse out; good


-> When radio is out/10 Amp radio fuse is out, when locking the car with remote, the car horn sounds when locked
-> Taking this fuse out, makes the front windshield wipers not work; bad

-> When the 10 Amp radio fuse is in, locking the car with remote does not sound the horn; there's a short or not enough juice somewhere to activate it


Got an OEM Jeep/Chrysler radio (big black unit) and replaced the Alpine with it, stock harness, etc. 10 Amp fuse back in, car drains battery; when locking the car with remote, no horn beep and radio does not turn OFF/does not stop playing unless you press the volume button IN to turn OFF the player; doing this, the battery still drains.


*** Got to this point: when the key in the ignition cylinder is completely OFF, down all the way, windshield wipers still work among other accessories in the car. So it hit me, either there is a cylinder issue or ignition actuator is not turning the car OFF, leaving the vehicle thinking that it is in ACC mode, powering up radio and other items in the car.


Does the above sound right? Do you think the key cylinder is not turning the car OFF completely hence the draw? I've also pulled fuse #32 for Radio/BCM/Internal Lights, etc. as a test. I cannot figure this out. I can live without a radio but if windshield wipers don't work when fuse is out, then the car is no longer weather-ready. Please help!


Thanks.

 

[JPNinPA]

Detail is great!
It may be but here is a simple test.

First is there anything directly powered from the battery like an amp, winch, radio, CB, or air compressor...?

Get a multimeter that can read amps.
Remove the ground wire from the battery post.
Place the DMM between the battery post and the connector.
With the key off there should be less than 50mA draw. Somewhere like 10 MA is typical. Any more and you have a drain.
Start pulling fuses and watch the current. When the current drops to a lot or below 50 MA you found the leg with the problem. Radio memory and clock will be close to 10mA.


Regards,
JPNinPA

Sent using TapTalk

 

[jeepNik]

JPNinPA, yep, I did that; I had a draw of 80mA; I did yank the radio altogether from the harness and overnight the battery went from a 12.65DCV to 12.08DCV, so the radio, even the Chrysler one, was draining or something related to the BCM with the radio. I need to figure this out.

 

[JPNinPA]

So what circuit has the 80ma draw? The radio? If so look or shorts in the wire or poor crimp jobs.
Did you have the battery load tested? A few deep drains and it could be shot.


JPNinPA
Using Jeepz.com app

 

[JPNinPA]

It takes 30 sec for all the computers to sleep. If the 80 MA is post 40 sec then look at the Rear glass ad jar switch.


JPNinPA
Using Jeepz.com app

 

[jeepNik]

Thanks for the replies; my head hearts as I'm finding more mystery-goodies on this one.

Came back home after leaving the car in the garage all day (since 0530 hours until 1900 hours), the car is dead. This was with the radio out completely but the 10A fuse in (I don't even remember); anyhow, tried to jump start it from a portable starter, no go; the load on the battery is less-than 6DCV; so yes, more than half drained in a span of 12+ hours.

More interesting...

Just about an hour ago, tried charging the battery, keeping a voltmeter on it to see its progress, left it and came back...heard a funky noise in the cabin, coming from the inside fuse box. Sounds like the locks just kept on locking/opening on their own, non-stop, in a very faint noise; I took the #32 BCD/Radio/Internal Lights fuse out, and it stopped...once that fuse was out, I heard the REAR HATCH LOCK constantly going into either lock/unlock position.

So...Radio? Maybe.
Locks tweaking without radio on their own? Probably? Maybe? Possibly?

Can I shoot this Jeep yet?

 

[JPNinPA]

Check your PM


Regards,
JPNinPA

Sent using TapTalk

 

[jeepNik]

Hi, I couldn't reach the link you'd sent for some reason.

New revelation this morning:

* Took radio out, 10A fuse out, left overnight; car will start fine
* At first, my front wipers didn't work, that was the scary part; need these in rain/snow
* Then, turning the heat/cold fan control knob ON full blast, wipers don't work, dome lights don't work; what the...?!
* Turned the fan blower inside the car completely OFF, wipers work/dome lights work! Woa! WT..****?!? Ok, good.

Now I see that there's probably nothing wrong with the radio, the fuse, the BCM, etc. There may be a cut/short on a wire or something on the harness for the climate control knobs that will shut things down in the front, or closely related to the BCM and such, BUT...at least the car isn't draining and I know what's causing the wipers to stop.

Me oh my...

Will test for the next few days and tweak with things, check harness for climate control panel. Ouch...

 

[JPNinPA]

There is a ground point behind the dash that many things connect to. You might want to check and clean the point along with each wire connector.
Also behind the dash is the connector for the gages that you could confirm is tightly connected.
But these two causes will not result in battery drain or a no start condition. They will cause the oddities you see with the gage...

Did you get your battery load tested? Weak batteries will cause weird issues.


JPNinPA
Using Jeepz.com app

 

[jeepNik]

Yes, the battery was tested after it was purchased on the following few days; this was a month ago.
As of now, the vehicle is doing fine overnight in colder weather, with the 10A fuse out and radio out completely.

I've researched this to a point that I see others have the issue with with the key cylinder or the ignition actuator that I will replace it this weekend. What it sounds like is that the key is so loose that it can come out at either ACC, Battery or Start positions with the key. The fact that when I turn the Jeep OFF, accessories appear to be running since the windshield wipers continue to work when it's OFF and no key in; that tells me that the ignition actuator isn't telling the BCM that the car is off so nothing is going to sleep.

This Jeep has an aftermarket Viper remote start and possibly a reinstalled/off-brand key cylinder since I have two different keys (Black Jeep and a beige non-Jeep key); I don't know if it was duplicated or the cylinder was replaced to match the original key, etc. Either way, the fact that the key doesn't turn the car off with the 10A radio fuse in, tells me that the radio doesn't get the signal to power down.

I will narrow it down with the ignition cylinder first and work up from there; it makes sense to me. Will update soon.

 

[JPNinPA]

That should be an easy test. Check a ign powered circuit key on and key off. Like the fuel pump. Then verify the BCM power. Just to be sure the PO didn't pull power for the radio/BCM circuit from somewhere else.

Others had issues with the trunk or rear glass ajar switch.


JPNinPA
Using Jeepz.com app