Continious horn and battery drain

[mlj1111]

First Hello. My names is Mike, and I have been around here for awhile reading and learning, but have not had the pleasure of actually registering and posting until now, only as I am about at wits end with my truck. I try to do as much as I can on my own without depending upon others. That being stated,on to my issue.

I bought an 04 Dodge Ram two months ago, Nice truck, runs great, needs a bit of TLC.

Found out on day 2 that battery was draining overnight, forcing me to jump start, and also saw fuse for horn was pulled. Replaced that fuse and found the constant horn issue, pulled fuse until I can figure out what the deal is.
Pulled fuse 51 after reading here and been pulling it daily to keep battery from draining.

I have replaced fuse/relay center, instrument cluster, and horn pad/airbag, as that was free anyways with our recall for airbags.
Drain is still present when radio pulled also.
Drain stops when cluster removed.
Replaced battery.
Alternator is putting out a steady 14.5 volts.

I get the feeling that the horn deal is the culprit, but short of the clock spring, I believe I have replaced everything that I could. I say this as most that have the horn issue also have the battery drain issue present and this seems to be a common issue that is to coincidental to be unrelated .

From my understanding, when your clock spring is bad, you also lose cruise control, and or air bag light flashing. This confuses me as my cruise control is fine as well as my airbag restraint system.

Is it possible that the clock spring can work for other systems, yet cause the horn to blow/drain battery?

I had mentioned that I had replaced the fuse box, that incorporates the integrated power module relays underneath of it. I am curious if there is something between the clock spring and it that is essentially putting power to the horn relay that is in it essentially draining the battery, even though horns fuse unplugged, its still after that fact.
1.25 amp draw.

I have read forums after forum and people describe a lot of the same symptoms that I have.. However, I have yet to see someone post what the actual fix was..
Example... http://www.ramforumz.com/showthread....+battery+drain
or http://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...e in with thoughts. Thank you. Mike Johanson

 

[mlj1111]

Thanks..

 

[Ram Lover]

Thanks..

Sorry buddy I've had the same problem but been too cold to mess with anything, I pulled my horn fuse and needed a battery later not thinking anything about drain, but now even with a bigger battery and new starter it doesn't turn over any better so thinking there's drain somewhere.

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk

 

[mlj1111]

Appreciate the response, even it its not an answer, its a sign of life.
Mike

 

[dss56]

This might be your problem. Check fuse #51 under the hood its the IOD fuse that powers your radio/cluster /under hood light.

Most likely its the cluster gone bad. If you pull the fuse it will not drain the battery any more. So you have 2 options make a kill switch for the fuse so when you park the truck you turn off the switch to eliminate the fuse, or make a relay setup so when you shut the truck off the fuse is out of circuit and when you start truck all is good fuse is back in circuit. Only problem here is you will have to reset the radio time every time you start the truck. Or you can get a used cluster for about $100 and replace but mileage will not be the same as current. Or you can buy new from dealer and have them program current mileage to match, but you will pay about $800 for cluster and programing.

I have done the relay circuit and has worked well no problems as I went through 3 batteries for 5 months until I found the problem. And yes just google this problem with the 02-08 rams and this is wide spread to many trucks. My fix is all mounted in the under hood fuse box, took 20 minutes to make and 5 minutes to remove the fuse #51 and put in the relay circuit. Also my dash cluster works fine everything so I dont know what might be the problem in the cluster but a 10 dollar fix as opposed to an $800 dealer fix I will live with. No more dead battery is what i got for the $10 fix.

Good luck

 

[justin13703]

If you wanted to be really specific about troubleshooting this, you need to do a parasitic current draw test on the truck. If you determine that fuse 51 is the circuit that is drawing too much standby power, then you need to find a wiring diagram to see exactly what all is fed by fuse 51. You can then do a parasitic current draw test on each individual component until you find out exactly what is causing the problem. This involves some work and having some knowledge about 12v systems and multimeters.

 

[dss56]

I answered this only because I have just discovered I have this problem I bought my 4 battery yesterday in the past 5 months 3 were warrantied. So my problem is in the #51 fuse. When I pull the fuse all amp draw is gone and I checked battery today and no voltage drop. What I did was I made a relay circuit that cuts out the fuse #51 when I shut off my truck and puts it back in circuit when I start the truck. Problem is it cuts power to the radio clock and have to reset every time i start the truck.

At least my battery will not go dead. I was going to put a switch in the dash but might forget to shut it off when I shut off the truck.

My problem is in my cluster panel. All works fine but something is causing the voltage draw. So i added the relay circuit and works well.

What I'm looking for it the wire from fuse #51 to the instrument panel and add the relay to that and not the full fuse 51 that also cuts power to my radio.

This might not be the correct fix but at $1000 from the dealer for a new cluster and then to have programed for correct mileage my $30 dollar fix will work for me.

There have been many people who have replace the cluster and did not fix the problem, also disconnected the radio and still a voltage draw. The circuit is not shutting down the timed power off after 5 minutes or the cluster is bad but when I unplug my cluster it goes away.

So my fix for now will work untill i can take the cluster out again and find the correct power wire that is causing this v-draw and I will add my relay circuit to that wire and be done with changing out batteries. This has been happening for the past 5-6 months for me and there are many people out there with this problem witht he 02-08 rams.

 

[Randee]

Not sure if you found your problem. I was having the same issue. Found it's the switch of clock spring in the horn, not allowing the instrument cluster to go to sleep (hence the draw on Fuse 51 in my case).
Many of these have had a recent recall with the airbag, so maybe the dealers can replace part while they're in there.

 

[dss56]

Where did you buy the clock spring from? dealer or ebay?

 

[Demon-HeMi]

Where did you buy the clock spring from? dealer or ebay?

i got mine off ebay, took me maybe 30 mins to install it

 

[dss56]

And you had the symptoms of the battery going dead after 2-3 days. So the clock spring does control when the cluster goes into sleep mode?

That is the problem im having if i keep the fuse 51 in battery goes dead in 2-3 days that's why I made a timer circuit with relay so battery will not go dead

 

[Randee]

Well, the clock spring or bad switch causes the horn to continually go off. The process of the horn keeps the cluster awake, which drains the battery. The process of the horn keeps the cluster awake, which drains the battery. Demon-Hemi, You had the same issue and confirmed it is the clock spring?

 

[Demon-HeMi]

Well, the clock spring or bad switch causes the horn to continually go off. The process of the horn keeps the cluster awake, which drains the battery. go off. The process of the horn keeps the cluster awake, which drains the battery. Demon-Hemi, You had the same issue and confirmed it is the clock spring?

no i never had it happen when my clock spring went bad, but changing mine out fixed a bunch of other issues i was having