2004 Diesel - Battery Power Drain

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vegasguy

Junior Member
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Jul 31, 2015
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Location
LAS VEGAS, NV
Ram Year
2004 3500
Engine
diesel 5.9L
More electrical fun... December 2019 (about a month ago) everything was fine... let my truck sit for about 3 weeks and then went to start it .. batteries were drained ... I charged batteries... reinstalled... when hooking up cables noticed sizzle and small amount of smoke when touching "pos+" clamp to batt terminal ... (much more spark than door open or cabin lights) nothing was obvious as far as power drain .... checked all fuses ... nothing fried ... I've been reading other posts, could this be a grid heater issue, do they go bad and short?? .. this week I am going to try to clean all grounds and check underneath ... I don't really want to hook up the batteries with that much sizzle happening until I can find the short or drain ...I did have an oil filter fail and spray surrounding area but that was about 3 years ago and never thought about it again... is the alternator on the oil filter side?, I haven't been under there in awhile ... any other thoughts?? ... THANKS for any helpful advice ... I've had electrical gremlins with the lights and wipers in the past ... still love my truck just need to get it back on the road ... THANKS
 

Bloody_Knuckles

USN 81-86
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Mar 4, 2019
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Location
Lebanon, TN
Ram Year
2004
Engine
5.7L Hemi
Get a clamp on DC amp meter, put it around the + cable, and remove the fuses one by one until you see a drop in amperage to determine which circuit is draining the battery.
 
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vegasguy

vegasguy

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LAS VEGAS, NV
Ram Year
2004 3500
Engine
diesel 5.9L
Thanks .. I just pulled out all of the fuses one by one and touched the battery cable to the positive for each one... I'm still getting a strong sizzle spark every time I touch the cable to the positive post with every fuse pulled ... I thought this would at least tell me which circuit was shorting ...I don't have a DC amp meter, i may have to buy one ... does this mean I need to look at all the grounds now and grease them?
 

crash68

ACME product engineer
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3.0 EcoDiesel
Separate the batteries, they're wired in parallel to each other. It's possible one of them has a bad cell and is draining both of them. If it does it with either battery, pull the main wire going to that alternator.
 
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