I have a 2003 SSEi that has a battery drain issue. When the car is running it has 14.7V.

The tested the battery drain (pos terminal) and it is over 2A because it blew the fuse in my meter.

I started maesuring the drain on the circuits in the fuse box. The top three drains were the Audio circuit(fuse 21) 0.7A, Sat Radio (fues 15) 0.5A and the instrument panel (fuse 30) 0.25A.

With the audio & sat radio fuses out, total drain was 0.656A.

Is the 0.25A drain from the inst panel normal?

Any ideas on why the audio & sat radio circuits are drawing more than 0.5A each?

Have you had batteries go dead on you, and not be able to hold a charge afterwards?

14.7v is what you should see when the alternator is doing its job and recharging the battery.
I have had a parasitic battery drain myself, but I have not really had the time to properly find out which circuit it is on.
I kind of think that my alternators rectifier bridge may be going bad, if they go bad and let voltage flow both ways you will lose battery current.
There is a way to test the alternators rectifier bridge, but I need to go over the info I have on it, and make sure I understand it enough to share it.

From what I have learned around .50 mA draw when the car is off is acceptable.
Did you happen to turn the key on, or open a trunk, or door while doing the draw test?
If so then that is what blew the fuse, you want to hook the DVOM up properly, let the cars PCM go into sleep mode, then read the draw.
I have a good word document a friend who is a GM certified mechanic from another site shared with me, let me see if I can get it in jpeg form and uploaded so I can share it with you.

Here we go, attached pics of the word document, this is from GM, and good from I believe 96-2003, I'll have to double check to be sure on the dates it covers..



And some additional tips below that they shared with me..


"GM states that you should drive the car as you would and then park it. In the last few years GM has added a additional step. After parking the car connect a battery jumper pack to the car. Then disconnect the battery'* Neg Cable and install the DVOM inline and setup correctly. Then disconnect the jumper pack. This will ensure that the component that might be stuck on will not loose voltage and shut down."

"You want the car to have power when you disconnect the battery cable and install the meter. "

The battery is charging.
The draw was measured with the key out of the ignition, doors shut, lights off, etc.

I am going to find the diagrams for the circuits in question, to trouble shoot them further.

The when I put the instrument panel fuse back in (or when I measure the draw), it maked a noise for a second or two (sounds like an elect motor running) then it stops. The draw when the motor is running is 0.1A. After the noise stops it goes to 0.25A stays there. I need to find out what the noise is, and that maybe the source of the issue with the IP circuit.

I forgot to say thanks for the document.

sounds normal to me .1a is not that much

I got a new meter. Total draw is 2.3A. With the radio and sat radio fuses out it only draws .65A. Out of the .65A, .25A is the inst panel and .13 is the remote start (dealer installed).

The front drivers door does leak (puddles on the drivers rear foot well). I will fix that this weekend. Are there any grounds in that area that I should check for corrosion?

Any suggestion for troubleshooting the radio/sat radio circuits to see why they draw 1.65A with the car off?

Should I disconnect the harness from the back of the radio and check the draw?
Is there a separate sat radio tuner? If so, where is it?

Anthony, every car has a certain amount of current draw when shut off. Like William asked in the second post of this thread, are you having problems with the battery draining to the point where the car won't start.

There is a ground bus under the carpet beheath the front driver'* seat. If water is puddling in the rear seat well, you should pull the front seat, lift the carpet and check for corrosion.

Do you have a sunroof?

Yes, The battery drain to the point that it won't start. The battey is new and it is charging when the car is running. I fully charged the batter over the weekend and left the radio and sat radio fuses out. I will try to start it tomorrow or wednesday to see if the .65A draw will allow me to start the car. I still think it is too much. The document posted above states 25mA, which is .025A, is an acceptable draw.

I will be pulling the drivers seat to check/clean the ground.

The car has a aftermarket (dealer installed) sunroof. I checked this weekend and it isn't leaking from the drains. The door sill is wet and you can see water coming out from under the door panel.

i read through there it seems incredibly low. but 1.6 is too much regardless. a bad ground isnt going to cause draw but if the water is shorting something out partialy wire or whatever that may be. i would see what is on that circuit and try disconnecting things untill you see a change, if nothing changes its in the wiring.