2003 Suburban Battery problem

[beckcan23]

I have a 2003 Suburban that has approx 82,000 miles.
one day it wouldnt start seemed to be a dead battery and I had it jump started.. It started fine.
A week later didnt start again. Had battery replaced.
A month later wouldnt start . Battery was replaced as it was fully drained. Claimed it was a bad battery.

This has been on going for months.. Had the battery replaced 3 times.
Took it to Carmax they couldnt find what was draining the battery.. Checked cable, connection and left overnight to see if they could find the draw .. Found NOTHIng.

When its jump started it starts right away but when they check battery they say its totally drained.

This only happens when its left overnight.. Never during the day when I leave it outside work. I have checked that I not leaving anything on and there is nothing in the cigarette lighter or other chargers..

The only add on to the car is a remote starter. This has also been checked..

I took to Chevy dealer today.. They tried to claim it was the battery.. I find it hard to believe,not with it being replaced just a month ago. They are now leaving overnight to see they can find the drain.

I am at the end of my rope with this..
It doesnt happen all the time-about once a month but I have to pay to get jumped everytime.. I tried to use Balck and Deckers Smart Start Battery Charger one time and this TOTALLY did not work..

What are other option that some of you have seen..
My dad said they need to trace all the wires but I gonna have to pay a fortune for that..
I love this SUV but I am at the end of my rope.. HELP

[73ChevelleSS]

Whoever is working on that truck needs to check it for a parasitic draw.Something is staying powered up.A good tech with a Fluke 87 meter should be able to find it.

[jnelson]

My suburban is doing the same thing. Did you get you suburban fix let, if so what was the fix???

[BigSilver]

My 2003 Chevy Suburban started doing the same thing. Haven't found the cause for the drain as yet. Temp fix; I carry a spare battery and jumper cables.

Plan to trouble shoot the issue as follows:

Using a DVM in current mode (Amps); place the probes into each respective fuse holder on the vehicle's fuse panel and record the currents being drawn. This is how they did it back in WW2 in the air force.

If you do the test, post your current readings for each respective fused circuit, to make a reference archive thread.

[rbarrios]

I was going to say the same thing....
if it starts easily with a jump.
Buy a battery and jumper cables- carry them in the back.
jump yourself.
after a few jumps- recharge the battery with your plug in charger.

[scooter10572]

you need to do a draw test ,you could have something staying powered up or you could also have a bad battery with an internal draw.have fixed many parasitic draw problems over the years,meter has to be in series on the battery,amperage setting of course make sure you allow 20 minutes or more for modules to power down,as far as going to carmax I doubt very much theyll ever fix it.

[ntrenn]

My solution on the wifes Rendezvous - a thing called Battery Brain. Kills the circuit when the battery voltage drops below 12V. I have been through every relay, every circuit, everything I can think of. The battery would drain so dead that you had to disconnect it to recharge it. It then would sometimes go a month without dying - other times it was a day or even a few hours. Seems to be a pretty common problem with no real positive solution. Still would like to find the real red X....

[BigSilver]

Before fastening the wire terminals to the battery, place a metal washer between the wire terminal and the battery. This may eliminate a poor contact.

In a recent situation, the battery terminals were firmly attached, or so one would have believed after tugging on the cable connections. However, when I pealed away the plastic boot, I found a gap between the wire harness and the battery plate. This may have contributed to poor amperage supply and poor charging.

[gjcol]

I'm not sure if this is the solution to your battery drain issue but here was my solution. The PRNDL indicator and the low battery light would come on and the battery would be drained after a day or two. Long story short, replacing the fuse block under the hood seems to have corrected the battery drain issue. I'm not sure what retail is for this but it worked for me. It has been 2 weeks with no issue at all. Crazily, my daughter could turn on the dvd player while the low battery indicator and PRNDL were lit up. The mechanic could make the lights come on by pressing down in the middle of the fuse block. He replaced the fuse block and it seems fine now.
Hope it helps. I would have never even considered this as a possible source of the problem.

[Triple-X08]

Originally Posted by 73ChevelleSS

Whoever is working on that truck needs to check it for a parasitic draw.Something is staying powered up.A good tech with a Fluke 87 meter should be able to find it.

agreed 100%

[AndrewGS]

Could be the battery cables. I recently had to replace the cables on my grandparents' '01 Suburban.

[Triple-X08]

it could be, but you would assume people would check that when you pay for them to check that stuff

[GMfan1111]

It sounds like a parasitic draw of some sort. A draw test will usually determine with a good amount of accuracy what component is still drawing in power. Also it could be that a light or some accessory was left on and it drained the battery I know it sounds silly but I've seen a few folks who have drained there battery by accident because they left something on in the car

[chickenkicker]

On my Trans AM the wire running from the alternator to the battery developed a short in on the end behind the alternator, as I would drive it would sometimes short out causing the battery to not charge as I was driving. I also had a problem with my glove box light sometime sticking on overnight because the switch was going bad and wouldn't always turn the light off when I closed it. Also had a friend with a car alarm that would drain the battery dead if he left it parked/armed for more than a day or 2 in the driveway (like over the weekend). Just some things to think about.

Another thing is if you have any after market audio equipment, or any other electronics, make sure it's all shutting off when you turn the car off (i.e. an amp staying powered up when the car is off, etc.).

Also what brand of batteries are you buying, are they all the same brand? I knew someone who had an Optima red top car battery and they would crap out after just a few weeks, after going thru like 5 of them he got a Die Hard Gold and never had another problem.

[shadams]

We had a 07 Yukon XL in here probably 10 times for a similar issue. Problem is, it would be dead for the customer but when we got it after he jumped it everything checked out OK. We finally had to drive to his house one morning when it wouldnt start, and although the battery tested good, the car had no power at all. The tech grabbed the cables to see if they were tight and the negative one was hot as hell. Turns out, the negative cable had a ton of resistance, and what was happening was at times it wouldnt allow power through to the fuse block, and others, wouldnt allow the battery to charge when the truck was running causing it to go dead. We just about had to get GM involved when we discovered the problem, and its been several months now without any issues.

Just another possiblity, check resistance and voltage drop between the cable at the battery and the ground point on the engine.