Hey i have a question, the battery dies every night. I have tried replacing the relays and what not but for some reason the interior lights will not cut off ( gauge cluster, radio). They stay on until it just drains the battery down.

Anyone have any idea as to the problem, because its simply driving me up a wall......

thanks
Dustin

 

Those lights generally go on when you open the door/doors......have you checked to see if you have a faulty switch on one of your doors.
There's also an inadvertant drain circuit that should shut off your courtesy lights if left on too long....it seems that is not working.....there's a fuse for that...check your owners manual.
Hope this helps............. Bob

 

ON BOTH PARTS ONE HAS GONE OUT ON HIM...

 

Is the dimmer shut off? They should still shut off after 10 minutes though. Pull your codes just in case something is reporting.

 

Check the small rotary dimmer to the left of the steering wheel on the front panel. It has a position which clicks on and the lights will stay on. I stumbled across that by accident one night.

 

I'll bet that's what it is.

 

Agree - I was bitten by that feature when I first got my vette. Boy did I feel dumb when I finally figured it out.

 

Thanks for that! One more thing I won't have to learn the hard way!

 

Lol nope you guys that wasn't it, so um operator error nope. The BCM is continuously getting power. Every fuse in the fuse box lights the test light up.

 

Send an IM to Bill Curlee. He is the C5 electrical mastah!

 

Could your wife be doing this after you go to bed?

 

In that case you need to go back to basics

This might help:

Identifying Battery Problems
The C5 eats batteries unless you take some regular precautions. If your battery continually dies its either the battery which is on its last legs or something on the car.

You also need to look at how you use the car. Is it a daily driver? If so the battery should be getting a good top up every day so you may have a problem.


Is it a DD but you do short trips? If so you'll be taking a lot out of the battery every time you start. For a short trip, say less than about 20 mins, you won’t top it off properly. Eventually it'll drain.

Is it a weekend car. If so, this takes a lot out of your battery. There’s a 20MA drain even dormant. If you don’t drive the car for a reasonable time every week or so, it'll kill the battery. In this case you really do need a battery tender.

You’ll know when your battery is bad. As it gets low you may get strange electrical indications (random warnings and U fault codes). As it gets lower it may drop the memory settings or defaults such as HUD settings. Eventually you’ll get the dreaded chattering relays in the footwell and eventually the lights on the IPC will disappear.

Most batteries can be recharged quite successfully, although AGMs are harder. Start by checking the charge on the battery. Don’t read the DIC when the car is off. The value you see on the DIC is alternator output when the car is running. It will always measure an inaccurately low voltage on the battery when the ignition is off and figures of 11.0V to 11.9V is normal in this case. With the engine on, the voltmeter should show between 13V and 14.5V. You need to measure voltage across the battery terminals using a digital multi meter if possible. A fully charged battery measures 12.7V and a fully discharged battery measures 11.9V. Partially discharged batteries will give a reading somewhere in between.

If the battery is low give it an overnight charge (or put it on a battery tender until you get a fully charged indication) and retest it. A true test is under load and Autozone will do that test for free.

If you’ve recharged it and it still runs down, then you need to start looking for excessive drains. Bill Curlee posted a good method for checking:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1567522286-post590.html

There are some common faults which are well known for causing problems:

First to check is the interior lighting rotary switch on the drivers panel. It’s possible for that to be turned on as there’s a setting (fully clockwise) which bypasses the auto off function. Turn it fully counter clockwise and check after about 30 minutes (preferably in the dark) that the interior lights have gone off.

If it’s not the lights something has failed or is badly installed.

Have you fitted an after-market device which draws current? Typically it’s a cellphone charger, radar warner or a similar device that’s the problem.

If still no joy, you need to start pulling fuses to identify the problem.

The power seat switches on the side of both seats are notoriously unreliable. The switch becomes sticky with use and can stick in the “on” position. You shouldn’t damage the motors as they are thermally protected. The fuse may blow so worth checking (Fuse 36 20A in footwell).

The driver’s lumbar motor can also cause issues so check this too (mini fuse 3 15A in footwell). The seat controls connect under the seat. Pull the connector and if the drain stops that’s your problem.

Less common but not unheard of are failures of the headlight motor control module the alternator and the Bose Amplifier under the dash on the driver’s side.

 

Lots of good info. Hope you will keep us updated on what you find.