what is an acceptable parasitic draw?[FIXED]

More woes with the 2007 Equinox... a while back I posted about the key getting stuck in the ignition and that if I disconnected the battery it would take about 20 minutes after reconnecting it before it would restart. It went totally dead after a while so my son-in-law assumed it needed a battery and replaced it to no avail. The fix turned out to be the BCM, I didn't diagnose it, a local repair shop that my son-in-law is familiar with did, the car belongs to my daughter. After the BCM was swapped and reprogrammed I put a new lock cylinder in. That was actually pretty fun setting up the lock to match the key. All was well for about two months.

Two weeks ago the battery went dead, they couldn't remember how long it had been since it was driven but no more than a week, likely three days. I jumped it and brought it home. I see something that is going to be hard to explain but it is drawing around 40 to 60 mA; it floats up and down for about 3 to 5 seconds, then drops to about 3 for an instant and jumps up to somewhere around 450 mA, stays there for about 2 seconds and the cycle repeats. I pulled fuses one by one, giving it time to settle, replacing the fuse, letting it settle down and going to the next fuse. When I got to the HVAC/RFA fuse it stopped cycling and settled at 30 mA for 10 minutes, then spiked up to 1.6A for about 3 to 5 seconds, then dropped to 3 mA and remained there for over an hour. I assume it would have continued doing so but I put it back together for the night.

I consulted Mitchell, I have a DIY subscription for the Nox, the wiring diagram shows that fuse feeds three things, 1) the HVAC module that lives in the dash, where the knobs are for the HVAC 2) the "RCDLR" or Remote Control Door Lock Receiver and 3) pin 16 of the DLC So tonight I pulled the dash apart and disconnected the HVAC module and it freaked out about it I guess because the current draw went to a steady 250 mA, I reconnected it, started the car, ran it a minute or two, shut it off and tried again and it seemed ok with it. The current draw behavior didn't change. I reconnected it, pulled the interior out to get to the RCDLR ( dunno why the fuse is called RFA ) unplugged it, and by the way, I was disconnecting the battery before connecting or disconnecting anything, and the current draw settled down to a steady 33 mA but every now and then it would spike up to the 450 mA amount, but it would take like 15 or 20 seconds. So I unplugged the HVAC module and left the RCDLR unplugged but nothing changed... wth??! There should be nothing drawing current at that point, my scan tool was not connected to the DLC.

With all that said, how likely is it that the wiring diagram is wrong/incomplete and what is an acceptable current draw? Has anyone else seen this behavior with it bouncing around and never settling down? The only info I could find was on Optima's website and they said they didn't like to see more than 100 mA and 25 mA was normal. But with it bouncing all around I have no idea what the steady draw would be equivalent to. Any ideas what might be drawing current from that fuse? I had the BCM fuse out nearly the whole time, it wasn't drawing anything that I could discern with all the other junk going on, but once I saw it settle down, I replaced it and soon after was when it dropped to 3 mA and remained (with the doors shut of course). I cannot imagine that it's the DLC connector, there's no intelligence built into them is there?

Thanks in advance,
Gary

I doubt the wiring diagram is wrong. As a rule of thumb 100ma is a max with added electronics most vehicles will settle under 12ma . There is nothing on the DLC connector to pull amperage I think it's worth retesting mainly to see if amperage jumps back up after you reinsert the hvac fuse and verify that it does increase amperage for a short period of time (atleast 2 mins) just to verify that is the problem circuit and not just a coincidence (I've seen guys spend hours chasing a draw on the wrong circuit....) In the mean time I'll take a look at a diagram and see what I can find

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Also there were a lot of electrical issues with these vehicles and there Pontiac counter parts.... almost all were caused by corrosion if your in the rust belt I would start by cleaning ground straps as that fixed a lot of module issues with these vehicles.

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Ben,

Yes, it comes right back up after reinserting the fuse. I don't remember how long or how much it goes up but it is consistent in that it goes right back to that cyclic behavior. I have to open the door to put the fuse in so I have to wait out the dome light, etc. I could pull the BCM fuse and check it I suppose.

I need to get that fixed, for sure, but I also really want to know why it continues to draw current even with the two things disconnected that the wiring diagram shows. I expect it to drop exactly as when I pull the fuse; there is something else going on, something is connected.

I was doing some research and discovered what RFA stands for: Remote Function Activator so that much I know now. I was wondering if it were yet another module but it is in fact one and the same system as the so called RCDLR. I think the RFA is the key fob to be precise.

This vehicle was purchased in Texas, used. I don't know where it lived prior but I will start looking at grounds.

Thanks for your help,
Gary

Parasitic draw can be a challenge.
With a later model vehicle like your Equinox (we're poor out here so 07 is later model, lol), I like to manually close the door latches and or door ajar switches (so I can work with the doors open), lock the doors and set the alarm with the key fob, and get the keys and fob in another room. Then you've gotta wait at least 30 minutes, sometimes up to an hour, for everything to go to sleep and then measure the key off drain.
If you lose the connection with your amp meter, then everything wakes up and you've gotta start all over again.
That's why I like to clamp one end of the meter on the battery, one end on the terminal, then slip the cable over the post while I wait for everything to shut down. Then pull the cable off the battery after everything is asleep, maintaining the connection with my amp meter. If your Equinox still has the side post battery terminals, that may not work for you.
I've seen guys waste a better part of the day with a test light in series on the battery negative, just start pulling fuses as soon as they're hooked up.

These work awesome for keeping a connection between you meter and battery to avoid having to start over

Someone had connected a GPS tracking device to the DLC

I pulled it out and reassembled everything, and after about 55 minutes it goes to 11mA.

And, by the way, I am using and Autocraft brand battery disconnect, it is an old school knife switch. I connect the ammeter across it, I start the car and run it a while, activate all of the modules that I can find, idle it for 5 minutes or so, shut it off, then open the switch and watch the meter. I tested the battery with the Pico, it says it's only 23% capacity but I've been starting it and not running it long. That battery is only 2 months old but it's been totally dead twice and stayed dead for days before getting recharged so it's likely ruined.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the battery drain issue is fixed. Now I gotta sort out the P0300.

Thanks for all the help guys,
Gary

Great news ! Dang add-ons will do that sometimes...

Yeah, it is good news but I feel like an idiot, there is a TSB about this very issue, not related to parasitic battery drain, I don't think, I read it months ago, but to watch for wacky stuff being caused by iirc GPS tracking devices being connected to the DLC. I remember thinking when I read it, "who would do that?!", well, apparently it is common for fleet vehicles, perhaps this was once a fleet vehicle.

One more thing, Ben, I did check all of the grounds that I could find, and especially the ground at the IP fuse block, it read 0.002 ohms and the one at the right rear that was near the remote receiver was 0.005 ohms, so pretty good. I had to make a lead to reach back that far, it was about 15 feet long, I just grabbed a length of wire and put gold plated banana plugs at each end, I had them from an audio job I did. I first checked it's resistance and it read 0 but once I factor in the meter positive lead length and the length of the ground wire(s) I suppose I shouldn't expect it to be dead zero.

I sure appreciate all the help.

Nice work, glad you found it!