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Im at a total loss fellas, Iv spent 2 days searching the web and cant come up with answers. Im working on a 2003 f150. I put a brand new battery and alternator in it a week ago and went on vacation in the old ladies Edge for 6 days. Come home to a dead battery. Went through testing and found a few circuits pulling a load. With everything normal, doors open and hood light unplugged, after sitting for an hour, there's a parasitic drain of .34 amps. If I pull fuse 15 ((5amp fuse for Stop Lamp Switch, (Speed Control, Brake Shift Interlock, ABS, PCM Module Inputs), GEM Module, RABS Test Connector)) the drain drops to .12 amps, what can the cause be?! Also I have a Gryphon programmer installed, if I unplug it, the drains drop another .10 amps to .02 amps or if fuse 15 is still in the drain drops to .24 amps. I understand that the programmers always pull some juice. I don't know where to go from here. Help!!! Thanks in advance!
.02 amps is a good number. All the other ones are too high, so that programmer thing will definitely have to be unplugged. For that GEM module circuit, you need to turn the truck off, pull the key out, and close all the doors. Then wait up to 40 minutes, and then check your drain. There is a battery saver feature in your truck that allows things to function for a certain time before the GEM cuts everything off. So set your meter up, disconnect the hood light like you have been doing, pull the key shut the doors and wait and see what happens. You want to be below .07 amps to call it good.
That's how I did the test. Drivers door was open but latched so the computer thought it was closed. Key out. Hood light unplugged. Mater hooked up. I let it sit in that state for an hour and checked the draw. Something on that circuit is pulling juice.
Do you have access to a wiring diagram? That's the only way to find it, is to follow the power distribution as it branches out, and logically pull the correct fuses till you get down to pulling plugs on components.