I have been chasing a parasitic drain for some time, and although I have tracked it to a bad ground strap (hopefully), I have noticed something else recently that could be a co-conspirator or possibly the actual culprit.

I was sitting in my car a few days ago and I had shut it down with the driver's door open. I removed the key from the ignition and was met with a crisp 'crack' reminiscent of an electrical enclosure disconnect throw handle and thought cool the battery is not going to drain significantly tonight. I watched as the wheel rose up and decided to stay for a bit and closed the door without exiting the vehicle and locked it with the remote and sat there listening. After a minute or two of the normal clicks, whirs and wind downs; silence. I sat in the quiet comfort thinking of everything and absolutely nothing all at the same time while staring blankly off into space for ~1.5 minutes. All of a sudden, a couple of large clunks from deep in the dash in front of me drove the fecal matter from me, snapping me back to 'reality'.

What the Hell was that? Where did it come from? I waited, ~another minute passes by and I hear it again, it is directly in front of me. I rested my hands on the wheel and waited; like clockwork the 'clunk' 'clunk' sounded again but this time all was revealed. As I had been resting my hands on the wheel this time trying to concentrate, I found it was the wheel that is moving up and in a tiny bit, or trying to and just hitting the stops.

This happens even if I turn the steering wheel switch to the off position. So I doubt this stops on it's own anytime soon, would anyone think that clipping that one wire to stop the jerky steering wheel motion will stop this? I suffer from the jerky steering wheel as well, but it seems to also have allot to do with the steering wheel position I leave it in when I shut the car off as to whether or not the wheel jerks. Thanks for any input in advance.

 

Sorry I don't know your model well but does it have a setting that disables the auto steering wheel movement (as mine does)? May well be a knob on the column with an AUTO position. Try setting it off auto if so.

 

Hi JagV8,
Did that, no change; first sentence in the fourth paragraph. Although I have been having ignition cylinder issues because the PO had forced the key to turn past the wheel locks on the steering wheel, because turning it to the side to relieve the pressure takes too long. There was also warranty or recall work done in this area and I have not pulled the bottom cowling of the steering wheel to check wiring integrity, as everywhere else recall/warranty or any work was done the wiring has been shoved back into the cavity just long enough to get the panel back on.
Thanks

 

Insert the key in the ignition but do not turn it. Does the steering wheel extend and return to the driving position? Next remove the key, after the wheel has retracted look into the ignition switch. Is the door closed over the ignition opening? My guess is it isn't. The door tells the sclm module that the key is out of the ignition, as well as he body module. If the door dies not close it will drain the battery and drive the steering wheel crazy because it doesn't understand where the key is.

 

Oh yes, I know all about that little flap over the key hole, it is closed, but I cannot determine if it is bent slightly or not without removal. The steering wheel functions normally in all regards, save the intermittent, jerky deployment to driving position, but there is usually never a problem with it retracting fully into the top of the dash. So I need to pull the entire cylinder out, check the 'flap' up close, and clean and lubricate it properly; also the car came from Seattle, and I brought it to the other side of the state to the desert. The type of lubricant used in a typically wet environment, like Seattle, is not what is used in a hot, dry desert environment. White lithium was used in the Seattle area, according to the locksmith I have been chatting with, but in my climate WD-40 is to be used since white lithium will harden in the dry desert environment, fouling up the ignition cylinder, which is exactly what I experienced after bringing the car over in March, and headed into our 100+ degree Summer weather.

I have been speaking with the locksmith about changing the entire cylinder out and replacing it with a more standard keyed cylinder, transferring the chip and using the original key as a 'dumb' key for the door and trunk only. I have made him fully aware of the problems with the original key and cylinder, and it's role in shutting down the car to enter sleep mode etc.

The reason I ask about the steering wheel is that it does not always return to the uppermost resting position and I usually have to manually move it the rest of the way with the toggle. I do not always take the time to do this and it may be why the drain is so hard to trace as I do not know yet if it does this when the wheel fully returns to it's resting place. I drive with the wheel fully down and retracted to the dash, so the pulling in does not make sense, but maybe it is trying to go up to it's resting place, since it is ~.5"s from it when it shuts down and does it's clunking thing.

 

Really, any idea or thought would do at this point. I may just cut the steering wheel wire that so many on the forum have already cut, that seems to stop the jerky behavior of the steering wheel motor, and keeps it from stopping the wheel when lowering to driving position. But that does not address why the steering wheel would 'hunt' for it's stops when the car is off and key out.

I am fairly certain that it does this past the point that everything else shuts down. I wired a meter with the wires hanging out of the trunk, and connected to the battery, so I could come out and connect the meter to check the voltage drop over time without opening the trunk and disturbing the car.

While just having the meter set to Volts DC, I can see the fluctuation every minute, to minute and a half or so, as the voltage drops a tenth of a volt or so, then returns to the previous reading. This continues until the voltage drops and stabilizes at the lower value, and continues the fluctuation, and continual drop to a new lower value, then lower, lower and dead battery. I am too close to this at this point to see what is probably right in front of my eyes, so if someone can point out the obvious I would appreciate it.

 

Reset one of the memory positions such that the steering wheel is set to go to the lowest and most extended positions. Then with the system set to Auto, remove the key and see if the wheel fully retracts and fully rises. If neither of those moves happens, that would suggest to me that the problem is in the ignition switch and key flap, bearing in mind that you think the PO forced it at some time passed. If however Retract works, but Lift does not, then that suggests that the ignition switch and flap are OK and the problem is in the lift motor and its associated bits, that is the potentiometer. Depending on what happens, we can think what to do?

 

It performs as it should running it up and down and retracts etc., in auto. What I noticed today at a stoplight while in drive and idling, waiting for the light to change, was that the steering wheel is still making it's slight movement/clunk, but now it is every 14 seconds, albeit very lightly and nothing like it does when it is in park and the ignition is shut off with the key out, where the clunking and movement are quite noticeable. Is it the potentiometer causing this movement, if so I'm gonna cut it, the wire that is.

 

Rather than just snipping the wire, it would be better to unsolder it from its circuit board so it can be easily restored if snipping doesn't help. It's not a long job to remove the tilt motor and open up the black box to get the necessary access.

Whether it will help in resolving your particular problem rather than a stutter on the way down for which I proposed it, I'm sorry, but I really can't forecast that one, but I live in hope for you!

 

Yes it is very odd, why would the steering wheel continue to try to adjust or 'hunt' about once it is already at it's hard stops. I programmed it into the memory as well, with 1. being completely up and in, and 2. completely down and in.

I drive with the wheel completely against the dash, and completely down, so there is not really allot of adjusting that needs to be done in the first place; basically it just needs to lower all the way down, which it does, and not attempt to make any further 'tugs' every 14 seconds at a standstill, or while driving, as I could feel it continue every 14 seconds thereafter all the way home. Thank you for the input.

 

Alright; if I manually assure the steering wheel is fully up and 'docked' at the top of it's range using the toggle, when the wheel does not return all the way by itself, seems to have had a great impact on the battery draining, 'parasitic drain' issue. I do not have any data points or actual values written down yet, as I just discovered this yesterday evening.

I have been manually returning the wheel to the 'all the way up' position, when it does not fully go on it's own, and even when it is only ~two clicks on the toggle to get it fully into the uppermost position, although it appeared to be in the uppermost position it is not, it is still ~2-5 toggle clicks away from the top on some days, and sometimes fully returns on it's own. These toggle clicks only move the steering wheel a small fraction at a time, and sometimes I have to toggle it 2-5 times to get it fully up where it will not even try to move up with the next toggle click. I do this even when it looks fully up and 99.9% of the time it is not and moves several clicks up.

As I stated above and in numerous posts' gone by, the parasitic drain is greatly affected by something I have yet to be able to pin down, and is not linear at all, one day fully charged battery, next day I park under exact same circumstances, come out next morning, dead battery.

Whether or not the steering wheel has completely 'docked' at it's upper stops seems to be a major issue for my car, and dare I to say that this may be the cause of all the other 'paradrains' in other's cars that have given up and simply installed a battery tender.

WARNING pure conjecture follows...this may be the cause for my particular drain, as I have mentioned that with the car off and the wheel appearing to be docked, the car will still 'hunt' for the correct position making two deep 'clunk' noises with slight wheel movement, every 14 seconds until my battery is dead. This is provable on a multi meter, as every 14 seconds you can see the meter drop for a couple of seconds, while the steering wheel hunts, then returns to the previous meter value.

I have been making sure I toggle the steering wheel up, even if it looks like it is fully up, it will still go two to three more clicks up with the toggle before it is fully up. This is what appears to be affecting my battery, the movement and noise are almost undetectable, and as I reported in previous threads, the movement happens while I drive as well, every 14 seconds there is a kind of 'tug', very slight, but it happens every 14 seconds.

Upon parking my car the last time, I ensured the wheel was fully up, even though it looked to be, I had to click the toggle 2-3 times until it was fully up and could travel no more; a day and a half later, and my battery is as I had left it, fully charged.

As I stated I have just begun to look at this aspect, and thus have very little to no data points as of yet. But if this is the problem with the phantom drain, I can tell you a mechanic would have never found it. If I had not sat in my car 'daydreaming' after getting home, I never would have found that the steering wheel was making noises and trying to move after the key is out of the ignition.

 

Friend, are u sure the parasitic drain is from the wheel auto function ? I'd locate the fuse for that (probably the BPM fuse) , pull the fuse and put your ammeter into the exposed fuse female sockets.

Of course ensure the a meter fuse is large enough to handle ignition on current demands. The motors for tilt reach use small current draw (I posted exact number last year). Since you are not blowing this fuse at all a slightly larger fuse in your multimeter should be insignificant.

This will tell you for sure if current is flowing here.

You may already be sure, if so ignore this.

John

 

Not quite sure of anything at this point, however, if the steering wheel is moving after the ignition key is out, it would seem that it involves the ignition needing repair or replacement as Armstrong suggested, as it would completely shut down in the past, before the white lithium was used to lubricate the ignition.

The ignition is where I need to start; I need to confirm by removal and inspection that the white lithium has indeed hardened, and is causing the issue as the locksmith suggested, and thoroughly clean it and inspect the condition of the wafers for damage and bending, and also each wafers spring that may now be non 'springy', hardened by white lithium at this point. Electronics cleaner, which originally solved the problem of the battery drain, until I sprayed the lithium into it, and it has hardened and now cannot be cleaned sufficiently from the outside with electronics cleaner.

But none of that would explain why it is producing a very light 'clunk or tug' every 14 seconds, while in gear idling at a stoplight, or while driving down the road.

Another development that might be of interest is that the fuse panel on the driver's side fascia's, top tan relay is very warm to the touch after driving the car; I need to look at a schematic and find out what purpose that relay serves, I have already swapped it with another, with the same results.

All in all, it may be aftermarket remnants left over from the PO who may have tapped into power for some accessory that was removed before trade in and wiring was not properly insulated. Hell I have already found a tracking device in the trunk, not too much of a leap to think that there are other components to the tracker that may have been able to cut the ignition at some point that are still under the dash.