Something is vibrating when the vehicle is turned off, it is draining the battery

JESSIDBELL

MEMBER
2015 BUICK ENCORE
4 CYL
4WD
AUTOMATIC
43,000 MILES

This morning my battery was dead. It wouldn't jump and it wouldn't charge
9 hours later (battery was still dead). I went outside and something in the engine area was vibrating. Loudly. Something was on and running. Maybe an alarm of some sort?
It sounded like a fan but there was no fan running.
Keys were not in the car, battery was dead.
Disconnected the battery and the noise (whatever was running) stopped.
Charged the battery while it was disconnected and got the car to start.
Vibrating has stopped.
Google is at a loss, so am I.

3 Replies

SCGRANTURISMO

MECHANIC
4,897 POSTS

Hello,

Whatever was running must not have needed a lot of voltage to run. Even when your vehicle's battery is completely "dead", it still has around 9 volts of electricity in it. The Power-train Control Module [PCM] or "computer" only needs 9 volts of electricity to operate. Having said this, I don't believe that there is any component on your vehicle that requires a cooling fan to operate to cool it down. Are there any aftermarket components installed on your vehicle?

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros

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Thursday, December 5th, 2019 AT 12:37 AM

JESSIDBELL

MEMBER
2 POSTS

No.
It just sounded like a fan, I don't really think it was.
Whatever it was happened on was right side behind the tow hook on the front passenger side cause it was vibrating really bad.
Kept an eye on it last night and this morning my car still started.
My fear is it happens while in out and about and leaves me stranded.
It's not something I've ever experienced before.

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Thursday, December 5th, 2019 AT 8:22 AM

KEN L

MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
43,351 POSTS

The sounds it making we should get a video for. Can you please shoot a quick video with your phone so we can hear the noise? that would be great. You can upload it here with your response.

For the battery draw it sounds like the car is not going into sleep mode like the BCM is going bad but to be sure we should do a CAN scan this video will help and you can get the CAN scanner from Amazon for about $50.00

https://youtu.be/InIlnsjOVFA

Also it could be the battery is gong bad as well this guide should help test it.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-load-test

Please run down these guides and report back.

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Thursday, December 5th, 2019 AT 12:36 PM

Something is vibrating when the vehicle is turned off, it is draining the battery

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