Parasitic draw

TIMOSEE

MEMBER
2001 CHEVROLET EXPRESS
5.7L
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
61,000 MILES

I have a parasitic draw. It goes away when I pull the radio-b (battery) fuse (no. 19 slot) in fuse box. The owners manual shows the only things on that circuit is the radio and power antenna. But when I pull the radio-b fuse out, the speedometer doesn't work and all the electronic readouts on cluster like mileage, etc, are not there, then the only part of the cluster that works is the 4 small gages fuel, water, voltage, oil and the cluster backlight. Owner's manual shows all the instrument cluster to be in slot no. 14 (ILLUM) in the fuse panel. I seem to have 2 different circuits controlling different parts of the cluster. Owner's manual shows that should not be the case.

6 Replies

DANNY L

MECHANIC
5,648 POSTS

Hello, I'm Danny.

Yep, Chevrolet does that. Same thing happened to me on my 1997 K1500 Silverado. Had my cigarette lighter and power door locks fuse blow and only one of those circuits was labeled as the fuse. Do you need wiring diagrams from us to figure were the draw is coming from? Let us know and we'll go from there. Hope this helps and thanks for using 2CarPros.

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Monday, November 2nd, 2020 AT 9:30 PM

DANNY L

MECHANIC
5,648 POSTS

Hello again.

I've added this tutorial for you to view.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-dead-overnight

Let us know if you have any further questions on this issue. Hope this helps and thanks again for using 2CarPros.

Danny-

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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020 AT 10:57 AM

TIMOSEE

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Only wiring diagram image I can find. It shows the BATT circuit at the top which is under the hood box. Bottom of diagram is the internal fuse box. You can see #19 radio-b fuse slot. None of those at the bottom shows a connection to fuse slot #14 where the instrument cluster is located.

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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020 AT 11:09 AM

DANNY L

MECHANIC
5,648 POSTS

Hello again.

Okay, here are the wiring diagrams you will be needing for the instrument cluster and radio. I've cut the pictures in half so you can view larger and attached them below. Let us know what you find or if you have any further questions on this issue. Hope this helps and thanks again for using 2CarPros.

Danny-

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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020 AT 1:30 PM

TIMOSEE

MEMBER
3 POSTS

The first one shows the cluster and noticed that the gauges are on the #4 fuse slot. I hadn't noticed that before. That explains why those 4 gauges still work after pulling the fuse from #19 radio-b slot. So why is the speedometer not with the other 4 gauges on #4 fuse slot. I couldn't find the #14 fuse slot on any of those. The #14 fuse (ILLUM) has IP Cluster, HVAC Controls, RR HVAC Controls, IP Switches, Radio Illumination, Door Switch Illumination. The 5th pic has the #19 radio-b fuse slot. Shows it always hot. From what I get out of these pics is the gauges should be on fuse slot #4 and the the lighted or digital readouts should be on the #14 (ILLUM)fuse slot. Why would the speedometer and the digital and lighted indicators be on a always hot Radio-b fuse slot? I'm just befuddled.