Severe Delayed Batter Drain...

[primetime4]

Could be the audio amplifier under the passenger seat. I have seen one with a switch installed under the seat to turned off the amplifier in order to avoid the draining problem.

Based on this comment I started focusing on the amplifier especially with the audio intermittently cutting out. I called a local audio installer and asked if this could be the case and they explained that they see it all the time. So I dropped my LC off this morning and they said it was definitely the amp pulling a draw and sent it out for repair. I still have to see if this fixes the issue but it definitely sounds more promising than what 2 dealers presented so far which was nothing.

Thanks again for all the replies. I really hope this is it and will update when the repair is completed.

 

[efil4ynot]

Based on this comment I started focusing on the amplifier especially with the audio intermittently cutting out. I called a local audio installer and asked if this could be the case and they explained that they see it all the time. So I dropped my LC off this morning and they said it was definitely the amp pulling a draw and sent it out for repair. I still have to see if this fixes the issue but it definitely sounds more promising than what 2 dealers presented so far which was nothing.

Thanks again for all the replies. I really hope this is it and will update when the repair is completed.

Did you hear back on this yet? I have a terrible battery drain (13.5 amp draw) that kills my battery in just a few hours. I have pulled every fuse and disconnected my ignition but it still persists. Regardless I'll try to check it out tomorrow.

 

[primetime4]

Did you hear back on this yet? I have a terrible battery drain (13.5 amp draw) that kills my battery in just a few hours. I have pulled every fuse and disconnected my ignition but it still persists. Regardless I'll try to check it out tomorrow.

The audio shop had to send the factory amp out for repair so I am still waiting on that to return. But my LC will have sat for three days without it tomorrow so I will test the results and report back. I really think this was the problem. From what the audio technician explained, the capacitors in the amp had all gone bad and could not hold a charge. So they essentially charged and discharged over and over draining the battery. I did an extensive google search and this seems to be a pretty common issue in a lot of vehicles primarily with damaged amp capacitors. Even with them repaired, I am still a little concerned that the amp might still be active but this appears to only be an issue with damaged caps. Otherwise, there should be no draw.

For reference, I forgot to mention I have a 2001 LC with the factory NAV and JBL audio. The amp appears to do more than just power the speakers too. There is some data that passes back and forth to the head unit most likely NAV related because without it, there is no NAV feature or radio. Also because of this, an aftermarket amp is not an option without special wiring. You can get really high quality caps these days so I am hoping this repair if done properly will last another 20 years.

 

[efil4ynot]

The audio shop had to send the factory amp out for repair so I am still waiting on that to return. But my LC will have sat for three days without it tomorrow so I will test the results and report back. I really think this was the problem. From what the audio technician explained, the capacitors in the amp had all gone bad and could not hold a charge. So they essentially charged and discharged over and over draining the battery. I did an extensive google search and this seems to be a pretty common issue in a lot of vehicles primarily with damaged amp capacitors. Even with them repaired, I am still a little concerned that the amp might still be active but this appears to only be an issue with damaged caps. Otherwise, there should be no draw.

For reference, I forgot to mention I have a 2001 LC with the factory NAV and JBL audio. The amp appears to do more than just power the speakers too. There is some data that passes back and forth to the head unit most likely NAV related because without it, there is no NAV feature or radio. Also because of this, an aftermarket amp is not an option without special wiring. You can get really high quality caps these days so I am hoping this repair if done properly will last another 20 years.

That's some interesting info regarding the amp functions. I have NAV and the JBL setup too. I'll check it out after work today. In the meantime, good luck today and looking forward to hearing your results.

 

[jerryb]

Did you hear back on this yet? I have a terrible battery drain (13.5 amp draw) that kills my battery in just a few hours. I have pulled every fuse and disconnected my ignition but it still persists. Regardless I'll try to check it out tomorrow.

pulling the 30amp AMP fuse should... take the jbl out of the question, pulling the ACC fuse absolutely should kill the amp, combined with the 30amp. If it didn't stop after that I would pull the 10amp radio fuse and measure again. At that point though, there's more going on. Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but for a universal amp check, the 30 amp fuse should be the first check. Toyota grey wires are hot ignition lines. SO infer what you need to from that. I've read the amp takes +battery from the radio (dumb) in early 100s, but I've never seen wiring in <2004

 

[PabloCruise]

FWIW we just went on a trip and the LX sat for 7 or 8 days, no problem starting her.

 

[primetime4]

Quick update. Great news... the battery drain was definitely coming from the amp below the passenger seat. Had the LC sit for 3 plus days without it in and it started right up on the 4th day. Previously, 5 out of 5 times the battery would be dead. I am still waiting on the repaired amp but I can definitely live without audio so that is an option. I still like the kill switch idea just in case.

 

[primetime4]

Happy New Year everyone. Just wanted to provide a follow up. The audio repair shop was unable to repair the amp. They actually said there was no problem with it contrary to the original report so I asked them to put in a kill switch as originally requested. When they went to do that, they noticed an issue with the stock wiring harness which they repaired to the tune of $400.

1 day later, the battery is dead again. I just went back and unplugged the factory amp again. A quick note, if you pull the plugs for the NAV DVD unit, only the factory NAV is disabled. If you pull the plug for the Amp, both the radio and NAV are disabled. I might try it with just the NAV pulled but can live without audio for now. It is possible that the 3 month old battery is just toast now but the dealer ran a test last month and it checked out fine.

 

[primetime4]

I was hoping my battery drain issue days were behind me but unfortunately this does not appear to be the case. Per my last post, I ended up unplugging only the under seat navigation unit to keep the radio operational in my 01 LC with the JBL audio. This seemed to do the trick for almost 8 months until last week. For reference if anyone is doing this, there is a combination of wires that you can unplug that will give:

1. no nav/no radio/no climate
2. no nav/no radio/yes climate
3. no nav/yes radio with stereo audio/yes climate
4. no nav/yes radio with one sided audio/yes climate.

I used the combination that gave me #3 above and it seemed to work perfectly sitting up to a week at a time or even more. After taking the LC on an end of summer road trip of almost 800 miles, I noticed that the radio started cutting out intermittently for only a split second or so. This also happened before I unplugged the navi and to me was a clear indication that something was not right in general. Sure enough, after 4 days of sitting, the battery in my LC was dead again. After jump starting the truck and running for a few minutes, the battery will take on enough charge to start again so the alternator appears to be doing its job. All signs are pointing to the radio issue again which oddly goes away after the batter is jumped.

At this point, I think it might be a bad ground somewhere with the head unit but previously had it looked by an audio shop that redid the wiring harness to the tune of $400 which did not help.

My question is would it be possible to swap in a replacement head unit? How difficult would it be to reprogram everything to have to keys work or is this even possible? Worse comes to worse, I can always go back to setup #2 above but listening to new mixed tapes is part of the fun of owning this 17 year old truck.

Thanks.