Hi folks

My 04 Silverado 1500 with 156xxx miles died back in October when I came out in the morning it was dead dead. Battery was replaced. The truck ran fine since. I drove it Christmas Eve with no issues. Christmas morning it was dead, I jumped it Christmas night and drove it for 30 minutes or so. I noticed the PRNDL display and a red battery were displayed on the cluster when the key was OFF. I went and got a warrantee battery replacement, figuring the battery had a problem. The same issue occurred with the new battery, so I replaced the alternator. Incidentally when I went to get the alternator the parts guy told me the battery charged up fine. With the new alternator the PRNDL and red battery were still illuminated with the key off. If I disconnect the neg bat terminal and reconnect it the PRNDL and red batt stay OFF until I restart and shut the truck down. The ignition switch and cylinder check out ok. My friend talked to a friend who almost instantly said it is the cluster. I see a ton on the internet about cluster issues but none describe the issue I have. Any thoughts? If I remember it is 6 amps or so being drained. I also have experienced intermittently the cluster "booting up" on occasion later than it should, 60-90 seconds after I'm in gear driving down the road. Will a regular cluster rebuild fix this? I have a guy who is going to do it in the morning for $200 but want to see if anyone else has seen this?

 

I had a similar parasitic draw; the battery light on in the cluster with the key out of the ignition. I traced my drain to the wiper module.


try this: remove the cowl, located by the windshield wipers, covering the wiper module. unplug the connectors to the wiper motor and module. if the battery light goes off and the drain is gone, you need a new wiper module/motor assembly.


I have never seen a cluster draw 6amps. that is a lot of amps for a module that power nothing other than small stepper motors, gauges and leds.

 

Did you also have the PRNDL lit up?

 

If you did have the PRNDL light lit up how does that relate to the wiper motor? If you didn't and the wiper motor was one problem would it reason that I may have two as the PRNDL is lit up?

 

The fault in the wiper module back fed power into the cluster causing the battery symbol indicator to be fed power.
The fuse that fed power to the wiper and cluster were the same iirc.
There was some sort of common wiring and I believe it was a fuse in the left i/p fuse panel where it branched off.
I do not think the Prndle was illuminated in my case but the trunk came in for parasitic drain and was the same model year as your truck.

 

UPDATE: I had the cluster rebuilt this morning and there were issues with it so we thought that would fix it. It didn't, and we rechecked all the fuses and the fuse block and grounding wires. Took it to the stealership and they traced it back to the BCM. That has been ordered and may be in tomorrow, if you don't see a follow up post, that is the fix. Thanks for all your help.

 

Hello JG,

We surely hope that this will be the fix! Please do let us know if you need any additional assistance. We would be happy to assist the best way possible.

Patsy G
Chevrolet Customer Care