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Battery drain weird reason...

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Old 02-28-20, 02:44 PM
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peasodos
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Default Battery drain weird reason...

Apparently having the master(driver) window switch out of the car for several days caused my battery to drain. I haven't used my car since taking out my door switches, today I try to unlock the car and nothing. I use the manual key and no power inside the car.

I do have a hardwired backup battery for my blackview, but that only charges when the car is on, with the way I wired it. Now I have to wait for the fiancee to come home since she has the portable battery pack/jumper in her trunk.

I was reading online apparently the power window relay can get stuck in the on position and drain the battery. This is also from the prosche forums:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...ery-drain.html

Also in f-150 forum:
https://www.f150online.com/forums/el...ery-drain.html

Last edited by peasodos; 02-28-20 at 02:55 PM.
Old 02-28-20, 03:47 PM
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bclexus
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That is weird. Weird that removing the window switch (which guarantees the load bearing circuit is open) would cause a drain on the battery...especially when the car's power/ignition is Off. There must be something else going on that would create a load when the car is Off that drained the battery.
Old 02-28-20, 03:50 PM
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Originally Posted by bclexus
That is weird. Weird that removing the window switch (which guarantees the load bearing circuit is open) would cause a drain on the battery...especially when the car's power/ignition is Off. There must be something else going on that would create a load when the car is Off that drained the battery.
I also had the ls switches on the other doors, today I swapped all the buttons from the LS to my gs original door switches. That way it's not miss matched. So yeah idk weird.

Last edited by peasodos; 02-28-20 at 03:56 PM.
Old 02-28-20, 04:10 PM
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I only quickly looked at the first few Pelican Parts forum posts in the link you provided. When I saw that the OP said his window switches "always function with or without the keys" even when the car was Off - I knew that wasn't the case with your car, so I didn't read any further. In the F-150 forum the OP was wildly guessing his battery drain problem might be caused by a relay, which doesn't mean anything regarding your problem.
Old 02-28-20, 04:16 PM
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Originally Posted by peasodos
I also had the ls switches on the other doors, today I swapped all the buttons from the LS to my gs original door switches. That way it's not miss matched. So yeah idk weird.
Did you by chance have the radio turned On while you were working on the switches? I feel sure the car doors were open for a long period of time, but I believe the door courtesy light and I think (not sure) the dome light automatically turns Off after x minutes to prevent unnecessary battery usage.

I presume all the switches worked as they should after you made the changes?
Old 02-29-20, 04:17 AM
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Originally Posted by bclexus
Did you by chance have the radio turned On while you were working on the switches? I feel sure the car doors were open for a long period of time, but I believe the door courtesy light and I think (not sure) the dome light automatically turns Off after x minutes to prevent unnecessary battery usage.

I presume all the switches worked as they should after you made the changes?
Honestly I'm not sure what caused this. As far as I can remember I was only messing with the window switches. I'm going to jump my car today, drive it a bit to charge up the battery, and see what happens after that. I'm going to Colorado next week to hike Mount Elbert. So I'll be away for 5 days then when I come back we'll see if the car starts.
Old 02-29-20, 08:12 AM
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Yeah, that's definitely weird. I don't like mysteries that go unsolved. Keep us informed on it...
Old 02-29-20, 11:00 AM
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It's possible the window switches have an interposing power-off relay (e.g., open circuit) that closes a +12V contact somewhere else in the system giving you this parasitic drain. I'm fully guessing here since my TIS subscription ran out and can't look at the schematics.
Old 02-29-20, 02:57 PM
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After a quick jump, driving the car, parking, and going back to the car later in the day, so far its behaving normally again. I'll know for sure over the next few days. I think Eddie is correct I think the door switches are part of some circuit interconnected with something else, when removed causes a high drain.
Old 02-29-20, 04:34 PM
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The car is in the body shop having repairs made and they've disconnected the door switches and removed the door's interior panel...lo-and-behold it completely drains the car's battery where it needs to be jumped to get the damn thing out of the body shop. Is the body shop dumbfounded by the sudden dead battery?


Old 02-29-20, 07:43 PM
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Originally Posted by bclexus
The car is in the body shop having repairs made and they've disconnected the door switches and removed the door's interior panel...lo-and-behold it completely drains the car's battery where it needs to be jumped to get the damn thing out of the body shop. Is the body shop dumbfounded by the sudden dead battery?

Your car is in the body shop? What happened?

Last edited by peasodos; 02-29-20 at 07:51 PM.
Old 02-29-20, 08:01 PM
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Originally Posted by peasodos
Your car is in the body shop? What happened?
Haha! No. I meant that if a Lexus GS 350, like your car, was in the body shop being worked on and they removed the door switches or door panel, that would drain the battery. I wonder if the body shop would be confused by what drained the battery. Or, would they say: "Well the reason the battery drained was because we disconnected the door switches."
Old 02-29-20, 08:09 PM
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Originally Posted by bclexus
Haha! No. I meant that if a Lexus GS 350, like your car, was in the body shop being worked on and they removed the door switches or door panel, that would drain the battery. I wonder if the body shop would be confused by what drained the battery. Or, would they say: "Well the reason the battery drained was because we disconnected the door switches."
Oh. Well usually if a body shop is working on the car and disassembling, they will disconnect the battery so they wouldn't have this issue. At least that's what I'm assuming.

For a sec there I thought this was a weird coincidence and you were confirming the same issue I had.
Old 03-01-20, 04:09 AM
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I thought that it was worth noting that the master lock/window switch has a Local Interconnect Network bus connection. It talks to the main body ECU (which has CAN connection) through the front door ECU etc etc. I wonder whether the master is staying up late at night polling the master switch you removed - keeping something awake because it hasn't gotten a response. I don't know how it works but it is a master slave system, which would support my wild hypothesis.

I wouldn't have thought any amount of polling could deplete a starter battery - but there was that issue with the faulty network gateway module that was running cars flat in a relatively short period of time.

Even Lexus have made operating windows complicated - opening a rear window with the master switch is done with a data burst through 3 computers - not simple 12v control wiring alone!

Last edited by Cwang; 03-01-20 at 04:18 AM.
Old 03-03-20, 03:19 AM
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Been a few days, cars hasn't been used much recently, everything starts and works perfectly fine this morning.


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