Question: What All Draws Power When "Off"?

[Scoobey]

Hi, folks. Took the new used '00 (ie, basically a late '99) Z71 Tahoe for its first real trip, from Portland to the central Oregon coast and back with family, dog and canoe. Loved it! But then it sat for 24 hours, and tonight I found the battery dead. When I opened the door, there was a loud clicking from the dash, like a time bomb, that went off when I turned the key in the ignition. Also, when I hooked up the battery charger, the same lights that illuminate when a door's open turned on -- but went off when I saw that the cruise control was still "on" and clicked that switch to "off."

So my question is: did my failure to manually turn off the cruise control when I shut down the truck kill the battery? In my other cars, cruise has turned itself off when I turned the ignition off, which makes sense since it's so easy to forget. Or is there something else that may have drained the battery?

Also, I noticed that if my kids leave one of the rear reading lights on, it stays on even when the ignition's totally off. That's another easy thing to miss; is there a way to change the setup so ALL interior lights go off when I shut her down?

Thanks!

 

[General Stalin]

Well, there should be a button right next to the headlight switch to turn of all "dome lights" which are all the inside lights, regardless of whether or not the doors are open or they are switched on or off. I don't know if the '00 models have this feature, but my '95 does and I think it's pretty useful (especially when doing work on the interior of the vehicle with all the doors open but the battery still plugged in. that way you don't kill your battery if you have been working with the doors open all day).

As for the cruise control, I don't really think that should have anything to do with the battery drain. When your car is off, the things that still draw power are digital memory (like all your stero settings like radio presets, clock, EQ, volume, and other various user settings), the onboard computer system, an alarm (if you have one), and probably a couple other miscellaneous things that don't draw any significant amount of power I believe. Aside from that, just stuff that you would leave on/open by accident.

 

[96ProCompTahoe]

well you could rewire all the map lights to a relay that only comes on with the ignition switch. or the radio or whatever is easiest. (i have my radar detector wired to a fuse tap on the radio fuse so it shuts off with the radio when you shut the truck off)

you say your interior lights came on with the battery charger. check your door switches. if you have one thats broken off or the hatch of barn dorrs aren't closed all the way (whichever you have) it could keep the interior lights on. the cruise shouldn't have anyhing to do with it. i never use mine but knock it to "on" every once in awhile when useing the signals and don't notice for awhile.