On my '97, there was something pulling power through the charging circuit. When I pulled fuses to see what stopped the drain, it was the 15 amp mini fuse (Number 6) in the Power Distribution Box under the hood, drivers side. Tested battery - good, but vendor replaced anyhow. Tested Alternator, again, good. Vendor also replaced it anyhow. In total darkness, I noticed the Battery light on the dashboard glowing dimly with the key off. That stopped when fuse 6 was pulled. Tested Diode in PDB, replaced with different one. No change. Tried all the tricks listed in this forum and others, still had to pull fuse 6 or no start after about 5 hours. Battery Dead. Charged normally once started. monitored voltage via OBDII, normal when running and it was where it was supposed to be. Some other folks had mentioned that perhaps a bad/sticking ignition switch mechanism in the column could cause the idiot light issue. No amount of wiggling and jiggling of that switch and the rod inside the column made any difference.
Finally got tired of pulling that gol-darned fuse every time I parked the thing. So, I decided to improvise.
Disconnected battery cables, loosened the Distribution box from its bracket and snapped the bottom cover off. Determined what wire went to the load side of fuse 6, which is a larger yellow with white stripe. There is also a smaller (16 gauge?) yellow/white in the bundle, but that goes to the wiper relay and is not the one I wanted. The larger wire is the one I needed. Cut it. Spliced in about 12 inches of same gauge wire to both ends and routed them out the bottom of the pdb. Then, I put some connectors on the ends and hooked them to a 30 amp relay. Ran a separate wire to ground. Ran the trigger wire thru the firewall (I poked a small hole in the E-Brake boot and fished it thru there) and attached it to the switched power wire to the rear wiper, up by the radio. (Im old and fat and dont fit under the dashboard and this wire is pretty easy to reach with radio surround popped off.) That rear Wiper doesnt work anyhow, so no loss there!
Now, when I turn the key off, the charging circuit is deactivated. When I turn the key on, it is live again. No dim batt light and more importantly, no DEAD BATTERY and the circuit is still protected by the original 15 amp fuse.
Is this the ultimate fix? No. I didnt find out what the real problem is. On the other hand - The problem hasn't recurred in 5 days. Most importantly, no magic smoke has escaped from under the hood or dashboard!!!
This may not be your issue, but I cant be the only one to have experienced this particular power drain.
Hope this helps someone out there!
