elecrical issue, rear wiper motor 2003 XLT

[rainbow9]

Hello guys asking for some advice, I recently went to turn on my rear wiper during a rain storm only to have it move 2 inches and freeze up. I thought this was odd and assumed the motor may have froze up, junk in it corrosion what ever.
The next day I went to start the truck(2003 4x4 xlt) and found the battery completely drained , no lights, totally dead. jump started no problem and made sure the rear wiper switch was off assuming I had left it on and there was a draw overnight of some kind that killed the battery. well next day dead again!!
I pulled the fuse from under the dash for the rear wiper and problem solved, no draw on the battery the truck starts and runs fine but noticed one weird thing.. when I first start the truck some of the gauges on the dash do not move up to normal run levels until 10 seconds or so. The oil pressure guage is the only one that hops up to normal but the gas guage, battery guage(voltage), temp gauge do not move for 10 seconds or so??
Is there a more serious electrical issue going on caused by the rear wiper motor siezing? Why the draw off the battery until the fuse was pulled for the rear wiper?
The truck idles and drives perfect still 104,000 miles very strong tranny(TOW PACKAGE)and motor4.0 SOHC
THANKS!! ANY HELP APPRECIATED

 

[rainbow9]

wonder if the battery may have been reduced somehow after getting drained to zero a few times?

 

[rainbow9]

any thoughts? on this one ....thanks

 

[HCCA 250]

The condition of a dead battery causes this same response. If you charge the battery with a charger, then let it sit for 10 minutes, you should see that your guages act normally when switching the ignition off, and on. If, after sitting for overnight it does not, then you have a damaged battery. It should hold the same, or nearly the same voltage overnight. Your delay of guage movement might be the alternator running up to proper voltage, to make everyting work properly.

I had an issue with a bad alt, a few years ago. I bought a new one, but the battery was already damaged, and the condition you have mentioned was the same problem that I had. I opted for an Odyysey AGM battery. A bit higher in price, perhaps. But, when drained to near zero volts, it can bounce right back. You won't hurt it!! A similarly sized typical lead/acid (liquid, not AGM), battery from Sears, Batteries Plus, or anywhere else, WILL NOT survive that!