SOLVED 04 XC90 another parasitic draw

2687 Views 32 Replies 8 Participants Last post by ORBrickDude, Oct 13, 2021

Dust101496

Discussion Starter · Sep 20, 2021

Hang on here with me,, sorry for the long post... Hey guys, kinda new here so please be lenient. I work mostly on German and American cars. This is my second xc90, first was a 2011, current is a 2004 T6. Long story short, when I got the car it needed the CEM repaired due to water damage. Got it done through xemodex. Car started and ran great with a new battery but has srs, brake assist, anti skid and bulb failure messages on dash. Also occasionally has security alarm system message. Driver door window and mirror doesn't work, also won't unlock unless you use the key in the door. Driverside rear door doesn't lock/unlock at all unless inside using the little knob on top. Idk if my DDM is bad or if it's electrical issues causing my multiple driver side door issues. Any advice? But the MAIN ISSUE is I parked it over the weekend and now my battery is dead. When I put the key into the ignition the rear cargo relay RMA3 (for my rear window defroster) clicks like crazy and the power in the entire car flickers and then just dies. Now my battery only has 9.67 volts and the car has no power what so ever. NONE. Turn the key and nothing, no dash, no interior lights, nada. The car makes a buzzing sound from the CEM area while just sitting there that freaked me out so I disconnected the battery in fear and it stopped. Obviously it's getting power but not in a good way...Battery is currently charging, there was no change when I set the charger to jump start and tried to start the car. Same thing happened. WHAT IS GOING ON????? I haven't found any blown fuses yet but I did discover an old blown 10amp fuse near the cargo fuse/relay box laying underneath...no fuses missing or blown in the fuse box. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Monocog007

· #21 · Sep 27, 2021

Without measuring mV at each of the fuses (or pulling them 1 by 1), it's going to be hard to figure out where the 0.7A draw is.

At least you've confirmed there is a parasitic draw somewhere.

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Dust101496

Discussion Starter · #22 · Sep 27, 2021

The new fluke meter I just bought can handle that, but not that junk autozone Innova one. I'm actually surprised I haven't fried that one yet. A couple days till dead matches up with how it's been acting. I didn't get the draw issue until I hit the lock button on the key fob and then started testing, so I think my scm is the cause. However, I'm still trying to figure out why my relay in the cargo area is freaking out when the car wakes up. Any help on that would be great. It's the top left one in the pic. Location MA1. Occasionally MA3 does it too. MA1 has been replaced since this photo was taken.

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SwissXC90

· #23 · Sep 27, 2021

If you have parasitic draw, and a factory alarm, unplug or pull the fuse for the alarm siren. See if the drain drops.

The siren has an internal battery that charges from the vehicle power. The batteries are known to leak and drop battery alkaline onto the circuit board. This causes many weird issues.

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John C

· #24 · Sep 27, 2021

Monocog007 said:
Without measuring mV at each of the fuses (or pulling them 1 by 1), it's going to be hard to figure out where the 0.7A draw is.

Pull half the fuses at one time. If the draw persists, it's in the ones you didn't pull. Otherwise it's in the ones you did pull. Keep pulling half of the fuses from the remaining group that has the problem until you find it. You can check 64 fuses this way in 6 tries.

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SwissXC90

· #25 · Sep 27, 2021

Ah the good old binary search algorithm put into practical use

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Capndirk

· #26 · Sep 27, 2021

There may still be a problem with the rear hatch open, keeping systems awake. Especially the dome light circuit. Dunno about the '04, but mine dims and times out the dome lights, which is a function controlled by an electronics module (CEM, REM, UEM?). That would be exacerbated by opening doors and pulling fuses. Part of the door-open sensor business is getting a DIM warning. Maybe try closing the switch, starting the car, and checking for open door/hatch messages. Then, maybe try opening the tailgate and closing the hatch to see if there's a message. The problems others have found is having the car truly "asleep" and with lowest current draw when testing.
Otherwise, I would re-visit the battery. New doesn't mean good. Now that you have an isolation switch, charge it well overnight, them flash off the surface voltage by starting the car. Then, shut it off and disconnect the battery. Measure the voltage directly from the terminals, and leave it alone overnight. Then, measure the voltage again. If there is a drop in voltage, continue to monitor it and see if it is the battery itself that is self-discharging. If there is a warrantable issue with the battery, I would pay the difference to get the larger battery that fits, preferably an AGM.

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cn90

· #27 · Sep 27, 2021

When I helped my friend's 2004 BMW X3 with parasitic draw, the tool I used was Uni-T UT210E, about $50 online.

One person watching the device, another person removing fuses.

This tool allows you to measure current draw without the need to disconnect the battery cable.

We then removed one fuse at a time, by the time we pulled the fuse feeding the BMW sunroof motor, the current draw dropped to normal. So we permanently disabled the sunroof motor by leaving that particular fuse out.

Anyway, I highly recommend this Uni-T UT210E device. With modern car, you simply cannot use the standard Ammeter connected in series with the battery cable (bc every time you disconnect the battery cable, the car needs some 15 min to "go to sleep"...).

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ggleavitt

· #28 · Sep 27, 2021

@SwissXC90 is giving you some decent advice. This is a 17 year old vehicle and you've already experienced an alarm system malfunction indication. Even just as a baseline before you head off into mass fuse pulling.

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John C

· #29 · Sep 28, 2021

Capndirk said:
There may still be a problem with the rear hatch open, keeping systems awake.

If you trip the latch to the closed position everything works as if the rear hatch was actually shut.

cn90 said:
With modern car, you simply cannot use the standard Ammeter connected in series with the battery cable (bc every time you disconnect the battery cable, the car needs some 15 min to "go to sleep"...).

The knife switch gets around that. As long as the switch s closed, the car stays asleep. If you only open it when the ammeter is configured to carry the current, the car doesn't know the difference.

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Dust101496

Discussion Starter · #30 · Sep 28, 2021

Big update! Alright so I dug back into the volvo tonight and surprise! Nobody was right 😆 it was my DDM the whole time. Not sure why it was sneaky considering what I found. Amazed me tbh. Set the car up as usual, this time locked the car. Waited, pulled scm fuse. Not a big change. Repeat, locked/unlocked the car. Nothing. Not SCM? So I reset again, locked/unlocked and pulled all the driver fuses since I was still getting that .77A draw and lone behold she revealed herself. Fuse #5 was drawing .74A. So I tested again same result, pulled the door panel off and saw some tape on the harness! First thought "hmm this isn't original" pulled it off, found someone had jumped power from the main pos wire to a blue wire...why? What is this blue wire in the photos? Decided to dig deeper looking for corrosion and such, none. Looked brand effing new...my guess is someone replaced the ddm and refused to have it programed so they jumped the wire for something? (Driver door lock and mirror don't work all others do but rear driverside passender) any guesses out there or help on that wire jump someone did? Any observations on my ddm boards that I missed? Draw is down to .05A now. I believe that is acceptable right?

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Dust101496

Discussion Starter · #31 · Sep 28, 2021

Also, figured out the rear windshield wiper situation, it's toast! Pics followed, wiper motor armature melted into the plastic housing and burned up the board or vice-versa occurred. Wonder if water caused that?

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Dust101496

Discussion Starter · #32 · Oct 12, 2021

Update before I'm done, so I did end up finding a small spot of corrosion on the DDM. Can't see it in the pic earlier but it's behind the black block, just a tiny spot where some water fried two board pathways due to the cheap water proofing on the board missing. Since I've discovered the ddm issue I haven't had any major power draws and everything seems fine! Now just have to replace my ddm and get it to the dealership to get it programmed. Thank you all for your help!

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