Battery draining, accessories not turning off with ignition switch.

JerryP · January 10, 2016, 02:22 PM

My chassis battery is draining off, when the ignition is turned off.
My side, and backup cameras, and the radio are all staying on, and I know they should only be on when the key is in, and turned on.
Any ideas where to start, looking for the issue.
I am thinking it is an ignition/key switch issue, or some related relay.
Also the battery condition gauge is giving me a signal for the chassis battery when the key is off, and out, which ist has never done before. I have always had to insert the key to read the chassis batter voltage.

Thought, ideas, experiences???

circleD · January 10, 2016, 07:03 PM

I say its 90% switch issues. Replacing it would be beneficial. I put a kill switch on my chassis battery. Just flip a switch and the battery will not drain.

JerryP · January 10, 2016, 07:54 PM

Bought one last night, decided to use it in my Miata, was going to get another one, that was a little better for the RV, but a guy took the 8 remaining ones a few seconds after I got mine. He even offered to give me one, but I declined his kind offer.
I will go back tomorrow, and get one with a 20%off coupon.
Already have one on the house batteries.

M & J · January 10, 2016, 08:08 PM

20% off? Must be Harbor Freight.

JerryP · January 11, 2016, 12:41 AM

Yep!!

Rickf1985 · January 11, 2016, 06:44 PM

I would replace the ignition switch. Don't play around with a bad switch, bad things can happen. I know on mine, which should be the same as yours, I turn it off and half the time I turn it to acc. without realizing it because the switch is not installed in the dash correctly. When you pull the key out it looks like it is in the "on" position. So if you don't pull the key out, which I don't usually it is easy to just turn it to the upright position and it is in the Acc. position and a lot of stuff is on. Some ignitions get worn to the point where the key will come out in this position. Remember the older GM cars that you could take the key out while it was running? It was even supposed to do that! My Ford PU will do that now it is so worn. And I am a locksmith, you would think I would fix it, right? W% i?? :)rotflmao

JerryP · January 12, 2016, 12:59 PM

Yep, the key will pull out in any position.
Guess I will start there.
At least it is dash mounted, and easy to get to

Rickf1985 · January 12, 2016, 01:15 PM

Then you are most likely pulling it out in the Acc. position. Go back to the right one position and everything should be off. If that is the case then ignore my dire warning about bad things with the switch. That was meant for if there was an electrical issue not a mechanical one. It should still be replaced but it is not going to catch fire if it is working correctly electrically.

JerryP · January 13, 2016, 01:37 AM

Already did that test, to make sure.
Everything stays on no matter the key position.

Rickf1985 · January 13, 2016, 11:47 AM

Replace the switch.

JerryP · February 07, 2016, 08:25 PM

OK, got a chance to look at it closer today,

Added a battery disconnect to the chassis battery, allowing me to disconnect both house, and chassis

Took out Key/ignition , and unplugged it, ... no change,
Still has power to the chassis, stuff
Kept it unplugged

Now for the weird stuff, sometimes when the house batteries are connected, it seems to be feeding through to the chassis/cab stuff.
radio, dome light, video etc..

I disconnected the chassis battery, and nothing went out, but out of curiosity, I hit the Main Normal AUX switch, and chassis stuff went off like it was already supposed to be supposed to.
connected the chassis stuff, and all was fine, until I turned something on, and the problem reappeared immediately.
played with the Main, norm aux button, but could not replicate the successful turning off.

When I connect the battery, there is an audible clicking of a switch,

out of curiosity, I turned on the generator, although it is not plugged in to the plug that would connect it to the house, and chassis
The lights flickered??, as the generator ran, although they should not be connected to the house, or chassis.

Now to check the main normal, and aux switch...I am thinking that is the audible click when the chassis is off, and the battery gets connected.

After a bunch more weirdness, I got my wife to come out and disconnect, and reconnect the chassis battery with the shut off switch, while I started pulling fuses. Once I pulled the heater fuse, it quit clicking, and weird stuff quit turning on.

While trying to figure out what the heck was going on with that, I turned on the rear, and front fans, and then started hitting buttons on the AC heater controls, and it seems that if the AC, or vent button are in the off position, everything works perfect.
If the AC button, or vent button is on, stuff feeds back through the lines to other things that run on the accessory side of the wiring.
Not even sure how that happens, but I would assume somebody has something "Non OEM" connected.
It did not occur to me that the radio is part of that, because it turns on, and of with the AC switch, sometimes

Weird, just plain weird
I did spend 25.00 for a decent battery disconnect switch, on the chassis battery. which I wanted anyway
I have been wanting to do something different with the heat, and AC switches, and fans, so now I have a viable excuse.

JerryP · February 07, 2016, 11:03 PM

A video of me pushing buttons, and things coming on that should not.

https://youtu.be/9yrlpAufFWE

https://youtu.be/9yrlpAufFWE

Rickf1985 · February 08, 2016, 11:07 AM

Radio installs are the worst culprits of electrical gremlins in the power side of things up front. People want the radio to be able to play all the time so they look for any hot lead and tap into it. With today's radios that hot lead does so many things that back feeding is a distinct possibility. I would disconnect the radio, completely unwire the hot wire and there may be more than one. Then see if you still have problems. Anything is possible on a motor home since these are pretty much wired by hand. Diagram, what diagram? "Yea, that looks good, Nail it" type of deal.

When I had my shop I was an electrical specialist so another shop sent a car over to me that they could not figure out. An older widow with this monster old 66 Lincoln continental, Beautiful car. Problem was every time she turned on the radio the windows would start going up and down!!! It is a good thing I am not overly religious because that one may have done me in. W% I went through all the wiring looking for shorts and found nothing. Now this was in the early 80's so finding a replacement radio for a 66 Lincoln was a bit of a problem plus it worked just fine. I took the radio out and the windows worked as they should. I lucked out that another shop owner had a 67 T-bird he was restoring and had a radio set aside that he let my use and no more window problem. Had to be the radio. At this point even though I was big into CB radios knew it was beyond me and I took the radio to a friend that built my hot CB's for me. As soon as he powered it up half the equipment in the shop went haywire! Apparently the shielding on a power transformer had broken down and the transformer was producing inductive current in any wiring close by the radio. Remember, these were old tube radios and had a lot of power running through them. The wiring the window circuits was close enough to the radio circuits that it was powering the window switches!! My buddy repaired the radio for minimum cost since he had never seen anything like it. I put it back in and charged her for a couple hours labor and the price of the radio repair even though it took weeks. I told her it was a major learning experience for me and thanked her for bringing me one in a million.
The bottom line is to always keep an open mind, never stop learning and don't be afraid to think outside the box. But also do not overthink the obvious.

DRMousseau · February 09, 2016, 11:13 AM

For some reason,.... I'm thinkin' ya got a bad solenoid in the circuit.

I've not looked at the diagram for this,... but it sounds like a solenoid issue that I'd be checkin' into. These often cause this kinda excitement and sometimes much more!!! The do fail, in any number of ways, and I'd wonder if a contactor in one had welded itself to the contact points inside. Jus cause they click, don't always mean they're workin' right. Sometimes they click and don't work all, and sometimes they won't even click, depends on what's wrong inside.

Check out a diagram, if your good at these ya might be able figure out the most likely suspect. Or as I have,... jus trace circuits till ya find the one that SHOULDN'T be active and is! Or jus disconnect each one (after droppin battery cables) and test each individually. It jus seems like ya got one stuck.

And look over your wireing carefully,... when these stick like this, they often cause more problems in other areas.

JerryP · February 09, 2016, 01:37 PM

Quote from: DRMousseau on February 09, 2016, 11:13 AM
For some reason,.... I'm thinkin' ya got a bad solenoid in the circuit.
I've not looked at the diagram for this,... but it sounds like a solenoid issue that I'd be checkin' into.

I am thinking the same thing....Something is not right, although I have figured out it is the heater switch, I would not call it fixed...
Something is not connected right, and needs to be done right.
I am also looking at the radio wiring, and think there is a back feed in there somewhere.