Hi.Its the fan I hear when I put my ear to the ac control plate.
So .is this normal and goes off when the car goes to sleep.
I will check the FSR anyway and will see if it has the big conical spikes or the later heat sink ones.But how will I tell if its good or not?
Thanks for the tip:thumbup:

The old style ones are the ones that fail, and there is a raised line on the epoxy part from the circuit that overheats near the plug.

Ok.Appreciate it.Thanks a lot:)

[QUOTE=powers1;690096]Hi.Its the fan I hear when I put my ear to the ac control plate.
So .is this normal and goes off when the car goes to sleep.
QUOTE]

Just want to update that I personally checked that this fan I refer to ,shuts off when car goes to sleep.:thumbup:

Today I've repeated the Draw Test,it's been a month since my first test and in that moment I couldn't accomplish it without disconnecting the battery,accidentally...
So I've got the same result as before 0.02Amps locked/armed Alarm and asleep, 0.048Amps locked/armed alarm and shifter LED on.
I had few moments of barely starting it,but always started,about 3 weeks ago I removed Fuse #74 which is the cell circuit...I don't have the telephone option anyways.
Conclusion : I have to charge the battery once in a while,because it's cold outside,because I drive mostly short trips....
It doesn't bother me at all to hook the X to the 2amps slow charger overnight,so it's the way to go for me.

My 03 4.4i's battery goes stone dead if I don't drive the car for about 3 days. If I connect a charger to the connections under the hood, it NEVER fully charges. If I disconnect the battery cables, and hook the charger directly to the battery, it fully charges in a just a few hours.

The battery is new, and I've had it tested to confirm that it's OK. So I'm sure I have a parasitic drain somewhere. However, after reading through nnumerous posts on the topic, I'm veryconfused as to the parasitic drain test procedure. The fact that the battery is inside the car, meaning that all the interior lights are on when I open the hatch to access the battery, complicates things.

Could somebody please explain, step by intricate step, EXACTLY what has to be done to test the current drain on these cars? Please provide all details, including how long to wait between the time I get in the car (with all doors and hatch closed, presumably), and when I can start the test, how large of an ammeter I need, which cables to disconnect, which to leave connected, etc., etc. Thanks!

Have you checked the final stage resistor? Sounds like a classic case of a bad FSR.

Not yet - I was planning on first troubleshooting the leak to determine which circuit it's coming from, thus my question about the procedure. But if I could go straight to the source (the final stage resistor, in this case, if you're assumption is correct), that would sure save me a lot of time and trouble.

So, a few questions: What exactly does the FSR do, and why is it such a common cause of parasitic leaks? Are there any symptoms that it has gone bad, other than the current drain, which of course could be caused by any of a million other things? Can it be tested to confirm that it's bad? Where is it located? Thanks.

There are tons of threads on the final stage resistor issues, so you should search for the details. The short version is that the FSR is a part of the HVAC system and is located in the dash. The key symptom, aside from battery drain, is that, after the car sits for awhile, it runs the hvac fan continuously at a low level. You can usually hear it from outside the car if you are in an otherwise quiet environment. It can also give you unstable control of HVAC fan speed while driving the car.

Even if you can't hear the fan running, it is easy to pull out and check to see if it has any burn marks on it. Again, there are many threads with the exact details of troubleshooting and replacing the FSR. It should take maybe 20 minutes with simple tools to get it out.

Thanks, but I find myself going around in circles here. My car isn't giving any of the symptoms typical of a failing FSR, so I'm not inclined to take out and check a specific part before doing some troubleshooting first, no matter how many other people have found it to be the culprit of their battery drain problems.

So, back to my original question - could somebody who has done it please explain, step by step, how exactly to troubleshoot the source of the current drain in these cars? Specifically, how do I deal with the fact that I have to open the hatch, thus setting off all the interior lights, to get to the battery, and what's the exact procedure for dealing with the need to let all the subsystems "go to sleep", which is connected to the interior light problem? Do I have to get in the car, shut all the doors, crawl in the back, and do the procedure (of which I've read several different versions)? Am I making this more complicated than it is (probably!)? Thanks.