Parasitic Draw from UConnect Radio/Telematics Module

[DickeyJ2011]

This is for informational purposes incase anyone else needs it. I have a 2019 Ram 1500 Bighorn that was having parasitic drain issues. It started about 2 years ago when I had a battery that had a cell go bad. I didn't think anything of it at the time, got a new battery put it, went about my life. A year later, that battery also went bad. I was also noticing my truck struggling to start sometimes but I drive almost every day so just thought it was the battery again. Replaced that one under warranty and everything worked fine again. About a month later, I kept having issues with my truck being completely dead if I didn't drive it for more than 2 days. This went on for a while until I noticed that my screen on my center Cluster was turning on and off constantly when my truck was "off". I purchased an amp clamp to see if I tell how much power it was pulling during this time and it was anywhere from 1.2Amps, up to 3 Amps. This would also prevent my truck from fully going to sleep and shutting down all modules which kept a constant pull of about 300-500 milliamps. I next went down the rabbit hole of pulling relays and fuses, disconnecting wiring harnesses to eventually discover the main issue was on my F44 Radio/Telematics Module fuse. When I pull it, my truck screen would stay off, truck would fully go to sleep and no more parasitic draw. Through some research, it seems to be an issue with the telematics module built into the radio that will not stop trying to communicate. Unfortunately the full fix is to replace the entire radio unit which can be expensive.(my warranty is also expired). Everything works as it should when my truck is running and pulling the fuse deactivates my entire radio unit so my fix was to simply make a fuse switch for my F44 fuse. I used a 20 amp micro2 fuse extension kit, cut one wire on the extension, added a switch and now I can switch the fuse on or off as needed and it only cost arount $50 in some electrical supplies and I didn't have to splice into or touch any other truck wiring. I recommend if in a similar situation and buying a whole new radio unit is not within your current budget.