2 problems with 2006 Mazda5. Dead battery and now like it's floored when starting

I bought the car used, and did not add anything aftermarket. Do not see anything else aftermarket.

OK rkhanso, that info helps too!

I looked through the diagram of the wiring schematic and came up with a few ideas.


The fuse you pulled, "ROOM" fuse, is located in "FUSEBOX#1", which is located in the engine compartment. However, I am wondering if you also attempted the same amperage draw test for "FUSEBOX#2" which is the one on the passenger side of the dash between the door and dash end-cap?


The "ROOM" fuse touches the following circuits/systems:

data link connector
key interlock system
shift-lock
heater and ac
keyless entry system
audio system
tpms system
instrument cluster
information display
interior light
map light
cargo compartment light
body control module
illumination light


For what it is worth, these cars seem to be hard on the batteries. I went through both the original, and a MAZDA replacement battery in ~20-22 months each. For the #3 battery I went with the ODYSSEY Battery http://www.odysseybattery.com/batteries.html so far I have 24 months on it... no signs of any weakness. (sssh)
 
OK rkhanso, that info helps too!

I looked through the diagram of the wiring schematic and came up with a few ideas.


The fuse you pulled, "ROOM" fuse, is located in "FUSEBOX#1", which is located in the engine compartment. However, I am wondering if you also attempted the same amperage draw test for "FUSEBOX#2" which is the one on the passenger side of the dash between the door and dash end-cap?


The "ROOM" fuse touches the following circuits/systems:

data link connector
key interlock system
shift-lock
heater and ac
keyless entry system
audio system
tpms system
instrument cluster
information display
interior light
map light
cargo compartment light
body control module
illumination light


For what it is worth, these cars seem to be hard on the batteries. I went through both the original, and a MAZDA replacement battery in ~20-22 months each. For the #3 battery I went with the ODYSSEY Battery http://www.odysseybattery.com/batteries.html so far I have 24 months on it... no signs of any weakness. (sssh)
Thanks for that info. I didn't realize there was a 2nd fusebox, but I thought that since taking out the room fuse caused the current to drop to near zero, I found the culprit. I will check that 2nd fusebox, however. Maybe something off that fusebox will narrow it down a little more.

The battery that was in the car is an Interstate battery, with a pretty good warranty. I think it was a year or 1.5 years old. They replaced it for free and renewed the full warranty again. I just don't want my wife to get stuck with a dead battery and hope to fix this drain problem.

Again, I appreciate the info and will continue troubleshooting.
 
Thanks for that info. I didn't realize there was a 2nd fusebox, but I thought that since taking out the room fuse caused the current to drop to near zero, I found the culprit. I will check that 2nd fusebox, however. Maybe something off that fusebox will narrow it down a little more.

The battery that was in the car is an Interstate battery, with a pretty good warranty. I think it was a year or 1.5 years old. They replaced it for free and renewed the full warranty again. I just don't want my wife to get stuck with a dead battery and hope to fix this drain problem.

Again, I appreciate the info and will continue troubleshooting.

Happy to help! I was hoping the 2nd fusebox was a new idea for you. (friday)

...so after thinking about it, and brainstorming a little bit more, some possible issues could be:

1. Is there anything plugged into the OBDII (data link connector)?
2. Since you are second owner, is there any chance that the factory radio was swapped out and reinstalled? (hacked or hokey wiring behind radio)
3. Sometimes a previous owner will take out radio and amp quickly before trade-in, and an amp remote lead or power lead can be left to touch/short.
4. Sometimes a previous owner will install a 12vdc to 110vAC POWER CONVERTOR, and hardwire and stuff it into the rear cargo storage cavitites.
5. Sometimes a bulb-LED swap can cause issues with the body control module, as the BCM is looking for different ohm or voltage drop.
 
1. No, nothing in the OBDII plug, though if it was the car I drive, I'd either get an Ultragauge, or a Bluetooth wireless OBDII transmitter and Torque on my Android phone.
2. I suppose the radio could have been remove and re-installed. I thought about doing the AUX input mod so I can plug MP3/Android phones in and use the Media button, so I may take that out some time and check.
3. See #2
4. haven't seen any power converters anywhere.
5. The car did this before I installed LED interior map, dome and cargo lights, but I could remove them and see. The trouble is, it's become the rare occasion that my wife leaves the car in the garage for a couple days straight and hard to test any changes made.
 
1. No, nothing in the OBDII plug, though if it was the car I drive, I'd either get an Ultragauge, or a Bluetooth wireless OBDII transmitter and Torque on my Android phone.
2. I suppose the radio could have been remove and re-installed. I thought about doing the AUX input mod so I can plug MP3/Android phones in and use the Media button, so I may take that out some time and check.
3. See #2
4. haven't seen any power converters anywhere.
5. The car did this before I installed LED interior map, dome and cargo lights, but I could remove them and see. The trouble is, it's become the rare occasion that my wife leaves the car in the garage for a couple days straight and hard to test any changes made.

According to the workshop manual, the amperage draw test has to be performed after a greater than 15minute rest, and should not be higher than 45ma draw.

OK... I look forward to hearing about your fusebox#2 exploration...(nailbyt)
 
I called the dealer and they said they'd have to go through the circuits on the room fuse 1 x 1 until they find out where the draw is coming from.
This can cost $$ if it takes them a long time.

I can do the same if I can get a schematic telling me what all the circuits are.

Anyone know of all the circuits/things that run off the "Room" fuse? Schematic?

Go to http://www.japancars.ru/cat/mazda/?cat=AECV04&grp=Y1 this should have what you need it starts off in Russian but goes to English in the main area
 
I finally got to testing fusebox #2. No success at all. None of the fuses removed in that 2nd fusebox took the current draw below 310 mA. The only fuse in the car in either fusebox that drops the current draw below 310 mA is the "Room" fuse in the fusebox under the hood.

To keep the computer asleep when testing the 2nd fusebox inside the passenger door, I had to flip the latch in the door to fool the car into thinking it was closed. I made sure the odometer display was blank so I knew the computer was still asleep.

The battery still drains after sitting for over a day without being driven. The car off/computer off current drain is still over 300mA.
I have no clue what else to try.

Jimini, those links you posted are dead for me. I get this error:
Not Found
The requested URL /cat/mazda/ was not found on this server.
 
I really don't want to just start replacing parts, especially the expensive BCM (which I have found used for just $100 online)...but it may be that I have to do that?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks.
 
Read up on Ford Escape boards. The 2001-2007 first generation Escapes seem to have a similar problem. The reason I know it's because we used to own a 2004 and around 60k miles it started acting up. We replaced the alternator and battery but occasionally it would still act up. So we sold it since apparently no one including Ford seemed to know the root of the problem at the time (1yr ago). Many replaced BCMs and fixed the problem but many also didn't. Maybe there is new info since last year. Good luck.
 
I finally got to testing fusebox #2. No success at all. None of the fuses removed in that 2nd fusebox took the current draw below 310 mA. The only fuse in the car in either fusebox that drops the current draw below 310 mA is the "Room" fuse in the fusebox under the hood.

To keep the computer asleep when testing the 2nd fusebox inside the passenger door, I had to flip the latch in the door to fool the car into thinking it was closed. I made sure the odometer display was blank so I knew the computer was still asleep.

The battery still drains after sitting for over a day without being driven. The car off/computer off current drain is still over 300mA.
I have no clue what else to try.
Jimini, those links you posted are dead for me. I get this error:
Not Found
The requested URL /cat/mazda/ was not found on this server.
This is good. At least this leads me to believe “something” added/removed is causing the high dark current draw. It may very well be a fried BCM but I would think some event triggered this –yes defects occur but odds are unlikely (says the guys who’s O2 sensor failed after 30K :p). I hope for your sake this is not an undocumented flooded car b/c you will likely never be able to resolve electrical issues.

I still think this car previously has some poorly run aftermarket alarm, amp, or accessory. The fact that you detected the current draw from the room fuse is even more suspect b/c that is an easy source to tap for power. A friend bought a used cars, which the PO ripped the aftermarket alarm out carelessly, and lead to very similar high dark current draw as you are experiencing. My Miata also came with a junky alarm that I had to rip out. Poorly installed and/or cheap alarms (due to failure) are known to draw high dark current. The other problem is people ripped out amps and leaving wiring behind. But none of this relate to why the high revs - electrical surge to the TB?

Look at the hood latch area to see if you can spot an alarm hood pin. Look at the firewall grommet for cuts (to run power) and under the driver dash to see if there’s any evidence of a previous electrical add-on. Take out your stereo out for a few days and also look behind it for evidence of electrical add-on, as well as look under your glove box. You can often spot aftermarket wring b/c folks don’t spend the time to make it nice and tidy when it is behind the dash. Also, did you run into any issues doing your LED mod? Good luck to you, I know I hate electrical gremlins.


Then today, it wouldn't start for her, so I put the battery charger on it again (it has a super-duper start the car feature on it) and tried to start it. It started right up, but it immediately revs way up like I have it floored, though my foot is not on the pedal. I remember reading somewhere that this car doesn't have a throttle cable, but it's a motor or something that actually operates the throttle?
Our throttle bodies are drive-by-wire and not cable driven (oh how I missed low tech that works wonderfully). Here's a good read on Mazda's DBW system from a MS3 and why they sucks (my opinion).
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...BPOr1jpQ7YXr1Q
 
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I took the radio out. Didn't find any evidence of after-market installations or other gear (alarm, etc) installed. Didn't see any hood pins, or holes where they may have been located. The only extra wires I saw were 2 red wired going down to the center console (by the parking brake) which appear to go from the ignition switch area down to the heated seats.
IMG_20121016_122913.jpg


Since I have the radio out, I'm going to add the aux-port hack so I can hook up phone/music player to the media button.

One other thing I just remembered....when the lights are on, some of the climate control lights are not lit. I think the lights in the 2 large knobs for the auto-climate control are not lit (temperature and fan speed knobs) and there seems to be one in the middle that's also not lit. It's daylight now, making the lights hard to see, but I have taken this picture below. Should the light with the green cover just above the "mode swtich" button in the upper middle be lit also? Also, could this be caused by a bad BCM? I don't have any brand new lights to swap out to test them.

IMG_20121016_125925.jpg
 
Are those wires OE or aftermarket heated seats? Funny b/c I'm looking into adding that as well. Did you trace to see where it is drawing power from? It looks like it runs up into and behind the radio consol. I think if you take the radio out, you should clearly see where it is drawing power from. If possible, disconnect these and retest your current draw.

I don't think the LED is the cause. A few members have had issues with LEDs going out on too and tapping them (hard) seems to fix it. Perhaps the connection to that module is loose?
 
I bought the car used. I'm not sure if they're aftermarket or OEM heated seats, but with all the paperwork I got when buying the car, it did have the heated/leather seat brochure. Does that mean the dealer sent the new car out to a shop to add the seats before it was sold the first time?

The red wires definitely go down to the heated seats. It's hard to see where they go up into the steering column because I can't figure out how to get the covers off. It has tilt/telescoping steering wheel and I don't see how to get the bottom cover off around the adjusting lever.

Those green lights are not LEDs. They are small incandescent lights with green rubbers on them. Not sure if I can get replacements of those very easily. I'll check at the auto parts store. I was wondering if a bad BCM would make these lights not light up, as well as cause the battery drain.
 
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Crap..
After putting the radio back in, now none of the lights for it and the climate control work. Some of them worked before I took it apart.
That stinks.
 
Assuming that red wires have a switch for the heated seats, test for 12V power.

The backlight bulbs are replaceable, swapping them out for LEDs is common. Though the BCM does control the illumination, only 1 wire feeds power to the backlighting. BCM or circuit failure would disable all the lights, not just the 1 you noticed.

I had a hard time finding circuits on the schematics/manuals that FLCRUISING gave the link to. What I did was search all the .pdfs for the word "ROOM" thinking that I'd find all the circuits going through the "ROOM" fuse. But, it wasn't that obvious to me. I didn't see what I consider a traditional schematic, but more like block diagrams of how certain systems of the car operate.

It shows the BCM and all the items connected to it (lights, switches) but doesn't show if there are any other branches off of the room fuse. The only things I could see off of the Room fuse are the BCM and the PCM. Hopefully this doesn't mean I need the BCM replaced - especially without doing all the testing I can first (replacing a $350 part without knowing for sure it's the problem is hard for me to do).

Look at document 'WD.pdf', page 195 (SECTION 0940-b) and page 199 (SECTION 0940-d) for the 'ROOM' circuits and their respective SECTION references. All the vehicle wiring diagrams are in this 1 document.

According to the diagrams, it doesn't appear that there are fuses between the BCM and all the lighting in the car. I guess the only think I may be able to try is to remove the bulbs for the cargo, map and interior lights and see if that makes any change - though I doubt it will because none of the lights stay on, yet after a couple days the battery still goes dead. Unless one of the switches is making the BCM think it needs to stay awake.

Same document 'WD.pdf', page 113 (SECTION 0918-1a) and pages 135-140 (SECTION 0918-10).

If you need clarification from there, let me know.
 
Look at document 'WD.pdf', page 195 (SECTION 0940-b) and page 199 (SECTION 0940-d) for the 'ROOM' circuits and their respective SECTION references. All the vehicle wiring diagrams are in this 1 document.



Same document 'WD.pdf', page 113 (SECTION 0918-1a) and pages 135-140 (SECTION 0918-10).

If you need clarification from there, let me know.

Sorry for resurrecting this thread. But im having a battery drain of over 300ma and the battery is like its not charging when the engine on even though it has like 14v. And i pulled ot this fuse and drain is now 50ma...

How can i test the actual BCM and see if it really is defective... Or if its something linked to it... Everything else works only the radio and the domelights stop if i remove the fuse and i think the keyless...
 
I ended up doing a work around. I put a dead fuse in for the room fuse. I soldered wires to it, attached a relay to the ignition circuit and an in line fuse and now at least i can listen to the radio and see my climate control settings on the display. the dome lights work, but only after turning the key on.
Ghetto, but better than a dead battery.
 
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