Hi Scotty!
I have a 2006 Saturn Relay with a 3.5 L 6 cyl engine and the radio stays on after I'm out of the car with the keys in hand and the door is shut. The car has 118,000 miles on it and it has an automatic transmission. This has plagued me for a bit, but it is getting worse and the problem is intermittent and has drained my battery to dead 2 X in the last 2 weeks. So I brought it to a local auto electric place and they are telling me it is probably the body control module, but it hasn't done it for them as of yet. They are also telling me the the BCM programmer they use won't program remanufactured or refurbished parts and GM no longer makes this part OEM. So I'm about to call AC Delco to check on a remanufactured part and I don't know if I should pull it from this shop and take it to the dealer? Or could you take a look at it because I'm in CT and can bring the car to you if you're still in RI? What should I do???
For that to happen the "load side" of the RAP (Retained Accessory Power) Relay is staying in the energized position.
According to the system description it's supposed to stay energized for up to 10 minutes when the key is turned to the OFF position OR until the driver's side door is opened.
When the door is opened the BCM gets a voltage signal from the door ajar switch and it de-energizes the RAP relay.
So the way your guys should be troubleshooting this is to hook up their scanner.
Go into the BCM and to the Retained Accessory Power controls.
It will look something like this and I put some red arrows in the picture to show the scanner controls to turn the RAP relay On and Off.
If your guys can control the RAP relay through the BCM then there's nothing wrong with the BCM.
They can do this by simply establishing communication with their scanner (key ON) and turning the radio on and turning the key off. The radio will play when the RAP relay is commanded ON and will stop playing when the RAP relay is commanded OFF.
But even if they can't control the RAP relay they should suspect a faulty RAP relay before condemning the BCM. Again, it's possible that the RAP relay's "Load Side" is intermittently getting stuck in the "energized" position. That's going to give the radio power directly from a fuse instead of from the ignition switch in the Accessory/Run positions. And if the relay is faulty it isn't going to "time out" after 10 minutes. The radio will play until the battery dies.
Your RAP relay is in your Passenger Compartment Fuse Box. It's in position 29.
It isn't expensive and it's the "low hanging fruit" so if you want to try replacing the relay no one could blame you for suspecting it as the likely problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzDLpgDJ7EE
If the relay isn't the problem I'd suspect the driver's side door ajar switch. I'm hesitant because the system description says that the BCM should "timeout" the RAP relay after 10 minutes even if it doesn't get a signal that the door has been opened and you've had the battery die over this. That wouldn't happen if the system is working according to the description. But weird stuff happens in these systems and your guys can use their scanner to check that switch signal without having to "hands on" test the circuit.
As a follow-up it turns out seems like it really is the BCM. I have tried all kinds of tests by leaving the door open and the radio would still stay on because I tested the passenger side door as well and it did the exact same thing. I am at the point now where the radio has no power to it at all and the anti-theft light with the bell and key was staying on the dash. Now it is back off. All lead me to believe it is the BCM. Nobody local wants to reprogram a used or remanufactured BCM. So now I have little choice, but to take it to the dealer. This is the last place on God's green earth I wanted to take my car, but nobody else seems to want to touch the job. Since they don't make that part anymore they are first going to diagnose the issue and if they determine it is the BCM they are going to take it out and send it off to Cardone to fix, remanufacture and program the BCM. Then they will reinstall and hopefully this will fix all of my problems. I really don't want to take it to the dealer. Do you have any suggestions keeping in mind I'm here in Connecticut??
As a follow-up it turns out seems like it really is the BCM. I have tried all kinds of tests by leaving the door open and the radio would still stay on because I tested the passenger side door as well and it did the exact same thing. I am at the point now where the radio has no power to it at all and the anti-theft light with the bell and key was staying on the dash. Now it is back off. All lead me to believe it is the BCM. Nobody local wants to reprogram a used or remanufactured BCM. So now I have little choice, but to take it to the dealer. This is the last place on God's green earth I wanted to take my car, but nobody else seems to want to touch the job. Since they don't make that part anymore they are first going to diagnose the issue and if they determine it is the BCM they are going to take it out and send it off to Cardone to fix, remanufacture and program the BCM. Then they will reinstall and hopefully this will fix all of my problems. I really don't want to take it to the dealer. Do you have any suggestions keeping in mind I'm here in Connecticut??