Typically when someone removes an airbag, they will install some kind of resistor kit to trick the SRS module under the center console into thinking all is well. If your SRS/Airbag light is ON in the gauge cluster, then I think it's safe to say the previous owner never wired in a resistor kit. If the SRS/Airbag light is OFF, then I wouldn't mess with the SRS module.

Note: When tinkering around airbags and the SRS system, it's recommended to disconnect the battery and wait 15-30 minutes. There's some kind of capacitor in the airbag system, as a failsafe, which stores enough charge to detonate airbags even with the battery disconnected. You need to let this capacitor drain down before touching the system. Also, you can set multiple SRS codes if you start disconnecting things without waiting. The worst one is the seat weight sensory/calibration.
Cheers!
-Icer

 

I have a flashing Airbag light on the dash. I think I'll just leave it be and live with the flashing.

 

What SRS codes are present? Have you scanned for these?
Cheers!
-Icer

 

My scanner is a basic one. It doesn't do SRS. Once it's back together, I'll take it to O'Reilly and see if they find anything.

 

After many hours of chasing this with no real resolution, our mad scientist mechanic figured it out. I don't feel quite as dumb now, as he was stumped at first as well. After all my wire chasing and some fixes, I was still seeing an 90-100ma draw but it was intermittent. Sometimes it would go away after a period of time, and sometimes it would remain indefinitely.

Our mechanic was seeing the same, a 106ma draw. He disconnected everything from the BCM and ran jumpers, still seeing 106ma with nothing connected, but he noticed it would go away after about 30 minutes. He also noticed when he was touching and removing the jumpers there was a click coming from inside the BCM. After some digging, he said he found that the BCM on this vehicle stays hot for exactly 30 minutes. He then timed it out, and at exactly 30 minutes each time, the 106ma would drop to nearly nothing. Reconnected everything to the BCM, same result. He believes there must be a relay or timer inside the BCM that was intermittently sticking and that repeatedly "exciting" it with the jumpers may have unstuck it, at least for now. Admittedly, the intermittent draw may return, but at least I now know it's not a faulty wire or something else in the car, it's the BCM itself, which he said if it comes back and it's a problem, he can try to disassemble the BCM and see if there is a replaceable relay inside. So problem may not be 100% solved, but at least now diagnosed!

 

The BCM handles the keyless entry system, so it makes sense that it would take ~30min for it to "go to sleep." This is fairly common on modern vehicles, but sometimes, faulty components like door jam switches, window switches, or another module on the CAN bus can "wake up" module(s) like the BCM and/or prevent it from going to sleep by triggering a false positive event. Keep monitoring the BCM and your battery situation. I'm wondering if there's still something at play that's causing it to wake up. A sticky/faulty relay is possible, but rare in my opinion. It could be that the damaged engine bay harness was the source of the parasitic drain by keeping modules awake. Without knowing exactly which wire it was and what circuit it was tied to, we won't know for certain.
Cheers!
-Icer