What Is Pulling Power From Battery

[gordizmom]

I have no idea what you are talking about. Good luck with your car. I only tried to help.

Of course you would say this. I should have taken a screenshot of your snarky comment yesterday.

 

[gordizmom]

OK. All is forgiven. Peace and Love.

Can you check that rear wiper for me?
.. and report back?

Thanks in advance.

I didn't ask to be forgiven so there's that. Peace and love to you too.
I did check the rear wiper and it looked okay to me. Not sure what it's supposed to look like but it's all the way in the down position.

 

[Plati]

Of course you would say this. I should have taken a screenshot of your snarky comment yesterday.

Its not a war. Take deep breaths and think puppies
while you are going out to check the rear wiper. Please.

 

[Aspen03]

I was part of that original thread and feel entitled to chime in. Get a new mechanic that knows how to troubleshoot electrical. If they in fact did a draw test and went through every circuit on the vehicle they would have found something, it's simple process of elimination. They may not nail down precisely what the draw is but can at least isolate it to a circuit and present further troubleshoot options to you.

It's not a cheap in most cases just due to it being a methodical, time consuming process which is where an experienced electrical guy can in fact save you money even if hes charging $80 an hour. Its worth reading up on and buying a decent meter as well. For what you'd spend on 2 hrs labor you could get a very high quality one and being retired you have the time to just plug away at it. This is one area YouTube has quite a bit of how to on that poses little risk if you don't do something precisely right, so long as you aren't just using a test lamp as some of the circuits w modules on them can be sensitive to the resistance it'll introduce.

If it's not a draw issue then it's either battery/alternator related or just simply your short trips. It doesnt take much to pull down a battery, figure you start, drive for a couple minutes, assuming w heavy loads on....ac, radio, etc. I'm assuming your also not in the peak charging output range of alternator very long either if it's a short trip. You run your errand and repeat to come home. Starting is a very heavy load on a battery.

The jump pack you have being used all of the time is just going to destroy the battery, you wont get many full discharge cycles out of it before it really starts to go downhill. While the battery tender is a better option as far as maintaining the ability to start from home as itll at least keep it at a full soc.

Moral of the story is stored energy doesnt just evaporate...it goes somewhere whether that's used by a device or to ground and there's always a path...the question is where.

 

[Trainmaster]

while you are going out to check the rear wiper.

She checked that wiper when we suggested it five months ago, but decided to ask us all over again now.

 

[texasscot]

This went south fast. IMHO "I only leave my house once a week and where I go is about four miles to and from. "
is not enough to compensate for the energy drain of starting it combined with the general leakage of power/voltage that happens with any car. Get a trickle charger and all is good as its very possible there's is nothing wrong with the car.

 

[laffinguy]

Agree with texasscot. 8 miles per week is not enough to keep your battery in good condition. Instead of a trickle charger, maybe just drive it maybe an hour or two each week. That would only be 2,000 or 3,000 miles each year, and would actually help keep keep the truck in good shape.

 

[rjdelp7]

Purchase a cheap auto bulb socket with wire leads. Put a bulb in it. Disconnect the neg battery terminal. Put one wire on the neg battery terminal and one on the neg cable. The bulb with light bright if there is a drain and dim if normal. If bright, get a needle nose pliers and pull each fuse one at a time. Start with the radio/cd and wiper. Check the bulb for changes after pulling each fuse. If there is a change you found you drain. Harbor Freight sells a volt meter, for $5. Set it to 20V and touch terminals to battery. You should have 12.2 engine off and 13.6-14.5 engine running, if alternator is working right.

 

[Craig Lasnier]

Its definitely the alternator, had the same problem on my 99, there is a diode on the alternator that can go bad or be defective even in a rebuilt. Disconnect the alternator overnight and I'm sure you will see no drain. When that diode goes bad it will destroy a battery overnight. Good luck.

 

[Newtons4thlaw]

Afternoon gentlemen where is the diode located in the alternator? can it be replaced?

 

[Jim Brown]

Just responding to question about if diode (rectifier) can be replaced. Not pertaining to OP question....

How to change rectifier in 3G Ford alternator.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1312348-broken-howto-change-the-rectifier-in-a-3g-alternator.html

Source for 3G series rectifiers.

https://store.alternatorparts.com/3g-rectifier.aspx

Cost vs benefits? If I needed higher current and couldn't afford $250 for a 180 or 200 amp alternator to replace my stock unit, maybe it's worth it. To repair an otherwise stock alternator? Not worth it. I would just buy a new or reman 130a alternator, get good quality with a good warranty.

 

[Yupster Dog]

Afternoon gentlemen where is the diode located in the alternator? can it be replaced?

There is a whole section on electrical with a sticky at the top on alternators. If you can't find it there maybe you could start your own thread (which is better than starting off of someone else's thread)

 

[Newtons4thlaw]

Mr. Brown, thanks sorry admin it was just a question jeez Louise. The core price was so crappy on the replacement alt that I just kept it in case it was something simple that I coud rework myself to have one on deck for a rainy day. Thanks for the data I’ll check to see if it’s been covered in electrical. What’s the problem with piggybacking this post if the gentleman doesn’t mind answering the question?

 

[Aspen03]

Mostly so there isnt a pile of intermingled info. It would be far easier to have a separate thread w your specific question/issue for someone else to reference in the future or for you to keep tabs on replies than dig through a thread w another set of answers. That and for all you know the person with the answer to your question may never see yours if they don't happen to read about this battery problem.

I for one hate reading megathreads despite them having a lot of good info most times. I've read through a 117 page thread on a different forum before to find something I knew was in there but had no idea where and they had horrible search/filter capability.

 

[gordizmom]

This went south fast. IMHO "I only leave my house once a week and where I go is about four miles to and from. "
is not enough to compensate for the energy drain of starting it combined with the general leakage of power/voltage that happens with any car. Get a trickle charger and all is good as its very possible there's is nothing wrong with the car.

This is an update on my battery:
Last year I first purchased a Gooloo battery charger which works really well and although I don't need it now I keep it in my truck. It also has ports for charging other things like a cell phone.
I used the charger several times then decided to buy a battery tinder. The brand is Battery Tender. I keep this on my battery all the time because I still only drive four miles a week. I haven't had any issues at all with my truck starting.
Last year I used up my AAA service calls on having a local garage come out to my house to start my truck. I even left my truck at the garage all day long to have them put a diagnostic machine on it. When they brought the truck back to me I was told that there was something pulling the battery but they didn't know just what it was. No one ever asked me how much I drove/drive my truck. They just presumed something was wrong. I wasn't charged for the diagnostic test. I suppose they could have lied and said the alternator was bad or something but they didn't. This is a small, rural town in South Carolina where everyone knows everyone else so maybe they thought if they tried to rip me off I would let everyone know.
I'm just surprised the owner of the garage didn't think to tell me I wasn't driving my truck enough to keep the battery charged up.
It gets very cold here and I know that cold weather can drain a battery so this is another reason I bought the tinder.

 

[JamaicaJoe]

1) The rear wiper can draw excess current with the engine off and still operate normally. It is a problem with the wiper blade parking switch. How do I know? It happened to me and I pulled the rear wiper fuses and no longer have battery problems.

2) The normal parasitic drain is 40 milliampere s or less. Testing this takes skill and technique. ..

3) the parasitic drain can be 1 or 2 Amps for 20 to 40 minutes until the computers in the car shut off. If the rear wiper is drawing current it will be more and will not go away because a computer is waiting for the wiper blade to park. Again skill and technique required to diagnose this.

4) my money is on pulling the rear wiper fuse under the hood and the problem will go away,

AAA mechanics generally don't have the skills to fix this problem. You need a shop that fixes Ford electrical problems. Surprise, they have an hourly rate to fix your mystery,

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