Won't Jump Start

[Freedommaster]

Hey guys, I'm having an issue with my 04 5.4l eddie bauer expedition where is wont jump start. I have a brand new battery in it, just bought it from Oreillys a couple weeks ago. Came out to start it up the other day and the battery was dead. Not terribly surprising since I don't drive it every day, sometimes I go weeks without driving it. Anyway, I had it hooked up to my van to try and jump and it will turn over a couple times slowly and not very strong. I have tried different jumper cables, I have cleaned the terminal posts on both vehicles, I have tried our little commuter car (corolla) and I can seem to get more than a couple turns. I know there's strong current coming from the jump vehicle, I checked, but when I connect the cables it doesn't seem to spark much, if any, when I connect the cables to the terminals. Previous vehicle jumps usually result in a decent spark when connecting to the vehicle being jumped. Anyway, I'm at a loss on what to so since the there's good current coming to it, its turning over, even if its a little bit. Short of leaving to charge for hours and hours, I don't know what to do cause in the past when jumping it, it has just fired right up, not sure what has changed.

 

[stamp11127]

Connect one of your vehicles to the Expy and let it charge the battery back up before trying to start it. You will need to have the "good" car on a fast idle for a good ten minutes. If you have a volt meter read the battery voltage once you disconnect the cables.

Or if you have a battery charger, charge it back up slowly so that it doesn't damage the battery from the internal heat of charging.

Once the battery is charged back up, check for parasitic drain.

 

[Freedommaster]

Thank you for your reply, I checking the grounds really quick try to jump again and if that doesn't work I'm going to hook it up to our commuter car and let it charge for a little bit. Better on gas to let it run for a bit. If after 10 mins it doesn't turn over, I'm going to hook it up to a battery charger I can borrow from a friend.

Is it normal for the battery to go dead after about a week of sitting? I've never had any other vehicles have this problem before. specially with such a large batter on board.

 

[stamp11127]

Not normal for a lead acid battery to discharge on its own in a week.

 

[ChrisOIFdoc]

Since you don't drive it that much it sounds like parasitic drain. Happened to me once. It could be a bad battery as well, even if it is new. If it holds a full charge once you've charged it, ( disconnected from the truck ) then it's most likely parasitic drain. You'll know when you reconnect the battery and check voltage after a day or two (without starting the truck.)

 

[Freedommaster]

Since you don't drive it that much it sounds like parasitic drain. Happened to me once. It could be a bad battery as well, even if it is new. If it holds a full charge once you've charged it, ( disconnected from the truck ) then it's most likely parasitic drain. You'll know when you reconnect the battery and check voltage after a day or two (without starting the truck.)

Yeah thats what Im wondering now. The previous owner appears to have had a stereo with amp installed at one point and I believe they left some things attached to the battery that shouldn't be. Now I have the fun job of hunting down what gremlins are left on the system. As I'm looking at it, there appears to be 3 heavy gauge wires coming off the positive terminal, one of them looks none essential, having a hard time tracing it back to where it goes without completely ripping some things. I might just disconnect it for now and see if that changes anything. I did finally get it to jump after several hours of charging which seems kind of odd for me as I've never had a vehicle, no matter how dead, not jump right away. Its probably an amperage thing im sure.

 

[Hayes Riviere]

Did you buy the battery from a cheap retailer, such as Walmart? That could also be a factor. My buddy has a 2001 Tahoe and he had a brand new, but cheap, battery, and it ended up dying. I had to jump start him, and I had to leave my Expedition running at 3k rpm for at least 30 seconds before he could start his car. He bought a nicer battery after that and it hasn't died on him.

 

[Freedommaster]

Did you buy the battery from a cheap retailer, such as Walmart? That could also be a factor. My buddy has a 2001 Tahoe and he had a brand new, but cheap, battery, and it ended up dying. I had to jump start him, and I had to leave my Expedition running at 3k rpm for at least 30 seconds before he could start his car. He bought a nicer battery after that and it hasn't died on him.

I bought this one from O'Reilly's, it's supposed to be their "premium" battery but who knows how much that's worth. It wasn't cheap, I know that much so it better not be the battery but I'm not against having it tested and checked out to rule it out, it has a 3yr warranty atleast. I didn't opt for a more expensive battery because I don't drive it as much as my other vehicles.

 

[ChrisOIFdoc]

Yeah thats what Im wondering now. The previous owner appears to have had a stereo with amp installed at one point and I believe they left some things attached to the battery that shouldn't be. Now I have the fun job of hunting down what gremlins are left on the system. As I'm looking at it, there appears to be 3 heavy gauge wires coming off the positive terminal, one of them looks none essential, having a hard time tracing it back to where it goes without completely ripping some things. I might just disconnect it for now and see if that changes anything. I did finally get it to jump after several hours of charging which seems kind of odd for me as I've never had a vehicle, no matter how dead, not jump right away. Its probably an amperage thing im sure.

Those wires might make it easy for you. Disconnect them all and see if your battery drains without em, see whats not working after that and start reconnecting. should give you your answer. Rewire to 12V that only operates when the truck is on. Make sense?

 

[ChrisOIFdoc]

I'll bet they wired the amp straight to the battery