Explorer Battery is dead after sitting for 2 days. New battery installed

jbaj · April 20, 2011

2001 V8 mountaineer keeps draining battery after sitting for a day or so. New battery was installed a few months ago. Does this have anything to do with the Keep alive error, which has something to do with the electrical power.

jremington59 · April 20, 2011

Pull the alternator fuse and see if the drain goes away. I've known a couple people who had this problem and it was the alt/vr causing the problem due to a short.

bobflood · April 20, 2011

Another possibility - your "battery saver" relay isn't working and thus leaves things on to drain power. Do your internal lights, for example, stay on??

jbaj · April 21, 2011

No, as matter of fact only the rear cargo lights comes on when I open the door. The other lights works only if I manually turn them on via the button on the lights itself.

jbaj · April 21, 2011

Will a short in the alternator or voltage regulator cause the keep alive error code.

scucci · April 21, 2011

Use an ammeter to check for parasitic drain.
1: remove the negative battery cable from the battery.
2: connect the negative ammeter lead on the battery terminal.
3: connect the positive ammeter lead on the negative battery cable to complete the circuit.
4: Turn the ammeter on to the 10 amp or higher scale. Choose a lower scale that will still allow 1 amp to be read after you are sure there is no higher drain.
5: open the drivers door and and push in the lock latch so the door switch is in the closed position. This will start the battery saver timer. It allows you to open the door to check fuses without resetting the timer.
6: After about 45 minutes the battery saver will kick in and the ammeter should then read below 50 milliamps. Most read below 20 milliamps. If it reads above 50 milliamps you pull fuses 1 at a time untill the ammeter reads below 50 milliamps. That is the circuit that has the problem.
7: If the ammeter reads below 50 milliamps on initial test, there is a problem with the battery or an intermittant short.
8: check all interior lamps to make sure they are not on all the time. Check the rear window wiper switch to make sure it is off.

bdarashti · October 29, 2015

ok so after testing all these things; What would you say then? I have a new battery, and the charging system works great but I still have a dead battery after 2 or 3 days of it just sitting in my parking lot.

sehaare · October 29, 2015

what did the current read after 45 minutes?

And

What voltage do you read across the battery with the engine running and with it shut off?

Mike65 · October 29, 2015

Check to make sure your glove box light is turning off & not staying on.

Explorer Battery is dead after sitting for 2 days. New battery installed

jbaj

New Member

jremington59

Explorer Addict

bobflood

jbaj

New Member

jbaj

New Member

scucci

Well-Known Member

bdarashti

New Member

sehaare

Well-Known Member

Mike65

Explorer Features

Explorer Features

Similar threads

Featured Content