Battery drain

[nameskreen]

I have a 97 Mountaineer 5.0 with a 6 month old Motorcraft battery. Recently the battery will die after it sits for about a week. I'm pretty sure it's the battery saver. Does anyone know if I can just cut the wire on the GEM (tan/yellow) that feeds the battery saver relay.

 

[koda2000]

I'd be more inclined to think it's a defective battery. It should be under warranty, get it replaced.

 

[nameskreen]

I did consider that, but I put an amp meter on it and there is a 480 ma draw. When I remove the GEM fuse (#25) it drops to about170ma

 

[1998Exp]

I did consider that, but I put an amp meter on it and there is a 480 ma draw. When I remove the GEM fuse (#25) it drops to about170ma

170mA is still too high; should be below 50. Do you have anything plugged in (phone charger, GPS)?

 

[nameskreen]

No, but I'll check again tomorrow and re-test

 

[nameskreen]

Ok. So I pulled each fuse out one by one, and when I pulled the 30 amp premium sound fuse under the hood, the meter dropped to about 20ma. So can I cut the battery saver wire coming from the GEM to at least kill some of the draw?

 

[J_C]

^ I'd unplug the rear amp and see if that also drops current, though I would have thought no power should be getting to it even if it has a fault, at least after the battery saver timeout period. Next I'd unplug the console head unit if that made no difference.

 

[nameskreen]

It looks like the amp for the sub woofer was staying on. I unplugged the amp and everything is good now. I don't have a sub now but that's ok I still have sound. The battery saver relay is good. I just didn't leave the meter hooked up long enough for everything to go to sleep.