Wanted Bad Battery & clicking relays-weird

[mhoffman13@insig]

This is weird, anyone have an explanation?-99 Explorer 4WD V8, neighbor had to jump start on intertmittent basis. I charged batttery, removed charger and measured 12+V after batt rested a few minutes, (I know fully charged battery is 12.5-12.6V), anyway started car. Got 14+ volts while running (assume charging system OK). When shut off heard clicking from the relays in pwr dist box. Relays 8 & 10 (in lower right corner of box closest to driver door) were both cycling on and off. These are supposed to be for horn, washer pump or fog lamps or other depending on source of info.
I measured a drain of 2 amps. I removed relays and drain went to a few milliamps. Car failed to crank next day so I tried re-charge but it would not take, measured 11 V after charge attempt. Put in new battery and low and behold, put relays back in and they no longer cycle-was a rainy night so did not check drain. I will monitor neighbor's experience next few days. Any ideas, anyone.

 

[dogfriend]

Yeah, your battery was done for. I had a battery like this 2 years ago. I could charge it up to about 13V but it would drop down below 11V after sitting (with nothing connected to it) overnight.

 

[mhoffman13@insig]

Bad Battery & clicking relays-Update

After two days neighbor has had no trouble with new battery. I checked drain and found it to be about 0.2 amps, which is 1/10 the drain on the old battery with relays cycling. There is no mystery that old battery was bad, it even tested bad under load at AutoZone. The mystery is why would the bad battery cause those relays to cycle? There must have been a drain in the circuit the relay(s) energized because 2 amps is probably more than the relay coil alone draws. However, the fog lamps and washer pump were not cycling. Any ideas?

 

[96eb96]

After two days neighbor has had no trouble with new battery. I checked drain and found it to be about 0.2 amps, which is 1/10 the drain on the old battery with relays cycling. There is no mystery that old battery was bad, it even tested bad under load at AutoZone. The mystery is why would the bad battery cause those relays to cycle? There must have been a drain in the circuit the relay(s) energized because 2 amps is probably more than the relay coil alone draws. However, the fog lamps and washer pump were not cycling. Any ideas?

The GEM computer has a power saver feature that powers down stuff in the Ex after a certain amount of time. I know there is a relay involved. The GEM was probably confused with the low voltage and put the relays into an undetermined state.