Interior lights, auto shut off ? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Interior lights, auto shut off ?

Joined
July 24, 2012
Messages
40
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City, State
RI
Year, Model & Trim Level
2008 Explorer,4.0 LTD 4x4
I believe that that any interior lights left on, will shut off automatically after a certain amount of time ? Does anyone know if that also includes the visor vanity mirror light ?

The reason I ask is because I replaced the visor on the passenger side because of a broken hinge. Now the on the driver side is broken ? The mirror never gets used, yet it still broke. Go figure. I had a dead battery the other day. A 18 month old Motorcraft battery.

I took it to the dealer because it is still under warranty. They said they load tested it and it checked out fine ? I can't figure out why it went dead. It has been fine ever since, but it makes me uncomfortable wondering if it will happen again.

I checked all the cells today with a battery hydrometer, or is a Hygrometer ? not sure. 5 cell read in the green, 1 cell read fair ? Bad Battery ?

Thanks for any and all comments.
 






Yes, I believe that all auxiliary lighting is automatically switched off after about 10 minutes, at least that is the way it happens on mine. I have had dome lights etc. left on and they don't show up as being left on until the next day after I start the vehicle. Don't know what to tell you about the battery going dead. Ford load tests the batteries when they come in so really no reason to check the battery acid in each cell with a hydrometer. Your results say that there is nothing wrong with the battery, one cell has a specific gravity that is a little low but not bad, but that can happen from the battery getting drained.
 






Thanks for the reply, I just left the visor mirror open so the light would stay on. I also left the interior dome light on and set my timer for 20 minutes. I went out and the lights were still on. I set the timer for 10 more minutes, after that all lights were out. I opened the door and the visor light came on again. So as you stated they will go out to prevent a dead battery.

I rechecked the battery with the hydrometer and now all cells are in the green, all is fine now. The question remains as to why the battery was so low the starter would not engage, only a clicking sound. It did start after 15 minutes on a fast charge and then switching the charger to 100 amp boost.

Then all cells showed only fair till after a good run the battery built up again. I had posted before that for the last 2 or 3 weeks the airbag light would come on when it was very cold out. It would go out after a few minutes ? Some one had posted that the airbag light could indicate a battery going bad.

After my local Ford dealer checked out the battery with a load test and the charging system is working fine. It's a little difficult to feel good about the battery after it went dead. Oh well I do have AAA.
 






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