new battery drained in 3 minutes

[Indygreg]

New to me 92 Ford Explorer Sport, Battery dead, I tried to jump start and it but cables got real hot and interior lights were dim and turned over slow. I thought OK just get new battery it must have a bad cell or something. I put the second cable on new battery and it sparked right away and started to drain. Wires began to get hot. It did turn over immediatly but too slow to start up. There is one hell of a short somewhere. Where do I look first?

 

[410Fortune]

battery cables

welcome to the site!

Have you tried searching?

The first place I would look, is check the + and - battery cables, they are very straight forward to replace.
The - cable leavres the battery and goes down to the frame on the pass side, then back to the engine block.

After you check and or replace both main battery cables take a look at the wires leading to the starter, it is really common for these wires to get bad, and you could have a short here, they get melted or old or both.
The starter gets two + feeds, one from the starter solenoid (smaller wire) and one directly from the battery (larger).
The Starter gets its ground from the engine block.

This is a good place to start.

 

[rookieshooter]

Like 410 said start at cables, seems like a fuse or fuseable link would have tripped by now. It may be before fuses somehow. You may want to hook-up bat. temporarly and start at bat. and go from there you may even try moving all wires, relays,swithches any thing that has a connection you might just see a spark. Best to do this in a dark area or at night. I used to check on spark plugs wires this way you be surprised sometimes how there could be an ark from the wire to the exhaust or other metal object that don't show up in daylight.

 

[rookieshooter]

again like 410 said about the starter, if you don;t see anything around the starter try disconnectin wire to starter then hookup bat. and see what happens

 

[Indygreg]

Thanks for ideas

I will drive back over and check the battery cables. They appeared ok but I will give them a good look. It was getting dark and I was in a hurry. I think the starter cable may be the culprit. I will get under it and check that for sure. I just need to get it started so I can get it home.

Looking to go camping and light off-road driving with it.

Thanks again.

 

[410Fortune]

cables might look allright but be corroded internally badly.......
Its about $12 to replace both of them

 

[Glacier991]

draining a fully charged new battery in 3 minutes would almost take an arc welder draw. Man oh man.

 

[rookieshooter]

I agree, seems there ought to be some molted metal dripping somewhere. Hope he finds the problem and comes back here to tell us. Seems like it would have to be a very large wire, like the one going to the starter that has contact with the frame. Also there must not be somekind of fuse between the bat. and short. IMOP

 

[Indygreg]

Cable shot

I found the + cable had rubbed against the frame where it lies coming down next to passenger side front wheel. It was amazing, the thing was worn about 4 inches in all, even the wires had been worn and frayed. I have no idea how it ran this long. I was not able to get it fixed in the parking lot and had it towed to my house. I also have brake problems to overcome. I still hope it turns out to be a good buy. I tried to use 200 mph tape on exposed wire and move it off frame. It would only click like starter gear was kicking out, but it would not spin? It would spin slow with the wire touching the bare frame??? :fire: I will let you know how it goes after I replace battery cables, BTW the connections looked good, no dirt or corrosion.

 

[BeauJ]

I went through this same thing. New battery and alt, and it drained that battery in 15 minutes. Ended up being a big fuse right by the fuse block under the hood. 5 bucks from Ford, but I had to special order it. Chances are you probably blew it, so I'd replace it.