Parasitic draw on battery

[Currency]

Kind of tough throwing money at a problem, if I were you and trust me I am dealing with explorer issues 24/7 atm, I would keep checking and testing until you locate the issue or issues before dumping loads on money into your explorer.

I honestly love throwing money at my explorer and even thought about selling it, but I won't sell my toy. Even if I roll it like I almost recently did

 

[ford_family]

hey yb this battery is only from 10/09 but its been abused by this drain so maybe its just time for a new one then re check for the drain

the thing i noticed though was when i first put the probes on it spikes between .1 and .6 then stay at .01 however with that fuse out it will read .00 every time it does not spike

i left the fuse out and checked the battery it is unable to hold a charge since it has been drained and charged some many times when i stopped messing with it it was 12.12 volts this morning when i looked at it it was at 11.77 volts so the battery has an issue its self also

 

[YBCold]

i acutally went through about 10 batteries over the course of a year. with my drain. luckly the guys at autozone were cool enough everytime to get me a new battery. i know that sometimes if it drops too low the battery is no good

im guessing the fuse u speak of is the EEC ? could be. .01 .06 is ok because thats the keep alive memory i think. get a new battery and pluck fuses. also have u checked how well the alternator is charging?

 

[ford_family]

This is not the ecc fuse it is the Ignition fuse its a 60 amp.

going out to check the voltage on battery to see if its changed again this ignition fuse is still out

 

[ford_family]

it is now at 11.69 volts with the ignitoon fuse otu it reads .00 on vom with the fuse on it jumped to .89 then settled at .01

 

[ford_family]

now the battery is at 11.63 volts

 

[ford_family]

i have a spare btry for a trolling motor it has been reading the same volts i'm going to put it in the truck with the ignition fuse out and see if the truck starts draining this extra battery

 

[ford_family]

ok with the new battery with that ignitoon fuse in i get .00

maybe the old battery was so bad it just had a drain by itselfs along with the hego heater causing the trouble light to come on

 

[ford_family]

going after new battery and i will have everythign tested now

 

[ford_family]

i think with the fact that the battery nto my trolling battery was old and worn down from the hego heater fuse draing enough to light up the trouble light that that btry is just no good we will see if the alt charge the battey on the way to the auto part store or not

Wish me luck

 

[ford_family]

ok yb so i went to the auto part store picked up a btry don't want to ruin my trolling motor btry

when i got to the auto part store i checked the alt lug with vom it was 14.8 something check the volts at btry 14. something turned vechile off the btry read 13. something when i left the btry was at 12.58 this is my trolling btry so the chrageing system is working

rigth now its at 13. will go back out in one hr to check the volts on the trolling motor if it drops alot i will disconnect my trolling motor and put it away for fishing i will then drop in the new btry and watch for drop if i see alot of drop i guess i have not found the drain


how do i find a drain that will not pickup on a vom or trouble light

 

[ford_family]

ok volts on trolling motor as of 5 pm eastern was 12.67 will check at 6 pm if it drop any more i'm pulling it out

 

[ford_family]

ok 1 hour later tmy trolling motor read 12.61 it lost

>.06 over the course of an hour it will be dead in the morning

anyone know how to find a drain that is not showing up on vom or trouble light

 

[ford_family]

newest update i burn out my 10a side of my vom it no longer will show a drain even when i open a door but my trouble light will light up with my door open

so this leads me back to my ignition fuse 60 amp when i leave that fuse on and use my trouble light it will light up for a few seconds then goes out if i pull that fuse it will not light up all so what should i do when my 10a side of my vom worked it would show a spike at first then settle to .01 so there is something causing this related to the ignition fuse

is it my igniton switch with the key is it the relay under that fuse coudl it be the starter

 

[ford_family]

ok pulling out ign fuse reading volts on my battery 12.61


will check it in .5 hours and 1 hour to see if this fuse is indeed draining as i expect

 

[Reejerey]

I see a lot of bad/wrong info in this thread about draw testing, so I will attempt to clarify it into one nice post.

1. Plug the red lead on the DVOM into the 10A plug on the dvom. This is a fused circuit.
2. Set the DVOM's range to the 10 A DC range. Lots of lower end meters can't check DC amps but will do AC amps.
3. disconnect the negative battery cable.
4. Install a jumper wire between the negative battery cable and the negative battery post.
5. Make sure all doors, lights, radio and other electrical accessories are turned off.
6. Wait 10-15 minutes to insure that all computers are sleeping. (when the ecm and abs modules get power they usually have a slightly higher draw for the first few minutes as they self test ect.)
7. Hook the DVOM's red lead (should be in the 10 A port on the dvom) to the negative battery cable.
8. Hook the DVOM's Black lead to the negative terminal on the battery.
9. Disconnect the jumper wire.
10. Check the amp reading on the DVOM. This should be under .035 amps.
11. If this reading is over .035 amps, start pulling fuses 1 at a time from the fuse block under the hood.
12. If you don't find a circuit under the hood that is causing your draw, reinstall the jumper wire.
13. Open the door and gain access to the interior fuse panel.
14. Disable the interior lights, make sure that the keys aren't in the ignition, and that the door dinger isn't going off.
15. Disconnect the jumper wire.
16. Pull fuses 1 by 1 from the interior fuse panel.
17. If you find a fuse that drops the draw below .035 amps, consult the wiring diagrams for that circuit. Certian things (like ECM's, ABS computers and radios) will alway have a draw due to their memory functions, so make sure that the circuit you find with a draw is not one that is supposed to be powered with the key off. Low current draws are usually caused by shorts to ground on the ground side of a circuit or faulty components. Typically a power wire shorting to ground will cause a the fuse for that circuit to blow.
18. Repair any Faulty components or shorts, recheck for draws on the system.



Things that you can pretty much rule out from being your draw are Rear defrosters, head lights and the blower motor (although sometimes blower motors can have a low current draw if there is a high resistance short somewhere in them). Light bulbs tend to have about a .3 amp draw, although this can vary depending on bulb size.

Good luck and hope you find it.

Edit: Missed the third page. Even with computer memory functions you should see less than .035 amps. Also, it sounds like the HO2S heater is shorted to ground either internally or in the wiring from the heater circuit back to its control device.

 

[ford_family]

ok we got that straight it was me misunderstanding yb but he got me on the right track

ok so status

i tore down the dash and pulled the ign switch all the symptons have now stopped so if in a horu the btry still reads 12.60 as it did earlier i will replace the switch to eliminate the switch

this is a hard spot because most of the juice flows past the switch to power other things but i have allready eliminated glove box lightand all the simple stuff all lights go out . i pulled every fuse from under the dash and it was still draining so hopefully this switch is the culprit

i did see a peice where 91-94 had bad ign switch and my friend in the autobody / restoration/ said it was bad enough for some ex's to catch fire



Edit: thanks for the head up on the o2 sensor thing

 

[ford_family]

hey ree the reading would spike from .1 to .8 bu tthen it would settle at .01 draw

but in one hour the ntry dropped .06 volts over night that is the diff between starting and a grunt accordign to this chart

http://www.aa1car.com/library/battery_runs_down.htm

i hope this switch is the problem i'm 400 bucks in now

 

[YBCold]

hopefully. it could also be the wiring maybe that would be a pain to fix.

 

[Reejerey]

voltage and amps are different though. you can't get a good reading of an amp draw using a voltage loss over time. A bad ignition switch could cause your issues though, if it was shorting power into one of the accessory or run circuits causing the computer to think the key was on. Depending on what the logic in the computer and the circuit for the HO2S, an ignition switch that was sticking and keeping power on to the run circuit could cause the computer to run the heater for the O2 sensor. Also if it was just shorting to the run circuit and powering up the ECM and related components, you wouldn't see any of the interior accessories being powered on.