Battery dying

[atasholli]

Worth a try posting in here cause not sure what to do anymore
Ive had my mustang for 2.5 years now never had a battery problem.
Just installed a C&L intake with a lund tune and n guage.
two days after installing my car battery died on me, I jumped it started up fine drove around came back 2 hours later dead again. Alternator is charging fine The N guage is shutting when the car is off but still keeps dying on me
Ive trried unplugging the nguage from the OBD over night and the car will start up fine the next day.
Lund keeps telling me there is no problem with the N guage and There might be a ground problem with my car.
Can someone please help?

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[ugstang17]

I've attempted to help on other websites with electrical issues on older model cars. It works when I have a person willing to follow through. There were too many of those seeking the "magic 8 ball answer" to the problem and not willing to isolate the issue and resolve it. Unfortunately I have yet to obtain an S550 set of Ford tech manuals so I do not have the schematics to go with them. However some basic things can be checked.

You have already done the obvious which is to undo the last upgrade prior to which the problem began occurring. I suggest doing this several more times to confirm that the cause of the problem is with the Ngauge device plugged in.

How long does the car sit with the device plugged in before the battery is low enough to not start the car? Share this with the person as well as the fact that you have validated that only when the N-gauge device is plugged in you have a current drain. To do this you will need to measure current drain on the battery with the device unplugged and then plugged in and off. Giving them the actual current draw being caused by the device will only give your argument more validity.

It could be a simple wake up/sleep mode setting that is causing the problem as well. As I recall when I was determining if I wanted an Ngauge or X4 (chose X4 because of the much more versatile datalogging features that I love using through a laptop) there are slep/wake modes that can be selected in teh setup menu. You may wish to see what they are set to before contacting e-Motion LLC.

e-Motion Products LLC makes/distributes the ngauge device. Companies like Palm Beach Dyno, VMP, and Lund use the device for tuning. Here is the link to e-Motion directly. Unlike Lund they may be of more help to you by your own words.

http://e-motionproducts.com/

 

[atasholli]

I’ve contacted e motion and they keep telling me there is no way the n gauge can possibly drain that much battery to where the car won’t start.
I’ve checked all the settings everything is the way it’s supposed to be.
I’m going to do some tests with it this weekend and if i can’t figure anything out I’m going to ship the device to emotion and they said they can look at it and see if something is wrong with the device itself.

 

[ugstang17]

If you have a multimeter do the current check. Current is measured in series as a reminder. OR if you have a DC ampclamp meter you should be able to measure the current drain with that on the positive battery terminal. Those devices take setting up the multimeter to read current out of the picture. Great thing to have in a tool box next to the multimeter. BUT for automotive it must be able to read DC current and these units are more expensive than a straight AC current clamp device. Simply do a before measurement and record and then an after measurement and record as well. The difference will be your current draw. Take that value and multiply it be the number of hours you have observed to pass between full charge and the point at which the car won't start. This will give you the amp hour draw on the battery which will then add "more fuel to your fire".

Any producer of a product that requires a power source that says, "That isn't possible" is a fool. ANY power driven device regardless of how low its rated current draw is can develop a low resistance to ground and cause a massive current draw that will cause everything from battery drains to voltage sags to fuses blowing. They claim it's not possible because they don't know enough about the product to answer the question. I've seen these similar scenarios in my line of work over a 25+ year stretch. The low resistance in the circuit can cause the current to pull so low that the voltage will drop to a 1/4th of the power supply rating and still not blow a fuse. IT happens. Electrical theory is electrical theory. The only thing that changes is the product and how it is applied.

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