Dead battery, draw in system?

[geb78]

So 2 weeks ago I went to start the car and the battery was dead. Had been sitting 5-7 days. I was able to charge the battery and drive it around no issues. I have a V1 radar detector that I recently hooked up and is powered from the OBD port. Since that was the only change I decided to disconnect the V1. Car sat another 6-7 days and again the battery was low, could only attempt to turn over once. Was able to jump it with a battery pack. Drove it around running errands, no issues. I have a 4 port trickle charger and I know I could put it on there when sitting but it's a pain if I forget and it will die again. I'm going to take it to the dealer next week and see if they can diagnose. Could it be a bad battery instead of a low draw in the system?

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[Tomster]

If I forget to turn my radar detector off, the car automatically cuts the power to the port. It could be just a defective battery. My money is on a battery replacement and that solves your problem.

 

[geb78]

Update: After initial service visit and dealer saying they couldn't find anything wrong it went dead again after 6 days sitting. Brought it back and they said the battery failed testing and replaced the battery. After sitting for 6 days on the new battery it was dead again. This time I jumped it and was on the way to the dealer and now I have a check engine light. Stay tuned....

 

[Built4Speed]

Update: After initial service visit and dealer saying they couldn't find anything wrong it went dead again after 6 days sitting. Brought it back and they said the battery failed testing and replaced the battery. After sitting for 6 days on the new battery it was dead again. This time I jumped it and was on the way to the dealer and now I have a check engine light. Stay tuned....

What was the outcome?

 

[geb78]

What was the outcome?

Another battery replaced and another thermostat replaced, twice for each. No issues so far but the car hasn't sat for more than 5 days recently. Hopefully it's all fixed. No complaints from me, dealer took care of everything under warranty. It took a few days because Ford wanted them to run more extensive tests to make sure it was the thermostat a second time.

 

[superman07]

Update: After initial service visit and dealer saying they couldn't find anything wrong it went dead again after 6 days sitting. Brought it back and they said the battery failed testing and replaced the battery. After sitting for 6 days on the new battery it was dead again. This time I jumped it and was on the way to the dealer and now I have a check engine light. Stay tuned....

My F150 had the same issue once, it was eventually tracked to the Sync Module.

 

[Caballus]

Having a problem with the battery similar to the one described by OP.

- After sitting for about 6 weeks, I needed to jump the car to get it started.
- Drove it for about 2.5 hours. About three weeks later, dead again.
- Started, drove, and made note to self to buy battery tender.
- Picked up a tender about two weeks later, attached, and after about 4 days, the tender still wasn’t able to bring the battery up to maintenance level.
- Took battery to garage to get a full charge, put back in the car, reconnected tender, and all looked well.
- Two weeks later, tender had an error light combo that means battery unable to hold a charge
- Unplugged and replugged tender to reset—no joy. Battery continued to drain and now completely dead
- Particularly odd fact: when battery is nearly dead, clicking starts near the fuse box—closest comparison is the sound a starter relay switch makes
- Also, there is a “cycling” sound on the driver’s side. Can’t tell where that comes from, but the bottom line is that something is getting and trying to use power
- I have a hard wired dash cam with anti-drain hardwired in. Unplugged cam, but didn’t pull wires from fuse box. That will be the next step, although I doubt it’s the cause

Appreciate any advice or experience. Want to narrow the possible causes as much as possible before heading to the local dealer.

 

[firestarter2]

My battery goes dead if I dont drive it for a week I assumed it was normal. Im pretty sure its dead right now.

And yes the car is obnoxiously hard to jump it has all types of shit that cycles when it first gets power.

 

[PP0001]

My battery goes dead if I dont drive it for a week I assumed it was normal. Im pretty sure its dead right now.

And yes the car is obnoxiously hard to jump it has all types of shit that cycles when it first gets power.

Obviously something very wrong with your present battery and would hope that your car is still under warranty and you could get a replacement for no charge and if not that your local Ford dealership will help you replace your present battery with a new one at a reasonable pro rated price.

I have an original Motorcraft battery in my 2012 Boss 302 and it is ~7 1/2 years old already and it still works great.

Good luck!

 

[Caballus]

My battery goes dead if I dont drive it for a week I assumed it was normal. Im pretty sure its dead right now.

And yes the car is obnoxiously hard to jump it has all types of shit that cycles when it first gets power.

The cycling I referenced is when the battery is nearly dead. Not sure how it has enough power to cycle something when it is too dead to jump.

Just went down and attempted to jump; nada. Just before I connected the cables, I could hear the battery gassing, which is also odd since that normally happens when a battery is fully/overcharged, no?

I took it out of the car connected the trickle charger. Hopefully, that will indicate whether the problem is with the battery itself or if it is getting drained while in the car.

 

[johnny1]

After mine set for 4 days in carport when it got down to lower teens at night when I started it I had a quick display on the sync 3 saying battery amps low therefore some items turned off (or said some thing like that) Car turned over slow a couple turns and started up. Drove it about 10 miles to get battery full charged. A few days later sitting in cold and same thing. Bought a Battery tender and put on it and so far all seems well. It sits for days in same cold weather and the tender still has the green light (means fully charged) So in my case assume its just cause its been so cold. We had a few days before I bought the tender that it was right above freezing and the car started right up after sitting the same amount of time without any message. I noticed for some stupid reason Ford put a relatively low powered battery in our cars. It says right on the battery 390 CCA. I assume that when the battery gets to a certain low the system starts shutting down power sources in order to still have power in battery to start the car of course unless it gets to low then your SOL. You'd think they would have had a more powerful battery in ours to crank over that 10 quarts of oil and performance power.

 

[torque124]

I think they used a relatively small battery to save weight.... I am thinking of getting an even smaller, weight saver battery. Just use a tender when not starting car every day, especially in winter.

 

[fpa1974]

Did anybody weigh our small battery?

I have a CTEK MUS 4.3 tender I use if the car sits more than 7-10 days. Up to that I do not really hook it up and never had any issues (car is in the garage though). I think it is important to have a good tender too. These CTEKs can recondition batteries if needed (I do that once a year regardless). I have one hooked up to my M coupe which gets driven even less and the battery on that one is also small and now it is 12 year old and working.

 

[tdzee]

Climate here probably a bit colder than SoCal. I drive my car maybe once every 4-5 weeks for juts a couple hours. Only has about 1400 mi. Never had a problem. Always a good strong turn over. Sounds like you have a battery issue which may be exacerbated by some unknown load. Pls let us know how it works out. Good luck.:cheers:

 

[hiccup]

Dealers say the factory ESP (enhanced security package) will drain it out in 7-10 days of non-driving. Has happened on mine twice. In winter conditions like now when I rarely drive I must plug the battery tender once a week

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