My 04 f150 fx4 sits a few days between starts. My battery is usually dead. At 60k miles I replaced the original battery. The brand new battery goes dead too.

Today I get in and there is enough juice to cause a clicking noise coming from the back of the cab under the truck. I start pulling fuses and the Power Door Lock fuse caused the clicking noise to stop. Also, the day time running lights fuse, caused the clicking to "slow down" when removed. It changes pitch...don't know what thats all about. Regardless, power door lock fuse completely stops the noise.

What do I need to do now?

Thank you.

 

The problem may not be your PDL at all. It is normal for that relay in the BSM to click when the the battery is real low. You need to leave the PDL (body security module) fuse out and after you charge the battery (with a battery charger, don't jump it and try and let the alt. do it, that's bad), put the DRL fuse back in. Take the neg battery cable loose and retouch it and see if you have a fairly good spark (you shouldn't have). If you don't, put the PDL fuse back in and see if you have a fairly good spark. Neither should cause much if any spark if they are good. If you have a fairly good spark (indicating draw) in either case you have found you're problem. This is not a sophisticated way to check it but I'm assuming you don't have all the test equipment to do it properly. Good Luck!

 

Mine just did the same thing, I heard the same clicking although I haven't pulled the fuse just yet. as well My headlights and running lights were on even though the headlight switch was set to off.
I will take it in but this is very weird.
Did you find anything else out on yours?
Gord

 

Does it drain the battery when the fuse is left removed? Thats how you need to trace for the draw.

 

I haven't looked into my problem much anymore, basically because I don't drive the truck much and ever since I removed the PDL (Power door lock) fuse, the battery doesn't drain anymore. It is the only fuse out and the battery stays charged.

Along with losing PDL with the fuse out, I also don't have automatic headlights, automatic interior lights with door open, the door ding with door open, and my radio doesn't shutoff when I open the door. I just turn the radio off manually for now. The clock stays on, but it eventually goes off.

 

So, what are my next steps? If my battery stays charged with the power door lock fuse out, what is actually causing the drain? How do i fix it?

 

Can you pinpoint device making clicking noise? Might be the relay. I bet that would be it.

 

I just did a parasitic drain test. I hooked up a 10A fused ammeter in series with the negative terminal and cable. I had all fuses in place. I then turned the key to the RUN position then back to the LOCK position. The meter read 4.5A until the interior lights went out, then it read 1500mA. The radio was off, but the clock was still illuminated. Also, the lights on the window controls were illuminated. WHen i opened the door, the clock turned off and the lights turned off. The meter now read 400mA. Is that excessive?

I did the test again and this time instead of opening the door I pulled the Accessory Delay relay. This also dropped the reading to 400mA.

I tried many other combinations. Basically, the radio draws 100mA when it is off and about 1 amp when it is on. With the radio fuse pulled, the reading was reading was 560mA after waiting a minute when turning key to LOCK and dropped to 300mA when the Accessory Delay relay was pulled. I also waited about 10 minutes after turning key to LOCK and the Accesory Delay relay switched on its own and turned off the radio and the window control lights.

Having fuse 107 (Power Door Locks (BSM)) didnt have an effect on the test at all. I could not tell a difference in amperage whether it was in or out.

After running this test, my only concern is whether 400mA is excessive or not. I have read that 500mA is the limit, but wasnt sure.

 

I dont think that is excessive at all, if you are under 500 your perfect.

 

well, I have everything in place and will see if the thing starts next time. The battery is pretty new, a red top Optima. If it goes dead, then i will take out the Power Door Lock (BSM) fuse and see if it goes dead.

If the battery stays charged, then i don't know what to think. Maybe the PDL (BSM) got stuck in the on position somehow and when I pulled the fuse it reset it??

Is it possible the Optima battery is defective? should i take it back to AutoZone for a warranty claim? It has went dead a few times while I have been trying to figure this out, will this limit the life of it?

 

Yes if you have ran the battery completely dead it will shorten the life significantly.

 

Missed some of the above as I was out of town.
Mine turned out to be a sticking door light switch. These switches are incorporated in the door latch so are not visible. I guess what happened is that the door switch didn't change state when the door closed and left my interior lights on killing the battery. The headlights on and solenoid clicking we felt was the computer not liking the low voltage. Some WD 40 into the door latch got things working again so no dead battery for the last week.
Gord

 

Wreed, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here. A 500 ma draw is 0.5 amps. That sucks 12 amps out of the battery in a 24 hour period. If a battery is fully discharged after 55 amps have been pulled from it, it will be dead in 4.6 days.

I think maybe you meant to say a 50 ma draw was about normal, which is only 0.05 amps.

Tbdub - I think you have something sticking ON that should be OFF! *DUH* (The "DUH's" for my brilliant statement, not you)! I wonder if it's your "Accessory Delay Relay"? This thing is mounted up on the fuse box somewhere and I suspect you have to replace the entire fuse box to replace it. (Maybe you could get one from a junkyard?) I see that it provides power to your door locks, windows, radio and some portion of the instrument panel. I THINK, it is turned off when you open your door, so it's possible the problem could be in the door switch too. Do the interior lights come on when you open the driver's door door?

- Jack

 

Yes you are correct Jack.

Acceptable current draw in sleep mode is anything UNDER 50 milliamps.

 

We're cool, buddy - We've been down this path together, haven't we?

The more we muck around with electronics in our vehicles, the more chance there is to screw something up, isn't there? Kind of like putting 4 engines on an airplane. Simply increases your chances of engine failure by a factor of 4!

Anyway, his problem doesn't look like your fuel pump relay problem, does it?

I'm blown away by the number of relays in this electrical system!

- Jack