My 2012 F150 kills a battery in one day if the truck is not driven. The dealer has had my truck for nearly a month with no luck. They say it's a draw but they can't find a draw. It's 100 stock. Any ideas?

 

Send a private message to member "FordService". That's Ashley, our forum rep. She may be able to help you with the dealer.

 

Get a multimeter with a 20 amp scale and make sure that your battery is fully charged. Set the meter to measure 20 amps then disconnect the ground wire from you battery and connect one side of the meter to the battery - and the other to the battery lead. See how much current is flowing in the circuit. You'll probably have to switch to a lower scale. But with everything off you shouldn't have more than perhaps 50 milliamps (50 / one thousandths) of an amp of curent flowing. If you have more then start unplugging fuses until the large current flow stops. Your problem will be in that circuit. If the current is still flowing after pulling all of the fuses then unhook the battery THEN disconnect the large lead from the alternator. then reconnect the meter and battery and check the current flow. Alternators are connected directly to the battery (no fuse) and you may have a bad diode in the alternator. If none of that locates the problem then carefully check the wires connecting to the + side of the battery and the fuse box.

Have you pulled the battery and had it checked ??????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????? If you recently changed hte battery AND the problem started recently then they're MOST LIKELY related!


You need to find another dealer! Anyone should be able to find short ((draw). You just have to be persistant and check and isolate ALL the circuits then when you find which circuit it's on, you have to follow it downstream and isolate it further by disconnecting the branches at the variuous sensors and switchs. If you're logical and persistant, you WILL find the problem! There's NO excuse for stealership mechanic not to be able to find it!

 

Joe, I would think a 2012 would still be on warranty, this is the dealer's problem.

Get Ashley involved, the dealer may need assistance from Ford itself.

 

The dealer has a meter. They said the draw is around 20 milliamps. They have never been able to see anything higher. The one they have turns off in a few minutes and I have told them it would be better if they had a bench meter. This would allow the device to stay on for long periods of time and bench meters have a memory.

The dealer has tried multiple batteries. If they put in a new battery by the next morning the truck is dead.

I sent Ashley a PM. Thanks for the tip.

 

20Ma is not a problem! Either is pulling more current (A LOT more!) when they're not watching or the battery is self-discharging!

Also, just because a battery is new doesn't mean that it's any good! For troubleshooting, I'd rather use a USED battery (or any other device) that I KNOW works than a "new" one. Discount Auto Parts had a RUN of bad batteries a couple of years ago. I went through seven of them in less than two years. One lasted less than a day, a couple of others only lasted a few weeks, others less than a year!

Have they checked to be sure that the truck is actually FULLY charging the battery and to the correct voltage????

Also you can make sure that the battery is fully charged then disconnect it and leave it for, say, 24 hours. Then reconnect it and see it works properly. If it doesn't then the problem is definitely the battery! Actually you should be able to leave it for a couple of WEEKS and then reconnect it and have it work properly.

A bench meter won't tell them anything that a half decent hand held meter won't. Either one would have to be watched continously unless you get one that records the readings or prints them out or looks for peak and then holds it. Meters are CHEAP now, look on E-bay for a cheap chinese meter that will detect the peak reading and hold it. I think HF also has one for less than $50. Just be sure than the Peak function works with the amp meter.

Pesonally I think you've got a bad battery. FWIW.

 

I replied to your PM this morning, rimoore. I just need a bit more info.

Ashley

 

FWIW .....

If you turn-off the ignition -AND- remove the key the dash lights go-out and the radio with continue to play the 10minutes until down-time.

LESSION:

• remove the key when not operating the vehicle.
• turn-off the radio before exiting vehicle.
  .
  And oh ya ... when exiting the vehicle ...
  .
• remove anything plugged-into any of the electrical accessory receptacles.
• turn-off ANY climate controls.
• turn-off (Auto Lamp)

Your battery will THANK YOU!
.

 

Any update?

 

Dealer is going to try the used battery idea.

 

Ford called me. They are going to pay one month of my truck payment and are sending a field tech to the dealer.

 

They tried the battery out of a truck with a known good one. The battery was dead the next morning. A friend of mine in California said there have been multiple reporting's of 2012 F150 with the same problem.

 

I remember hearing that in a case like this you start pulling fuses until you find the offending circuit. That was a long time ago before vehicles got so complicated.