In the past few months my battery has been dead probly 4 times. I have a smaller truck that i use as my daily driver so i dont drive my ford every day. The battery is showing a red indicator no matter how long it charges.

2 weeks ago i took it to the dealership and they said that nothing was wrong with the battery and that if it went dead again to call them and have it towed to the dealership for a draw test.


I cranked it up and moved it last tuesday and haven't touched it since. Today i go to drive it and the battery is dead. I go run an errand and come back about one and a half hours later and i hear a ticking coming from behind the back seat. It seems to be coming from either side from around the speaker pillar. I cant seem to locate it but it sounds like whatever it is, is causing the draw on the battery.

I dont know what type of motor is back there. I do not have an electric slider. I have a 2005 super cab XLT with power windows and locks. The only motor that I am aware of is the electric window motors.

Anybody have any idea of what it could be???

 

I had the same problem, if I let it sit for more then 5 days the battery would be dead. As in so dead I couldn't even use my keyfob to unlock the doors. I brought it in and they said it was fine, they did a draw test on it and blamed my cell booster (which draws 0.2 Amps in standby, so that isn't it) but to amuse them I left it unplugged for a week and it died again. They tested the battery again and said it was fine. A week later it was dead again, I was fed up so I went and bought a new battery (not at the dealer) and I have not had a problem since and it has been almost 6 months now.

 

I don't think it was the cell booster either, but 0.2 amps is enough load to eventually kill a battery depending on how long it sits without starting/running. Are you sure it wasn't 0.02 amps? That sounds more pheasable.

Anyways, if the hydrometer eye in the battery is red, it's bad... plain and simple. However, I had a Ranger that maintained a red hydrometer eye for about 2 years, but if the truck sat a day without starting it would die.

To the original poster. Does it sound like that ticking is coming from behind the drivers side of the rear seat? That is where your "Vehicle Security Module" is located. That controls the red flashing anti theft light, keyless entry, etc.

What I'm guessing is happening is that the the battery is slowly going dead (voltage is dropping) and when it hits the threshold and can't supply enough power to keep a specific relay in the closed position, the relay opens and you hear a click. But then when it closes, there's a minor surge of power so it causes the relay to close again and you hear another click. This is happening over and over... eventually it will slow down and stop when the battery gets low enough.

Ok now let me rephrase all that:

You need a new battery!

Now there may be something in your vehicle that caused the current battery to die and it may do the same thing to the next one, so when you have a good charge on a good battery, you should do a draw test. You can do it yourself if you have a multimeter that measures current.

1) Turn vehicle off & remove key.
2) Disconnect the positive lead from the battery.
3) Switch your multimeter to read current (amps).
4) Connect one miltimeter lead to the positive battery cable and the other to the positive battery terminal.
5) Read meter.
* This will tell you how much current your vehicle is drawing off the battery when it's not running. I don't know exactly what it should be on our trucks, but I would expect to see about 0.01 - 0.05 amps (10-50 milliamps) if my memory serves me correctly.

 

I checked, .2 amps standby, 2 amps at max power. That shouldn't kill it in 5 days though.

To the original poster, as mentioned by Baja150 if your battery is almost dead you will get those clicking noises as he described. I had clicking from the back and the dash area when mine was going dead. Ever since the new battery it has been perfect, it cranks faster too.

 

Well I beleive the "amp hour" rating of our batteries is 65... it could be 72, but either way it won't make much of a difference.

The "amp hour" rating doesn't tell us a whole lot unless you know the formula to do something with it. Take your amp hour rating and divide by 20. I don't know why they use the number 20, but that's the magic number. The amp hour rating will tell you how man aps you rbattery can steadily produce for a 20 hour period.

65 / 20 = 3.25

This means that a battery with a 65 amp hour rating can put out 3.25 amps steadily for 20 hours before it drops to 10.5 volts at which point it is considered dead.

Now the following is some crude math and may not be entirely accurate, but it shouldn't be too far off either.

65 / 20 = 3.25 then 65 / x = 0.2 then x = 325 then 325 / 24 hours = 13.5 days

So with only a 0.2 amp draw, a good battery should last approximately 13.5 days without starting.

 

That's all well and good but the only way to keep a battery healthy is to use it. If a battery sits for days at a time with no use (and with a constant drain from the PCM to maintain memory), it will only take 4-6 days for it to die. A battery needs the charge/discharge cycle of normal use to keep it going. Otherwise bubbles (actually corrosion) form on the plates that eventually reduces the power output of the battery. Over time it gets weaker and weaker until it gets to a point where it won't even accept a charge. I would consider buying a low amp charger (1-2 amp) to keep the battery charged and in shape if the vehicle is going to sit for 5 days or more without being driven.

 

a bit hard for me to tell you to do this so search google for parasitic draw test.

I found that my parasitic drain was from my headrest monitors that I hooked up to always be on instead of using the switched power line to turn them on.

 

Thanks for the replies...

Yes the clicking seemed to be coming from behind the back seat so that must be the VSM.

I have 2 maglights installed and the first trip to the dealership it was blamed on the maglights so i purposfully took them out. I told the dealership that it was my battery but my battery was "good". Instead of replacing a battery which costs them 40 or 50 bucks they are now going to have to pay for the tow to the dealership and a half a day of labor just to put a new battery in.

Dont you love FoMoCo thinking??