I've posted this a couple of times but this time will be describing the outcome. Over the past 3 months my battery has been going dead if i let my truck sit for over 3-4 days. About 2-3 weeks ago I stopped by the dealership and stayed for about 2 hours. They found nothing wrong with it (the battery) and blamed it on my two rechargeable maglights. The maglights do not draw enough to drain it that quick. After pleading my case, the service writer could see my face start turning red with anger. He told me to take my maglights out and see if it went dead again, and if it did to have it towed to the dealership. Fast forward a week later, I parked my truck on Tuesday June 13. I don't touch uuntil the following sunday and what do you know, that battery is dead as hell. I have it towed yesterday and the dealership spent hours of labor doing a draw test and this is their conclusion:
bad battery!

Instead of ford spending 40 bucks on a new battery, they wanted to spend 100 bucks on the tow, half a day labor, and then the new battery!

But hey I got a new battery free of charge!

 

Let it sit again and double check the battery... And if i dies make them buy you and F650.

 

haha yes but then i couldn't afford the fuel! A lemon over a battery...that would be a first! but i would not complain!

 

<sigh>

Ford requires the use of a stupid tester to determine whether a battery is bad or good. This tester can take upwards of two hours to do it's thing - charging, cycling, load testing, etc. Sometimes it'll fail perfectly good batteries, sometimes it'll pass bad batteries. Google it if you want, it's called a GR1-190, and it sucks. Biggest POS battery tester I've ever used in my life. But that's what Ford requires, and that's what they use.

Once the battery is toast, the tester spits out specific codes that the dealer has to enter in their system to get reimbursed by Ford for replacing your battery under warranty. If they don't follow these procedures and get the codes exactly right, Ford won't pay for the battery which means they have to eat the battery and the labor. As much as you and I want, they can't indiscriminately replace your battery.

 

Thats hardly free, taking that much time out of my day, I would have bought a new battery long ago.

 

Acutally it was towed from my house at night, and was fixed the next day while i was at work. I did have to make a .25 mile detour to the dealership on my way to blockbuster. I'll do that anyday for a new battery

 

Too bad you didn't buy a lottery ticket.