Ok so a few weeks ago our van started having some electrical issues. While driving down the road the front and rear dome lights would flicker on and off. This van has almost 375k miles and the side and rear doors get opened alot every night so I blamed it on a door not being shut right. We opened and closed all doors and made sure they were closed, it would still happen intermittently. So i thought maybe a door switch was going bad, I unplugged all the door switches, and it would still happen. You can hear the relay in the dash clicking everytime the lights would flicker. Over the last week it has continued to get worse, to the point that the last few nights the battery has been dead. I had already disconnected the rear light and made sure the front light was turned off by the switch so that it wouldnt come on even when the relay was clicking. I have pulled the relay out and rewired the rear light so my drivers can still see during their route. I was thinking the relay was controlling something else that was causing the battery drain, but even with the relay out, the battery has been dead. I have no idea what could be causing the battery drain. I will also add that before I pulled the relay, it would click on and off repeatedly with the van turned off, and just sitting still with nobody touching anything. Sometimes it would kick on and stay on for who knows how long before clicking off.

Also the warning chime for the door being open has been acting up, sometimes it will chime with the door open and sometimes it wont. It does this with the key in the ignition and without the key in the ignition. Sometimes it will chime once or twice and quit, sometimes it will chime once or twice and then get really quiet, so quiet you can just barely hear it with your head under the dash. The chime also acts up if you are driving down the road and dont have the seat belt connected.

The van sits for 14-16 hours during the day, in which time the battery is going dead. Im not sure where to look as to what is draining it. I was hoping to pull the interior lights relay, rewire the lights, and just have a work around to the problem. But apparently that isn't the problem since the battery is still being drained.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated, hoping to find a solution without taking to a ford garage. Thanks

 

Food for thought.... I have a conversion van, so I know we have quite a few differences, but mayyyybe by some mystic stretch, this might help. I have killed my battery 2x in the last 3wks from those d@mn overhead lights. And I figured out why. Dimmer switch. My dimmer switch controls the front and rear light. Now.... keep in mind I have 4 kids and so opening and closing doors happens a lot and I dont always think to check for lights at night. But, when we get home, or we go out, I will click the dimmer switch on, then manually shut the light off, and turn it on when we get home to gather my stuff. By the time I get out, the kids are just starting to move out, so I subconsciously assume the doors are open.

ANYWAY....point is, if your dimmer switch is failing, which is possible, maybe it needs replaced. I have 127k on mine and its falling apart as far as mechanical is concerned. So 375k+ mi it should be a thought in your case.

OPTION 2... If there are any rocker panels to flip those lights on, pull them from the dash or ceiling or wherever, and see if any wiring is loose or stripped. Its another possibility. And if it was bought used, God only knows what farmer Ted did before he sold it off. I have found 14 cut wires in my interior. All lead to a misc accessory fuse, but still, you never know. Good luck. If this doesnt help, hopefully someone else can. If not, pull them down and rewire it. I am.

 

The interior overhead lights are no longer wired into anything from the factory, i have unhooked all the factory wiring from them and wired them directly to a toggle switch. Reason for this was because we drive the van at night and the only way to use the rear light was to plug and unplug it from the factory connector at every drop, otherwise it would flash on and off all night. Those lights are definitely not coming on during the day. (yet anyways, who knows what is going to start happening next with that thing lol)

And no, the van was bought brand new in february 2008, we just drive it around 300-330 miles per night, 365 days a year. Up til now, the only real problem we have had with it was when the alternator went out, and thats expected on something thats driven that much, specially at night.

The only other thing I havent gotten around to, is having the battery checked to make sure it isnt bad. If it was (it would be a helluva coincidence) then that would explain the being dead every night, but the issues with the electrical items.

Final note: last night the battery wasnt dead completely, it still had enough juice to start the van but it was definitely low. When it started, the gauge needles all spazzed out and shook and the anti-theft light kept flashing longer than normal. Once it ran for a minute or so, all of that straightened out. So i guess whatever is draining the battery, didnt do it as often yesterday, since the battery wasnt dead all the way. I dunno, it has me puzzled, and ive been working 7 days straight for the last 5 weeks so i havent had a whole lot of time to diagnose it. Just one of those things that is hard to diagnose unless it is acting up, and everytime i wasnt it to act up, it wont. Thanks for the input though