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-   Ford F-150 (https://www.fordforum.com/forum/ford-f-150-14/)
-   -   Still have the short (https://www.fordforum.com/forum/ford-f-150-14/still-have-short-38852/)

F150-07-4.6 10-28-2018 12:47 PM

Still have the short
 
New battery, New Alt, Checked over everything ??? Battery still goes dead overnight.. hummmm..

hanky 10-29-2018 03:01 AM

To drain the battery overnight has to be a pretty good size drain and should not be too hard to find.
Do you have or have access to a multimeter?

F150-07-4.6 11-03-2018 10:11 AM

Yes, I put the meter on each of the three cables and there was only one that had a 0.1 draw on it.. hummmm I tracked it down to the stereo.. what are your thoughts on this matter . I just got the stereo from TopHatter for about 70 bucks too.. sheeshhh

F150-07-4.6 11-03-2018 10:48 AM

Ok, I put an amp. meter on the start wire and it only draws approximatly 20 Amps.. but blows the 100 amp fuse... go figure..

hanky 11-03-2018 11:26 AM

If you suspect the stereo, just disconnect it and see if the battery till goes dead.

You confused me some with a draw of 20 amps and still managing to blow a 100 amp fuse.

What we are looking for is a current drain that is sufficient to pull down a fully charged battery in a matter of hours, correct?
There are a few ways you can go about doing this.
You can install a knife type switch with the negative battery cable and the negative post of the battery. The object is to allow the vehicle to start and be shut down , remove the negative cable from the battery yet still having a connection through the knife switch providing power to the vehicle and the amp meter connected in series with that switch so now any current going out of the battery must go through the knife sw and the amp meter. We need to do this to prevent any possible drain from being temporarily disconnected from the battery and not blowing the amp meter the one time you start the vehicle with the knife sw closed. Now you should get an accurate reading of ANY current drain because it must go through the amp meter. You may show a drain right away or you may need to watch the meter from time to time to see if something is activating after a period of time.

There is another way, to measure the voltage drop across each fuse, Power Distribution Panel under the hood and the fuse panel in the vehicle.
If there is no power being consumed you will get no voltage drop reading taking measurements across the fuse The circuit with the drain will provide a reading and now you have an idea where to go do further checking.. It must be done this way because once you either remove the fuse or disconnect the battery cable you allow the circuit to open.. It sounds a little complicated , but there are a few videos on U Tube that explain it much better than what I have tried to put forth. What do you think?

F150-07-4.6 11-03-2018 06:34 PM

Correct Hanky, The battery drains down in about 24+ hours... I did have a meter on it and showed a draw of about .1 amp draw. I disconnected the instrument panel and the draw went away. I did have a couple of lights on like the seat belt, tire pressure, brake light, tested all three and all switches are good. I just put a used panel in today and will check the drain tomorrow morning. Now the radio did show draw on it but assumed that it was the memory in it but temporarily put a switch on that too just to check it out. I will post with the results. While taking apart the old panel I found that the board seemed to be sweating or something like that. I saw a stain like water ran down it sometime ago so I would guess that is the problem... I will keep yas posted and thanks for all your help too...


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