Phantom Battery Drain Strikes Again

[65mustang]

Truck had to be towed again, battery was at 4 volts. 4th time, 1less then 10,000 mi. on the truck. 3 times had to tow, in battery was so flat roadside boost would not start it. Dealer is stumped, Ford is compassionate but no help.
Don't forget each time is a major inconvenience, last time we were in a back country fishing camp and with a hard tonneau over the bed you can't open the bed with no power, all fishing gear was inside; yesterday planning on a group seadooing trip, they went without us.
Kind of getting to be a Dodge poster truck.
Going to get rid of it.
Bob

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[Gros Ventre]

Get a new battery from someone else than Ford. I take it you are still on the OEM battery.

 

[CaliF150]

I switched to another brand battery and never had an issue again.

 

[65mustang]

Get a new battery from someone else than Ford. I take it you are still on the OEM battery.

Dealer replaced the battery in April 2023. Who knows. Still at the dealer, no word yet.

 

[65mustang]

I switched to another brand battery and never had an issue again.

Dealer replaced the battery in April 2023. Who knows. Still at the dealer, no word yet.

 

[65mustang]

Get a new battery from someone else than Ford. I take it you are still on the OEM battery.

Dealer replaced the battery in April 2023. Who knows. Still at the dealer, no word yet.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Dealer replaced the battery in April 2023. Who knows. Still at the dealer, no word yet.

My conclusion is that Ford took delivery of a batch of defective batteries or that a whole bunch of them sat around while many trucks were awaiting chips. Sitting around is not good for lead acid batteries. I had some weird alerts on my truck about the electrical system. I was on Thanksgiving travel so I just stopped in at my nearest NAPA store and got a dropin replacement AGM Battery. Have not had a peep out of the truck since including two Wyoming winters (EG -20ºF or lower common).

 

[65mustang]

Update ... Dealer got the truck Wed. aft, DID NOT HAVE TIME TO LOOK AT IT THURS. getting P.O.ed all around. Hopefully I'll have a truck for the weekend!

 

[Graygoose2021]

Grab a autozone or Oreillys battery, walk in and replace it.
Get your truck back.

 

[Samson16]

I’m with Gros on this. Fresh non-Ford AGM ASAP.

 

[65mustang]

Latest Update, Dealer found a "short" in the door entry keypad. Replacing now. Got my fingers crossed!

 

[Snakebitten]

Sure they did.
(I feel a little guilty for being so sceptical. But the dealerships have earned it)

 

[turbopilot]

Ford instrumentation is insufficient for a user to figure out what is going on with these transient electrical problems. If you own a PowerBoost you absolutely need an OBDLine MX+ and companion app (or similar device) so you can tell what is going on in the low voltage and high voltage DC systems of the truck. Idiot lights just do not help either the owner or the dealer diagnose these transient electrical issues. But more importantly when they happen you need the trouble codes to better inform the dealer and Ford when strange events happen. Often these codes are lost in the next restart.

As to the issue of anomalous high amp draw, the OBDLink MX+ is energized when you simply open the door via the OBD port. So without starting the truck or even putting it into Full Accessory Mode you can see how many amps the truck is pulling from the 12 volt batteries just by opening the door.

Here is a screen shot of my truck just opening the door. It is drawing 10 amps. Every time you open or close the door without doing anything else you are pulling down the 12 volt battery and the 12 volt battery SOC.

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