Please can anyone tell me what the approx current drain on the battery in an over night situation. Mine now is approx 340 mA and wonder if anyone could confirm this as correct!

Many thanks.....

 

Sorry, 2000 Excursion Gas V10

 

I'm surprised that no-one has a clue as to the current drain (that's Amps) on the battery when the vehicle sits outside over night.

 

Have you unplugged fuses while monitoring the draw? That would be the first step I think. That way maybe you could find the circuit with the problem and go from there.

 

Sorry, don't know what it should be. But your figure assuming the computer has gone into the power down mode is too high. That is about 8Ah/day. Enough to drain the battery to marginal capacity in just over a week. My first suspect is that the computer has not completely gone to low power mode. How long did you let it sit before taking the measurement?

Edit: Most vehicles can sit at least a month before the battery becomes marginal. I don't know about the gassers in general or the V10 in specific but assuming this is the lowest drain rate it appears to be at least 4X too high. What is confusing is that most issues (radio not shutting off, shorts, alarm issues) would generally pull much higher current. Your best bet is to do what The2003Excursion advises. Start pulling fuses to identify the drain.

 

Thanks for the info. Pulling fuses will be done this week, the vehicle is kept outsideand it's been bitter the for last month but will be climbing to the 50's by next weekend.

A 1/3 of an amp does sound a bit much but you speak about going into power down mode, how can I find out more about and how long this takes. I connected my meter to check drain and maybe didn't wait long enough.

Can anyone speak to this with more info,

Many thank for any help,

Dave...

 

I put off checking my parasitic loss until I couldn't handle it anymore which was just recently. My drain was similar to yours and it took a while to diagnose. Hopefully you don't end up with the same issue I have which is needing a new GEM (Generic Electrical Module). Guess what? No longer in stock.....anywhere. What you have to do is send yours in for refurbishing and wait for a return. Living in Italy make that about a month and a half of not having my truck, not counting the time needed to take it to a place to have it programmed. Best of luck, it's tedious work but hopefully it's something simple.

 

Model year 2000 superduties (including our Excursions) have problems with the weather seal at the bottom of the windshield. Water can get in there and the GEM (general electronic module) is located right underneath the area. When it comes into contact with water all kinds of weird electrical problems can occur, including parasitic battery drains.

Try pulling the fuse for the GEM module and see if the battery drain goes away.

I know where it is on my truck because every time I leave it parked for a few days I pull the fuse for the GEM so I'll be able to start it when I come back to it.

 

Thank you and that is good information and will pull the fuse and check to see if it solves the problem.

Another very interesting post I will pass on is from a post I started in "Electrical Systems and Wiring" which is maybe a more appropriate thread for this problem:

From: Franklin2,
There is a accessory delay function and a battery saver relay that drives it. It's all tied into the function where you can play the radio for 10 minutes or so before it cuts off. There is a guy on here who messes with this stuff all the time, and he said the factory manual calls for you to wait 40 minutes with the doors shut before you check for amperage draw.

340ma is high. Usually they don't like to see over 70ma. It's usually lower than that.

__________________
Dave F

Both suggestions are tonight's project.....

 

Thanks Guys,
Connected an accurate analog meter to the vehicle and read 340mA drain.

I checked after 30 minutes and saw no change, still 340mA.

I went out to the garage after 1 hour and the current had reduced to 18mA with spikes approx every 5 secs of 4mA (totaling 22mA) that coinsided with Theft Alarm Indicator.

Problem shoved, thanks everyone for your inputs.