Ok fellas Im a big supporter of using the search function so I can avoid repeating a retarded threa. Alas, after an hour of reading I havent found what Im looking for.

Bought an 04 F250 FX4 with the 6.0 Powerstroke yesterday. Dealer told me that they were going to replace the batteries for me and that was the only issue they had found with the truck. Well I found one on the dealer lot, a wore out sway bar end link bushing, and I made em fix that too. They put in 1 new battery because they stated that only one checked out bad and the other (drivers side battery) was good. After test drivin it for quite a while doing diffrent things (ie: highway, stop and go, 4 wheel drive testing ect ect ect) It was running great! This test drive lasted about 15 minutes. I drove the truck home where it sat for about 24 hours. Went to start it and click click clik was all I was getting. I thought to myself that the *******s and the dealership pulled a fast one by changing only one battery. Well I jumped the truck off and it was running fine for about 3 minutes. I noticed my CEL was on. CRAP! Went to my storage building and used the truck to jump off a Mustang that I have in storage and the Stang fired right up with a battery that will not hold a charge AT ALL. Its been sitting for awhile. LOL Anyways, Took the truck to Orielly's and had the batteries checked and had them use the scan tool on it. The battery that was "new" (I noticed that it had "second" stamped on it) checked out good. I did disconnect the passager side + battery terminal. I noticed that the terminal on the "new" battery was corroded and was very thin and was actually "torn" about 2/3 of the way across where it goes to the drivers side battery. The other battery had no charge AT ALL. I also noticed that the truck's alternator has been replaced by a remanufactured one sometime in the past and it LOOKED pretty good. But looks can be deceiving.
The scan tool showed the code "EGR sensor voltage low". Finally a question; If the drivers side battery doesnt have a charge at all, then would that cause the truck to throw this code? Makes sense to me if the sensor draws its power from the drivers side battery and its not getting a charge because of the broken terminal. Second question, if I install a 2 bolt terminal (Orielly's doesnt carry them.....) then do I just add "O" type bolt connectors to the cables and attach one for each side? Ive read about some of you guys using military type connections. Are the factory cable long enough for that? I just had a kiddo (well my wife did most of the work) and I dont really want to spend a ton of money on yet another truck.
Im restoring my 93 Lightning amd just about killed my mad money on it the last 2 months. But, iys starting back together this weekend
Thank you guys in advance.

 

If it were me, I'd go back to the dealer, buy another new battery and make them fix the wiring problems. I'm a fan of having two matched batteries in my truck. If it were an old farm tractor or something, mismatched is fine, but...

As far as the second stamp... Probably just means there was a mark/scratch on the case or something. I don't think a battery manufacturer would ship a battery that had a physical problem.

And yes battery problems could throw low voltage codes.

 

IIRC, when I upgraded all the cables to 2/0, the cable between the two batteries is not long enough to cut off a terminal and then add on a new one. I do not look at all of the possibilities or terminal types though.

Sounds possible to me to have the issues you do without a functional driver's side battery.

I agree on having both batteries replaced at the same time (unless maybe the one testing good was less than six months old).

 

Nope it looks like the original battery in it from what I can gather. Well, its a Motorcraft anyways. I appreciate the thelp. I can handle a battery swap, but to start replacing EGR crap would irritate me. It will eventually go bye bye just like it did for my Lightning.

Ive got an older Optima that I pulled out of my L a few months ago. I know its held a charge for months and was still able to fire my truck. So I stuck it on the charger last night and I gur-un-tee you this, if my code goes away when I replace the terminal and put that other battery in, that dealer WILL buy me another battery, as they promised in the first place.

 

Alright. Now thats it daylight Ive been outside poking around on the truck. I put chargers on both batteries overnight. About 12 hours total. Started the truck. CEL was still on. I cleaned all the posts and terminals and I pulled the old battery and put the Optima in and left both batteries unhooked for about 30 mins to reset CEL. I started truck and left it running for about 6-7 mins. No CEL. I decided that just to be safe, I'd take my multimeter and probe the ALT so I dont get stranded one of these days. I started the truck DAM CEL is back on I checked the voltage at the post on the ALT and it read 13.94-13.95. Checked voltage at the pass. side battery. 13.64. Checked the voltage at the DRVR side battery. 13.64. Checked the voltage at "crossover" battery cable about a foot before the drivers side battery. 13.64.

I did check the old battery and after charging for 12 hours it read 8.4 volts......

Does this all sound right to yall? Im not really an electrical guy but I can usually fumble my way through a problem pretty well. I also checked the voltage on the positive cable after the drivers side cable. 13.64. This tell me that Im getting uniform voltage to everything and since the system is 12 volt then 13.64 tells me its charging the system. Maybe the EGR sensor needs cleaned? I read about making a "puller" out of wire and yanking it out. Ive got a couple cans of brake cleaner. couldnt hurt I dont guess. Ideas?

 

Use carb cleaner, not brake cleaner on the EGR valve.

I use a small nail puller bar to"pop" the EGR valve out - works great.

I would recommend getting the codes read to narrow down the cause of the CEL.

 

Cool. I guess Ill try that this afternoon. Thanks for the info.

 

reading this thread, and a couple things come to mind.....

first, the best batteries i've ever seen for automotive applications
are the oddesy batteries... they will out crank just about anything,
and they will charge back up much faster than anything else.

i use two of the 65-PC1750's in my van, and while they are pricey,
at $300 each, they just last and last.... and have 950 CCA.

however, batteries get sulfated, and the trick is to reverse the
sulfating. my occupation is an industrial electrician, and with battery
rooms, they have float chargers that run between $2k and $5k
to keep the batteries conditioned.

there is a little battery charger that will equal the performance
of those chargers...

Batteryminders Specials | BatteryMinders.com

i have two of these, and every month or so, i clip one
on my van and leave it overnight, till it floats the batteries.

i've taken batteries so badly sulfated that the expensive chargers
failed them as unchargable, and after a half dozen failure to charge
lights, and rebooting the charger, it starts taking a charge, and
goes all the way back up. that little charger is amazing.

but you had some questions about terminals and such.... here's
the scoopie... with terminals, contact area is not as important
as contact pressure... and as for putting larger battery cables
on for higher performance, if you do the math with ohm's law,
the advantages of larger wire are often negligible.

there is a product however... that rocks with battery terminals,
but it has to be used with a brain, or you will cause yourself
grief... it's called cop-r-plate... aniti sieze compound with copper
fines in it.... it's conductive. i use it on my battery terminals
sparingly, and don't get it all over so it tracks, and the stuff
makes wonderful connections. if you get it between the + and
ground however, it will carry current....

you really only need an ohm or two of resistance to screw
with a 12V battery system... ohm's law is E=I*R and if you
only have 12 volts to push with, and you have 2 ohms of
resistance, you can only have 6 amps of current flowing,
no matter how much is available inside the battery.

btw, if you are in the so calif. area, and want a killer set of
those batteries, gently used, fully charged, and certified good
with a $2,500 battery tester, for half price.... i have a set,
that i was just saving for adding an extra pair to the work van
to drive the compressor that will power the airhorns, and
my patient wife would probably love me more if i got them
out of the garage instead....

 

FulThrotl
Thanks for the great response. That is some great info. I live in southern Oklahoma. I'd love a set of those batteries, but the dealer did put one "new" battery in there and I actually took the old one back to *cough cough* Wal-Mart where it was still under a prorated warranty. The battery wouldnt hold a charge and was tested as "Bad" from both Orielly's and Wal-Mart. I know the Everstarts arent the best batteries but with the wife just having our first (a boy woohooo!) and me trying to get my Lightning finished before show season, the Wal-Mart battery will have to work. I may go by the dealer and ****** a new terminal tomorrow. I only paid 39$ to get a new battery for the truck since it was only out of the full replacement portion of the warranty by a month. BUT, the dealer and I shook hands on the deal we worked out which was new batteries and I'm going by tomorrow to get my 39 bucks. I called them yesterday, no answer and no return call. Irritates me. Very small dealership but still....

Where I come from if you shake hands its a deal. You hold up your side of it good or bad.

 

where we all come from, that's a deal.
provided folks are honest, and a lot of them aren't very honest.

something that will save you grief over time however, is that battery
charger... something worth budgeting for. especially with the 6.0 motor,
seems the FICM is prone to being killed by low voltage batteries.

now, one thing to look for, i've had it happen twice on different vehicles,
is corrosion tracking up the ground cable... the cable will look and
appear ok, but i've found severe corrosion migrating up the stranded
conductor six to eight inches from the terminal.

ground loops, or differences in potential between reference grounds
will drive any manner of electronic stuff mad. you can go nuts looking,
and when you find the loose ground, and give a snug on it, suddenly
eight different and separate problems, totally unrelated to each other,
go away. 35 years of troubleshooting has taught me that when everything
is so screwed up that you don't know where to begin, start with checking
all the grounds and shields. it's boring, a pain sometimes, but it works
magic more often than not.

 

I'll check the ground cables tomorrow then.

To update a little bit, I put in my new battery. So it now has both batteries replaced. I have checked voltage at both batteries and at diffrent spots along the cables from the ALT down to just past the driver's side battery. I took the cables off the batteries for about a half hour and then started the truck. Started right up left it running in my driveway for about 20 mins. No CEL.
HOWEVER, as soon as I killed the truck and restarted it damn CEL came back on. I drove it down to Orielly's and had them scan it again. Same code 0405 EGR Sensor A Circuit Low. I cleared the code with the scan tool. Started the truck. CEL is back on.

The truck drives fine but is this something that will adversley effect the truck long term? Is this a "serious" code that I need to address NOW? Could the EGR need cleaned and thats the problem here?

I've read that if the EGR Delete is done then that code could pop on and a tuner is needed to clear it. I dont really like the CEL being on and it bothers me. But, I wont worry to much if there is nothing to it. This is reason 4 billion why the EGR should never have been installed on this truck in the first place. I was aware that the EGR system on these 6.0's are sometimes finicky when I bought it. But 2 days later....Thats my luck I guess.