Overnight battery drain
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More Turbo
Joined: Jun 2009
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From: South Park, Colorado
Overnight battery drain
My 2008 Expy has just developed a problem, overnight the battery goes dead. I had the battery checked, shop said it was okay and recharged it for me - they said it was completely discharged. Anyway, any common things on our trucks that might cause this? Where/how do I start troubleshooting? Could the battery be bad but not showing such in a test? I have no idea how old it is, no date stamp I can find, Car Quest brand so it is not original to the truck.
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Have you had the alternator tested? Most (all?) of the auto parts chains will test the battery and alternator for free. Advance Auto has a more extensive battery test than Auto Zone in my experience; AA can give you a printout with the voltage and CCA. If the battery and alternator turn out to be good, then the next step would be to find out what's causing the drain. However, a completely drained battery wouldn't typically occur due to a parasitic drain overnight.
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More Turbo
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 510
Likes: 1
From: South Park, Colorado
Have you had the alternator tested? Most (all?) of the auto parts chains will text the battery and alternator for free. Advance Auto has a more extensive battery test than Auto Zone in my experience; AA can give you a printout with the voltage and CCA. If the battery and alternator turn out to be good, then the next step would be to find out what's causing the drain. However, a completely drained battery wouldn't typically occur due to a parasitic drain overnight.
If the alternator is bad, wouldn't I see a warning on the dash?
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Pretty common issue is the rear wiper. Over time the mechanism gets crudded up and the motor doesn't read it's stop position properly, and it continues to try to park the wiper when it is already at the end of it's travel. Pull the fuse for it and see how things go.
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More Turbo
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 510
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From: South Park, Colorado
Pretty common issue is the rear wiper. Over time the mechanism gets crudded up and the motor doesn't read it's stop position properly, and it continues to try to park the wiper when it is already at the end of it's travel. Pull the fuse for it and see how things go.
I'm going to drop the battery off today for another charge and test. I will pull the wiper fuse before install and see what happens overnight.
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More Turbo
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 510
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From: South Park, Colorado
Charged the battery, pulled the wiper fuse and let the truck sit overnight. She fired right up! I believe the rear wiper was the issue, can anyone point me in the correct direction to fix it?
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It would probably be easiest to replace the wiper motor (about $80) unless you want to try to disassemble the old one and try to repair it.
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More Turbo
Joined: Jun 2009
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From: South Park, Colorado
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From: Alberta, Canada
Before you go out and buy a new motor, open the glass, try and rotate the wiper arm by hand. If it's SUPER tight, no amount of new motor torque will fix it. I just did this on two Expy's with bad wiper motors, I think the strike plate got sticky enough to burn out the motor, then obviously, the motor and strike plate had to get replaced.
You will then be looking for a strike plate: 6L1Z-17C426-A
You may need a two leg puller to get the wiper arm off, but you can probably get it without the tool.
You will then be looking for a strike plate: 6L1Z-17C426-A
You may need a two leg puller to get the wiper arm off, but you can probably get it without the tool.
Thread Starter
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More Turbo
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 510
Likes: 1
From: South Park, Colorado
Before you go out and buy a new motor, open the glass, try and rotate the wiper arm by hand. If it's SUPER tight, no amount of new motor torque will fix it. I just did this on two Expy's with bad wiper motors, I think the strike plate got sticky enough to burn out the motor, then obviously, the motor and strike plate had to get replaced.
You will then be looking for a strike plate: 6L1Z-17C426-A
You may need a two leg puller to get the wiper arm off, but you can probably get it without the tool.
You will then be looking for a strike plate: 6L1Z-17C426-A
You may need a two leg puller to get the wiper arm off, but you can probably get it without the tool.
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