Hi, I have a '99 Ford Expy and every morning the battery is dead so I can't start the vehicle. I have detected that one of the 5amps fuse consumes 100mA all the time. Is this normal?? How else can I detect and fix the problem?? For sure the charging circuit is working fine and the battery is brand new. The dealer wants to charge me with $300 dlls only to check out the problem, bot not solved. Baahh, wonder why Ford sales are going down.

 

For starters, Ford sales aren't going down, actually quite the opposite, but that's another topic. What is the 5amp fuse you are referring to go to? Some things always use a little battery power, such as clock memories and stuff like that. However, this shouldn't be enough to drain a new battery over any short period of time. Do you have anything installed on your SUV from the aftermarket ie fog lights or 23" rims or anything like that? That could be an issue. We're gonna need a little more information to help you on such a broad subject.
Scott

 

Thanks for reply Scott. I Read in the web that Ford sales going 4% down this year (don´t know it´s true) anyway. The 5 amp fuse states that supply voltage for the General Electronic Module (GEM), ABS and the Brake position pedal. Yeah I agree the new battery shouldn´t drain in that short period of time, but dealer saids 100mamps it´s quite much. I only have installed a sophisticated aftermarket alarm, but every night I disconnect it from the battery, same with the ABS. I don´t know where is the GEM nor it´s function. Thanks for your help.

 

I had a problem like that on another brand vehicle, turned out to be the keyless entry system. The controller box failed, causing the battery to go dead over night. Since I was in the process of selling the car, I took the controller out of the system and let the buyers know that it was an issue. Give it a look see.

 

It is true that unit sales of Ford vehicles in the US had decreased by 5.1% for the period of January - September 2004, compared to the same period last year. It was widely reported that, after Ford's 3rd quarter financial reports were released on 10/19, the only reason FoMoCo posted a profit was because of strong earnings by FMCC. What this doesn't show is the fact that 2004 has been a very weak year overall for auto sales (all US automakers are struggling to keep sales moving this year, it was a slow summer, relying on record-high rebates and incentives to move inventory), and FoMoCo in particular is currently in the beginning cycle of a slew of new product offerings. Mustang, GT, 500, Freestyle, Escape Hybrid, new SD w/ TowBoss just to name a few. Any time a company releases new products it can slow down sales just before the new products come out, because buyers want the latest thing. But even when the new models become available, many potential buyers will wait to see if any initial quality or production problems are reported. At any rate, FoMoCo is poised to show strong sales in the US for the coming year.

But more importantly, FoMoCo's worldwide auto sales have been up every quarter this year, both in $$ and in unit sales. FoMoCo, as with many auto makers, is a global corporation. When sales in one region are slightly weaker, they can be stronger in other parts of the world.

Many would argue that the quality and dependability of Ford products is extremely high, and continues to improve -- even as increasing competition and pricing pressure grows, particularly from Asian imports.