I have a 2003 Expedition Eddie Bauer. I am having a problem where the battery goes dead after a few days.
I had a new battery put in about 3 months ago and everything was fine up until about 2 weeks ago I went out to start the car and the battery was dead. So I had it jumped and drove quite a bit and went to a few stores and it was fine. Then about 1 week later we drove somewhere and went to eat lunch and came out and the battery was dead again. Called AAA and they jumped me and we took it to Walmart and got a brand new battery put in again. Now we are at 2 batteries. Well since that 2 weeks since the new battery was put in it has been driven probably 100 - 200 miles and my wife went out this morning to drive it and it was dead again.

I had the car running and took the battery terminal off the positive side and checked both of them with a volt meter and got 13V so I'm guessing the Alternator is ok. When you do the self-test on the message center it says "Charging System OK" as well.

I do know these vehicles have the auto shut off of lights and stuff inside the car which I checked everything and made sure no lights were left on. I checked to make sure the Amp for the subwoofer wasn't staying on after the car was shut off. It does have a JVC KW-AVX810 head unit but I checked to make sure it was shutting off properly and not staying on. I even disconnected it and took it out of the vehicle. With everything shut off including the A/C I had the vehicle running for about 10 min. Then I turned on the A/C and after about 2 min the lights were flickering on the dash, the message center was saying check charging system, then if I gave it gas it would sorta stay running but lights were doing weird stuff so I turned off the A/C and it was fine. Then I waited about 5 min and tried it again and the same thing happened.

I am not sure what it might be. What can be draining the battery??? Is there a way to check to see if when the car is off if there is some sort of load being drawn from the battery?

Thanks in advance.

 

The alternator isn't charging. Correct charging voltage should be between 13.8 and 14.2 volts.

 

This was written in the post above:

I had the car running and took the battery terminal off the positive side and checked both of them with a volt meter and got 13V so I'm guessing the Alternator is ok. When you do the self-test on the message center it says "Charging System OK" as well.

I just took the vehicle to Auto Zone and they ran a check on the charging system and they said the alternator is fine putting out the right voltage. The battery is toast and it's only 2 weeks old. How can I figure out what is draining it while the car is sitting?

 

The first thing you can do is pull one battery terminal off and connect an amp meter, set at a 10 amp range, between the battery post and the wire you took off it. Once you do this, you will know if there is a draw that is draining the battery.

BTW, don't be too quick to trust what Autozone is telling you. Many others have brought alternators in for testing and were told they were fine. After several days of banging their heads against the wall, they ended up replace the alternator anyway which solved the problem. You said you only got 13 volts when you tested it, 13.8 volts is the bottom line minimum voltage to correctly charge a 12 volt battery.

 

sorry I just meant in the 13 range. I didn't check the decimal when I checked it.

The autozone guy had me rev the engine to 2000 RPMS and he used a machine that said it was 14.1 volts. Also I know that the Alternator must be working because I jumped started the car, and as I was driving to Autozone the lights in the message center kept flashing rapidly and as soon as I put the car in neutral and revved the engine to over 2000 then it would be fine so at every stop light I had to just keep the engine revved up or it would have died on me.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Walmart and getting another new battery (under warranty) and then try to see what's draining it.

When you say 10 amp range is that because nothing should be using the battery more than 10amps? What if it's something little and after a week of the vehicle sitting it drains enough to jack up the battery?

 

This right here is enough information to tell you it's a problem with the engine running. A drain would cause a problem with the engine off for a long period of time.

The problem you're having above is typical of a low power situation. Your problem is going to end up being a bad alternator, a worn/slipping belt, or a bad wire connection. It will not be a defective battery or a drain issue. But hey, if you want to pursue the drain issue go right ahead, it's your time to waste.

 

Yeah but this was after the battery was completely drained and no juice whatsoever when I did that. Are you saying that even with a bone dead battery and you start the car and turn on the A/C it should run fine??

If I get a brand new battery tomorrow and then sit in the car and do the same exact thing and it doesn't give me the same symptoms then leave it sit in the driveway for about 3 - 4 days and come out and start it and it's dead then is it still the alternator? Because from the pattern I can see I'm pretty much certain this will be the case. Because the new battery was installed at Walmart we drove home, parked it and then went out once during the week for around 100 miles and then let it sit again for a few days now it's dead.

I hope it's the alternator to be honest with you because that's an easy fix and I know what the problem is. I'm just not seeing how it can be that but I am not an expert.

 

Up to an amp of draw is acceptable with all of the doors closed so that you're not reading the draw for the lighting. Think of it this way, whatever the draw in amps, divide your battery's amp hour rating by that reading you get on the amp meter and that will tell you how many hours of sitting it will take to drain the battery.

For example, if you have a 2 amp draw and a 700 amp battery, it's 700/2 or 350 hours (14.5 days) of sitting unused to drain it.

 

You ran the engine for 10 minutes first, that was enough to get some juice stored in the battery. Even then, it took 2 minutes of the A/C being on before the lights started flickering. That means with the A/C on there was more juice being pulled out of the battery than what the alternator could put in. This is not normal, the alternator should be able to keep up. Now the A/C's mechanical load on the belt could be causing slippage which will reduce the alternator output. But after a short while you would normally hear the belt squealing or smell it burning.

 

I thought once a car battery was completely discharged it was basically non usable anymore.

Well the Autozone tester did put a large load on the system because when I was holding at 2000 rpms and he hit the button I felt the rpms drop slightly and I pressed down the accelerator a little more to keep it at 2000 rpms. And he still said it was 14.1. I would think that if it was bad he would have wanted to sell me one and not send me on my way.

Well I guess the bottom line is I can get a new alternator and a new battery put them in and see if that fixes the problem. If it still doesn't then I'm back to square 1.

 

I assume your battery terminals are clean and snug?

 

Yes they were cleaned about 2 weeks ago and tightened.

 

Could still be the alternator, even though it tested good. You might have some sticky wickets in the alternator, that discharge the battery when it is sitting. Tough on the alternator to try and recharge a dead battery. Three batteries sound suspect to me. Cheers..

TommyJ

 

Agree 100%. I have a short story to follow up on this. A friend of mine with a Chevy truck had the same problem. He ended up going to the dealer, and $200 later they found out a dime had lodged itself in the cigarette lighter

 

So it was a lighter problem for a heavy load?