what is my meter telling stupid me?
 

If I leave my 2012 Ford Escape without starting it for more than 3 days, the battery dies.
Super dead, won't even open the power doors with the fob, radio pre-sets gone.
Did an amp draw test, this is what I got after it goes to "sleep".

Meter lead plugged into 10A socket.
meter dial set to 200m
reading of 01.9

is this 1.9 miliamps?

100.9 miliamps?
I believe the acceptable cut-off is 50 milliamps.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...716c7c5b22.jpg

Thanks
Ron

Ron, I think the meter is not set up correctly. Your meter has five amperage range settings. The knob is set for the 200 milliamp range, but the red lead is plugged into the 10A jack.

To read on the 10A scale, leave the red lead in the 10A jack and turn the knob to the middle where it says 20m/10A.

To read any of the lower ranges, move the red lead from 10A to A.

Will re-set the meter dial to the 10A setting...

Have battery tested too, when they get discharged dead as a doornail completely they can be permanently damaged, not always, but it isn't unusual either. Put battery on an external charger overnight, this saves wear and tear on alternator.

new dial setting:
New Dial setting...
Is it telling me 0.03miliamps?
Lead set to 10A
Dial set to 20m
display is 0.03
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...dbd6646a7f.jpg

That is telling you .03 amps or 30ma. That is a good reading if you have one meter lead on the battery, and the other meter lead on the car's battery lead which is disconnected and laying on a piece of cardboard or a rag.

Thanks Dave
Then something else is killing the battery in three non-operative days in a row....

How old is the battery? If your meter is hooked in series to a disconnected cable as stated in the other post then .03 amps would be an acceptable drain. You'll never read 0 on a late model vehicle.

Too bad we don't have any members who have written a post-made-sticky that covers electrical diagnosis that would work for testing parasitic draw...

Not sophisticated, but one can disconnect the ground cable from the battery and connect a small test light to the cable and battery terminal. If the light illuminates, there is a draw. A brighter light equals a greater draw. Make sure the doors are closed while doing this, so the cab light will not be on. Remove the fuses one by one and identify when the test light goes out. That will identify which circuit is the offender.

You might want to disconnect the alternator and see if the car starts after the 3 day period. A bad diode can cause this.

Not mine, but this is from another forum I frequent:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...-drain-123535/


It's written for Jaguar, but is pretty much good for any late-model computer-controlled vehicle like the original poster's 2012 Escape. (See the PDF in post #1.) Most onboard computer modules remain "awake" for about 45 minutes after turning off the ignition. You have to wait long enough for the modules to enter sleep mode before measuring the resting current. Once the modules are asleep, you must avoid taking any action that would awaken them during testing, such as opening a door, unplugging a fuse, etc. It takes a different mindset for troubleshooting, versus the almost stone age wiring on our Reagan era trucks.

Have you done any work to the vehicle recently? Installed a new radio or anything?

No New work on it, no new accessories, and a new Motorcraft battery @1 year ago... puzzling.
on these Escapes its tight to get to the alt, but its doable.

Have you checked voltage across the batter with it running?

That is my go to tool for checking for a draw thing is you CANNOT use an LED bulb.

Reamer, if you disconnect the battery and give it a full charge then let it sit disconnected to see if it will hold a charge even if it is only a year old.
Dave ----