1992 town car issues

[Sign of the Cat]

I have a buddy with a 92 town car and he is having an issue where the car will not stay charged when you park it. new battery in it but once you shut the car off you can see the hood light go dim. the car has been into ford several times and the bill is over $2,000 alltogether. hope someone here has had a similar issue and can offer a suggestion......thanks

[88grandmarq]

first thing.. take a test light and start going through the fuse box, find out which circuits are drawing power with the key off. then pull those fuses and see if the battery stays up.

If the hood light goes dim while you standing there, I would say thats a pretty significant draw. I know on Box body cars the rear window defroster switch is notorious for going bad and staying on.

[Dereck]

Hi Panther 7t9

Check out the circuit breakers (silver boxes) in the fuse board feel if ones hot, it's not unheard of for a seat switch to go bad and permanantly power the seat motors. Another common drain is the trunk pull down motor if the paddle switch goes bad, closely followed by the alternator with a blown diode, does the charging light come on with KOEO?

After that as 88Grandmarq says it's time to start pulling fuses. If you disconnect the ground wire from the battery and connect an amp meter in series with the battery when you pull the circuit with the draw on it the amp meter will drop to near zero, a few milliamps drain is normal for the radio memory, clock, ETC.

Regards

Dereck

[Sign of the Cat]

thanks guys that sounds like a good start i will see what i can find and let you know.

[Chuck Norris]

Does it have the load leveler suspension? Perhaps it is kicking on and draining the battery. I have to turn mine off in the winter because it'll run in the middle of the night, a few times, and kill the battery. The bags are okay, because I filled them and shut them off weeks ago, and have stayed at the exact same height. Just may be worth considering.

[Dereck]

Does it have the load leveler suspension? Perhaps it is kicking on and draining the battery. I have to turn mine off in the winter because it'll run in the middle of the night, a few times, and kill the battery. The bags are okay, because I filled them and shut them off weeks ago, and have stayed at the exact same height. Just may be worth considering.

Hi Chuck Norris

If your air ride is "kicking in a few times during the night" then you have a module problem as 61 minutes after the ignition is switched off the air ride should turn itself off.

Regards

Dereck

[Chuck Norris]

Hi Chuck Norris

If your air ride is "kicking in a few times during the night" then you have a module problem as 61 minutes after the ignition is switched off the air ride should turn itself off.

Regards

Dereck

Yeah, I had read that it was supposed to deactivate after a time span (couldn't remember how long) but mine has a mind of it's own. For me however, I like the rear of the car at maximum height, so deactivating the system while the bags were ful was of benifit for me. Could the problem that started this thread be related Dereck? You seem to know alot about the unique properties of the Towncar vs. the other Panther lineup.

[Dereck]

Hi Chuck Norris

The air ride module would only consume a few milliamps in normal operation so would take longer than a day(maybe a couple weeks or more) to drain out the battery and once the air springs are full they should remain so almost indefinately (like a tire does) so the compressor would never come on. Of course if there was an internal short to ground in the module then the air ride could indeed drain out the battery, the module would probably be warm to the touch if such a condition occured.

Regards

Dereck

[Chuck Norris]

I find it so strange that you know more about these Town Cars than alot of American mechanics, Dereck. Maybe there should be a TownCarTech thread where you moderate!

[Lincolnmania]

i say check the rear window defroster circuit......i had a bad switch that would drain the battery pretty quickly

[gadget73]

Mine also has a bad switch, won't shut off half the time. Might also want to feel the alternator to see if its warm. I'm really surprised that he's spend 2 grand trying to have this fixed, and the dealer hasn't been able to resolve the problem. Electrical drains are usually not horrible, just a process of testing to find out what circuit the problem is on, and chasing it out. Sounds like they were throwing parts at it without diagnosing the issue properly.

[p71towny]

Hmm, 61min ehh. My towny must have a shitty module.