Parasitic Battery Drain!

[L1011tristar17]

Alright folks, I'm pretty certain to say that whatever the drain/charge problem was is now fixed. (knock on wood) I guess the new alternator plug does a great deal in properly charging the battery. Last five times I've checked (you can never be too sure) the drain was within what it should be and the battery still had sufficient charge the next day when I left it plugged in. Well, that's definitely one less headache now.

[sly]

http://www.nationsautoelectric.com/Ford.html

the "large case" is the 130A.

they have the same "ear" spacing. The pictures with the 2 alternators show the 130A on the left. That's the one you want.

You do not want the LONG ear versions, that's what really needs the different bracket.

[L1011tristar17]

So will pretty much any V6 Taurus or Windstar have that particular alternator?

[sly]

mostly... as long as it's the 3.0L, yes.

[86VickyLX]

I have the small case 3g 130 amp alternator. The large case ones can be upgraded to 200+ amps I believe.

[L1011tristar17]

So my battery goes from a drain of .02 amps to a whopping 6.10 amps (fortunately I had the battery disconnected that night). The alternator charges okay (tested the voltage while the car was running) but GOOD CHRIST what could possibly be draining 6.1 amps while the car is off?

[L1011tristar17]

If it helps, I got the 6.1A reading after my car had sat overnight with the battery unplugged. I'm not too familiar with how electrical current works, so I was wondering if the current "jumps" once the circuit is completed? I hadn't re-connected the negative terminal yet, but when I tested the multimeter in series with the negative terminal, it created a big spark. 6.1 seems awfully high for a battery drain, and I almost don't believe it.

[sly]

initial connection load. make sure all lights are off when you do that or you will get the sparks.

[tjc78]

I think I've said this before, but you very well may have a sticky fuel pump relay. My 89 LTC every so often I would shut the car off and could still hear the fuel pump running. In your case with this car and miles, install a battery cutoff switch and simply disconnect the battery when you are parking for an extended time. 10 buck and 10 minutes will keep your sanity until you can really dig deep and figure out what is causing the problem.

Also keep tabs on that 2G alternator plug. Another member here was just talking in another thread how his made his car catch fire. Fire=Fail!

[L1011tristar17]

Fuel pump relay seems okay, I don't hear it going after the car's off. But at this point, I'm keeping my mind open to what it could be.

I got the 3G alternator at the junkyard today. It's off a '96 3.0 Taurus and there's some sort of six month guarantee on it. Not bad for $45. I also got the connectors from a Sable wagon (they threw those in for free) and tomorrow I'm getting the power cable, since it looks to be in good shape too.

[86VickyLX]

Grab fuse too!

[L1011tristar17]

Grabbing the charge cable this afternoon along with the fuse. I have an extra 175 amp fuse just in case.

On the other hand, I'm at my whit's end with this battery drain. Car sat from 5pm until 11 this morning. There was enough power to run the clock, courtesy lights, and trunk pull-down. However the starter solenoid just made that awful clacking sound when I tried to start it up. Battery was at around 11 volts and the drain was still only .02 amps. I'm really confused by this, because .02a seems pretty normal to me. Idled the car for around 20 minutes and the battery was back at 12.4v.

I'm so confused by this. I want to get to the problem without paying a shop $65+ an hour to diagnose it and possibly not find anything.

[GM_Guy]

Did you go around removing glove box lamp, underhood lamp (you are removing the underhood lamp when you are checking drain?), and trunk light to see if it had any effect on your drain? Also disconnect that auto trunk pull down also and see what happens-I don't trust stuff that has the ability to work without the key having to be 'on' to work. If you have not done that already, start with that.

Alex.

[jaywish]

Put in a battery switch or just twist the negative terminal off and push it on and off when you need to drive or park. I know you will lose the time and station presets but while you are spending time looking for the loss, you may very well get stuck when it sucks and you are probably damaging the battery by running it down all the time.

This is only temporary until you solve the problem.

[L1011tristar17]

Alex - All the lights seem to shut off like they should (even the glove box light) and the under-hood light doesn't work anyways. I remember I had an issue with the passenger power seat draining the battery back when I first bought the car. The seat would try to move even when the car was off, but I disconnected the motor long ago. At this point I'm just going to have to live with disconnecting and reconnecting the battery while checking for bad wiring/loose connections.