Ford Everest Battery Drain Issue

[NanLaew]

<double post>

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by NanLaew

[NanLaew]

Spontaneous and random flat batteries in a Ford Everest or Ranger is usually a bad battery. I had a bad one in my first Ranger 2.2 but I was in and out of the country between 'flatnesses' and the warranty had expired long before I got round to sorting it all out. Bought a Boliden battery on a recommendation in these hallowed pages and it was going well after about 18 months when I traded in for the 3.2. The Ranger 3.2 battery first went flat after only 6 months while sitting for 3 days in airport parking; no accessories left plugged in, etc.. Second time was after a year and parked up outside a hotel up country; again no accessories left running. Once again just sitting in the driveway last summer. The final time was about 2 months ago where it started OK at 5 AM, took the wife to the airport at 7 AM, the kid to school at 8 AM and then it wouldn't start at the PTT gas station after filling up and on the way home at 9 AM. Bought another (bigger) Boliden and hope that should last at least till I sell it.

 

The Mondial roadside assistance guy that jump started me up-country said he doesn't get many Ford jump start call outs but when he does, it is usually a Ranger 3.2. The Mondial guy that attended the last flattery at the gas station toted a Boliden battery and reckons they are the pick of the bunch in Thailand.

 

The Ford Ranger and Everest electrical systems are piss-poor IMHO. They have embraced the modern CANBUS technology but their electronics design engineers need taking out and shot. The battery ground isn't the same as chassis ground as they have a current monitoring widget in the negative lead which is part of their 'smart charge' technology. However, the smart Ranger or Everest driver gets the mechanics to turn the smart charge feature off when it's in for service. But good luck finding a local Ford tech who will disable it as they tend to be 'by the book' guys and Ford do not recommend disabling it. I bought my own OBD2 dongle and reset and tweak what I like. Takes about 2-3 minutes in the driveway versus booking an appointment with Ford and then killing an hour or so in their waiting room while they find the tech with the laptop to do the resetting.

 

Apparently the truck and the key fob will 'ping' each other continuously through the night while the truck is unlocked. If you lock it (or move out of range), they happily go to sleep. Plenty tales in the Australian Ranger forums about the unhappy swagman waking up in the morning alongside his unlocked ute in the middle of the outback... and finding the battery flat (key in his pocket).

 

FoMoCo branded batteries with Made in Thailand labels are made by GS Siam. Apart from being under powered they are just rubbish.

Edited March 16, 2017 by NanLaew

[canthai55]

^^^ Wow - did not know that 'New and Improved' charging system was needed. Worked OK from the days of generators, then alternators, and now - FBS

[angryfarang]

Interesting.  I took mine to the Ford Dealer for it's first service the other day, told them about the flat battery and they said "it's normal..."   lol.

 

Can you tell me more about the  OBD2 dongle?

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, angryfarang said:

Interesting.  I took mine to the Ford Dealer for it's first service the other day, told them about the flat battery and they said "it's normal..."   lol.

Doesn't it just want you to take the battery out throw it through their showroom window and say that's normal when someones tells you that.  

[angryfarang]

5 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Doesn't it just want you to take the battery out throw it through their showroom window and say that's normal when someones tells you that.  

Nah, I agreed and said it must be the ghost in the car draining the battery.

[Kwasaki]

15 minutes ago, angryfarang said:

Nah, I agreed and said it must be the ghost in the car draining the battery.

Nice one  

 

Seriously buy yourself a heavy duty GS battery or similar and save yourself the aggro.

[fredob43]

3 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Nice one  

 

Seriously buy yourself a heavy duty GS battery or similar and save yourself the aggro.

My Spivo battery on new lump died at 13 months. Must have done well?

Now fitted GS sealed top notch one, that lasted 3 years till I let it go flat twice.

Latest one still going strong after 3 years.

 

That reminds me the Vigo one went on the blink about the same time. Fitted a GS one on that still going strong when I sold it.

 

Looks like this post might go in Thank you Buddha.

 

There you go then it did go in. Must be my Birthday.

 

Edited March 17, 2017 by fredob43

[Lickey]

Had this years ago in UK with exs 1.6 escort, turned out the boot light was on al time,perhaps in your case,bonnet light? just take bulbs out and monitor,,

[Kwasaki]

5 hours ago, Lickey said:

Had this years ago in UK with exs 1.6 escort, turned out the boot light was on al time,perhaps in your case,bonnet light? just take bulbs out and monitor,,

Yeah it was one of those press in switches faulty within the rear boot with one of my cars not turning the light off.

[NanLaew]

On 3/17/2017 at 0:08 AM, angryfarang said:

Interesting.  I took mine to the Ford Dealer for it's first service the other day, told them about the flat battery and they said "it's normal..."   lol.

 

Can you tell me more about the  OBD2 dongle?

I good check if the flat battery is buggered is to check the voltage at the terminals before attempting a charge or jump start. If it is anywhere less than 10 volts, it's a suspect battery. When the battery first went flat on my 2.2 it was parked at my buddy's place as I was out of the country. He checked the dead battery voltage and it was around 8 volts so pretty much a dead unit from the get go. Ford's 'smart' electronics disconnects everything automatically when the battery volts drop below (around) 11 volts so as to prevent total battery drain. If the battery volts continue to drop without any load (like mine did) then the battery is bad.

 

On OBD2 advice, I bought this one on a recommendation from a member on an Australian Ranger forum. I use it in conjunction with this software. Plugged it into the OBD socket, connected via Bluetooth to the free software installed on my laptop and cleared my persistent fault codes within a couple of minutes.

 

There are cheaper OBD2 dongles and there's even some for as little as 12 bucks on lazada but beware the Chinese-made rubbish as they may not be 100% compatible or may even be 'read only' so useless for troubleshooting. You can also buy a cabled dongle which is faster than BT but that may only be an issue if you plan on using the data full-time to drive extra gauges or generate graphs or track performance history in real-time on a laptop or tablet. The Windows software from the above link is free whereas their android version isn't. More expensive dongles will come with their own software (the one I recommend does) but there's no guarantee that their software will allow you total read/write access or be 100% compatible with Ford's programming. Similarly, there's plenty of other free android apps available but once again, 100% compatibility and/or functionality isn't assured.

[angryfarang]

Thanks, just ordered that OBD2 from Amazon. :)

[gk10002000]

I have a 1997 buick I bought in 2006.  Thing runs great now with 191,000 miles. But in 2007 I had a battery die.  Thought nothing of it.  Old battery, a week in the cold while I was away.  But then it happened a second time.  I found I had a 2 amp drain.  Could not track it down, pulling every fuse, relay, etc.  So I installed a kill switch inside the car.  I got a long battery cable and ran it into my car under the dash.   If you can access this link I bought the one with the bright red plastic keys.  Every time I park the car off goes the switch.  It was getting a bit quirky lately so after 10 years of use I bought another one.  now some cars don't like the battery always being disconnected. Some of the anti theft things don't work right and don't reset after power is re-applied, engine diagnostic information is lost, etc.  Some cars need some fiddling after a total loss of power.  Not a problem on old cars, but newer cars may have issues, so check on this.  http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/search/Battery+Switches/N0362/C0061.oap

[JAS21]

For anyone interested ... Parked my EV T+ at 6am last Sunday morning week (19th) after a 50Km journey

Started taking daily Voltage readings

Sunday (19th) 14:20Hrs Volts 12.79

Tuesday (28th)  08:00Hrs    Volts 12.51

 

Plotted the readings and it showed, as you would expect,  a smooth discharge Curve.

Car started fine, lowest Volts that I saw on the battery during engine starting were 10.33V

Switched engine off and battery showed 12.34V.  Stuck the CTEK charger on it.

 

I purchased the vehicle in Nov 2015 so battery has been used for 15-16 months.

 

I think this isn't  too bad but looks like Mr AF could have a little problem. 

 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2017 by JAS21