Gen 1 Battery Drain

[Pete_n_SoCal]

Hi everyone. My daughter bought herself a 2011 Raptor back in 2019.



Three years later it's been a great truck with zero problems.

She added the shell, Rigid 360s in the front bumper, leveled out the front and then installed the 35" tires with Method wheels.



The truck has been in its current configuration for at least 2 years.

The other day while driving home from work she called me and said the truck was running weird and the battery light was on. I didn't think much of it. I assumed the alternator was not charging the battery, and the battery finally died. I was going to give her a hard time for not watching her gauges, but then discovered there is no volt gauge on the dash. I'm old enough to remember when cars only had idiot lights. When the light comes on it's too late to fix the problem. With all of the other fancy things these trucks have they can't have a volt gauge?

Anyways, turns out the alternator was bad. Swapped out the alternator and charged the battery. Once the battery was charged, I started the truck, put a volt meter on the battery terminals and verified the output was good. The next day she hopped in to head to work and the battery was dead. I thought maybe the battery was now bad from being discharged as low as it was from her trying to get home. Took the battery to an electrical shop so they could charge it and perform a load test. Battery checks out fine.

Installed the battery back in the truck. Installed the positive cable first. When I went to install the negative cable I noticed the spark when the terminal was making contact with the battery was very white and I could actually hear it. Swapping the leads around on my volt meter I'm able to see that there is indeed a drain, but when the volt meter makes contact with the battery and negative cable the parking lights come on. So of course the volt meter will indicate a possible drain.

I've been wrenching on vehicles for a long time, but this truck is way newer than anything I'm used to. I've read some other threads about the truck needing to be "asleep" before trying to get a reading from the volt meter about a possible drain. It seems like I'm waking up the truck whenever the volt mater makes contact. How do I put the truck to sleep so I can diagnose things?

I did start pulling fuses and relays from the under hood fuse box, but each time I go to attach the negative cable the bright white loud spark appears. These trucks have lots of fuses between the box under the hood and on the passenger side kick panel. Hopefully there is a better way to figure things out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You

 

[FordTechOne]

Start by opening the doors and closing the latches with a screwdriver; that will prevent the door switches from keeping the truck awake and turning on lights. If it has a hood switch, bypass that as well.

Are you installing your meter in-line between the negative cable terminal and battery post to monitor amperage? If the draw is too high, it will blow the fuse (typically 10A) in the meter. In that case you’ll need an inductive amp clamp to read the draw.

Once the meter or amp clamp is installed, give the truck 40 minutes to go into sleep mode and check the draw. Maximum spec is 50 milliamps/0.050A.

If it’s above spec, the first thing to check is the park detect switch, as it’s a common issue. Pull the Instrument Cluster (IPC) fuse and monitor the draw; if it drops, the IPC is being kept awake. When the truck is put in park, the P in the IPC should light up red. If it’s not, the park switch in the shifter is failed, or the circuit to the IPC is open.

 

[Ruger]

I had a similar problem, a couple years back. I have a trailer hitch brake light plugged into the trailer electrical socket, and the problem turned out to be dust contamination inside the electrical socket. A blast of compressed air solved the problem. Be on the lookout for possible dust/dirt contamination of electrical sockets.

 

[Pete_n_SoCal]

Start by opening the doors and closing the latches with a screwdriver; that will prevent the door switches from keeping the truck awake and turning on lights. If it has a hood switch, bypass that as well.

Are you installing your meter in-line between the negative cable terminal and battery post to monitor amperage? If the draw is too high, it will blow the fuse (typically 10A) in the meter. In that case you’ll need an inductive amp clamp to read the draw.

Once the meter or amp clamp is installed, give the truck 40 minutes to go into sleep mode and check the draw. Maximum spec is 50 milliamps/0.050A.

If it’s above spec, the first thing to check is the park detect switch, as it’s a common issue. Pull the Instrument Cluster (IPC) fuse and monitor the draw; if it drops, the IPC is being kept awake. When the truck is put in park, the P in the IPC should light up red. If it’s not, the park switch in the shifter is failed, or the circuit to the IPC is open.

Thanks for the information.

I am installing the meter in-line between the negative cable terminal and the battery post.

Do I leave the volt meter on during those 40 minutes, or does it matter?

 

[Pete_n_SoCal]

I had a similar problem, a couple years back. I have a trailer hitch brake light plugged into the trailer electrical socket, and the problem turned out to be dust contamination inside the electrical socket. A blast of compressed air solved the problem. Be on the lookout for possible dust/dirt contamination of electrical sockets.

That sounds super simple and easy to try, so along with the other things mentioned above I'll be sure to check that out. Thanks.

 

[FordTechOne]

Thanks for the information.

I am installing the meter in-line between the negative cable terminal and the battery post.

Do I leave the volt meter on during those 40 minutes, or does it matter?

You can leave it off as long as it still maintains continuity, which most should.

 

[Pete_n_SoCal]

You can leave it off as long as it still maintains continuity, which most should.

Thanks. I'll see what happens tomorrow.

 

[BlueOvalF22]

Thanks. I'll see what happens tomorrow.

One place to look
Water intrusion in connectors for the tailgate/camera.

Parasitic Battery Draw - Recurring Dead Battery - Ford F150 Forum - Community of Ford Truck Fans

2009 - 2014 Ford F150 - Parasitic Battery Draw - Recurring Dead Battery - 2013 F150. After 58K miles of basically trouble free use my beloved F150 is out of action with a mysterious parasitic battery draw. On to my second dealership and still no luck. They said they may never find and would have...

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While you are looking at electrical, make sure the fuse 27 relocation is done. It should have been done this way from the beginning.

Depending on what gets towed the charge pin on the 7 pin isn't active even when new.

 

[Pete_n_SoCal]

Hi everyone. I was hoping to come back here and let everyone know what the fix was for the Raptor, but we didn't find anything.

With the negative battery cable disconnected at the battery we taped one lead from the volt meter to the battery cable and the other lead to the negative post on the battery. Next we closed the latches of the two front doors with a screwdriver to prevent the door switches from keeping the truck awake and turning on lights.

After letting the truck sit for almost an hour I turned the volt meter on and the draw was at 0.04A. Then we started installing pulled fuses and reconnecting the alternator. While watching the volt meter the number never changed from 0.04A. Now that everything was hooked up and there appeared to be no drain on the battery, we disconnected the volt meter and hooked up the negative battery cable to the battery.

The next thing to check was that the "P" on the gauge cluster turns red when the truck is put in park. Sure enough, the P turns red. We tried putting the truck in park lightly and rough thinking maybe it's inconsistent and sometimes the P does not turn red, but it always turned red. We checked and cleaned the connectors for the tailgate/camera and the trailer plug just in case anything weird was happening there too.

My daughter told me she did the fuel pump fuse relocation right after she bought the truck. So we should be good to go there.

At this point I am thinking we did not recharge the drained battery as good as we thought. It's and old battery charger. So the next morning when she was heading to work the battery did not have enough in it to start the truck. After having the battery "professionally" charged things seem to be good to go. The truck has been starting and running just fine for over a week now.

 

[Pete_n_SoCal]

Hi Everyone. Well, I thought we had the truck fixed, but while driving home the other day the large battery symbol appeared on the gauge cluster.

Is it possible the alternator we bought does not put out enough amps to keep the truck running and charging correctly? We had the alternator tested on the truck at Oreilys, but that's just at idle. I'm guessing there is more demand on the electrical system at speed? I'm also thinking I need to have the alternator tested at an actual automotive electrical shop. Not a chain store.