Hi. Bought my 2014 Titanium 1.6 diesel 2 years ago. Had battery problems after 10 months, needing jump starts from RAC then Green Flag, got worse so had new alternator & new AGM Start/Stop battery last Feb 2019. Only recurred twice in 12 months so invested in a booster Power Pac 1600 to be safe.

In last 2 weeks, had to jump-start 6 times! Local garage says "battery good, recharge". Left car there for 3 days, trickle charged battery to 100%. Next day ok, 24 hours later flat battery again - had to jump-start myself. Ok for a day, but this morning had to jump-start yet again. Reading on garage meter "good, recharge". Proprietor told me to contact Ford so I've sent a detailed email.

I don't use the "start/stop" feature, turn it off each journey. Also stopped using my safety dashcam, plus recently disabled my folding mirrors. Not turned radio on. Yet STILL my battery drains overnight so cannot even use my central-locking key, much less start my car.. 

My garage says " you need to ask Ford" as something is obviously draining my newish battery...what could it be?  I'm in poor health with severe aortic stenosis of my heart, also I'm a carer for 2 others. My car is our emergency lifeline.

 

I bought the car from Perry's Ford at Chesterfield (10 miles away) they say their diagnotics may help (£115) to pick up only Ford error codes/updates which my garage can't access. I've already spent £1000 in 12 months, csn they really help me more?

Somebody somewhere must have encountered this battery drain issue before. I've done all I can, so has my local garage, surely a 12 month old agm start/stop battery plus new alternator should cope with this? Thanks for any help!!

Penny

 

 

 

sync module were draining batteries overnight a few years back and i believe ford released a software update to cure it. but there is a whole host of things that can cause a parasitic power drain. you want to measure power drain an hour after switch off without opening /closing any doors or switching anything on if more than 30-50 milliamps is being drained then start pulling fuses one at a time until the drain stops. once you know what circuit is causing the drain you can then start trouble shooting that circuit or if it is attached to something you don't care about just leave it unplugged.

Thanks for the info cjay1👍

First get a cheap multimeter that reads mA. Then turn everything on the car off, close doors, int light switch off.

Open the fuse box and measure the voltage drop across each fuse using the voltage on the meter set to 20vdc. On each fuse put the red lead at one end of the fuse and the black lead at the other end of the fuse. Touch the fuses across the top where the wire is exposed. If you measure 0.0v then there is no current flowing through that fuse and you can ignore it. If you measure a fraction of a volt across the fuse it is drawing some current and you can make a note of it to pull it out later in the testing.

Now set the meter to read mA and connect the leads as shown here wikihow.com/find-a-parasitic-battery-drain 

A drain current of 30mA or less is normal. If say your meter reads 200mA and you pull out a fuse and it jumps up to say 1000mA you have not found the problem, you have just caused another circuit in the car to wakeup. If pulling a fuse causes the current to drop down to say 30mA or less, then that fuse is on the circuit that is causing the problem. You need to get the wiring info to follow it up.

That's great Kevin#95, very clear instructions for me to follow. Thanks!  As cjay1 suggested, I'll check with Ford for any software updates 1st, then get myself a multimeter (mA). Thanks again 👍

You could buy a voltage meter from Ebay, insert it in the cig lighter socket, drive the car some distance and note the voltage. Your car has smart charging which is the prime cause of the battery draining down and stop/start becoming intermittent. The charge voltage should be above 14.2 volts, If the voltage stays around the low 13 volts for long periods the battery will slowly drain down, this mainly occurs when the car is mostly used for short journey`s.

You could as a test disconnect the sensor (IBS) attached to the negative clamp of the starter battery this puts the alternator into an old fashioned  continuous charging regime of 14.2 to 14.4 volts and fully charges your battery, drive the car for a week or so, if the battery stays fully charged it`s smart charging that`s your problem. If you feel the need Just reconnect the sensor after test and you are back to where you were. Disconnecting the sensor is totally safe, I disconnected my Merc over a year ago.