Hello from Finland to all Fordsters!

 

My 2008 s max 2.0 tdci keeps PCM (ECM) relay R2 clicking occasionally after stopping the engine, resulting battery draining so that I have to jump start the car.

Relay R2 clicking happens in consistent sequence (clicks after every two minutes).

Sometimes this R2 clicking does not happen and car starts well even after parked for days.

 

Battery & charging are both OK.

 

Googling showed me that I’m not the only one that have had this issue, but so far I haven’t found workaround for this (except that I installed a rocker switch in series with fuse F7 which is the drive for relay R2. I have to turn my switch to OFF if parking for longer time

-this works, but is not a sophisticated solution...)

 

In the past I was measuring the current drain and it went like this:

-Relay R2 clicks>> Starts with 2...3A drain

-Current drain gets continuously smaller by time

-After ~2 minutes drain is down to almost zero

>> R2 clicks again and the same sequence continues again and again

 

Does anyone know from where (and why) relay R2 gets such sequential activation?

Has anyone managed to find the root cause & fix for such occasional issue?

 

Any tips & experiences highly appreciated!!!

Stay well (isolated in your Ford ?)

 

Regards Petri

Helsinki, Finland

Hi, our Ford S-Max 2007 has just presented the same symptoms as what you seem to have...did you ever find a solution to your problem? 
Thank you :) 

Hi, looks like you're a member of the flat battery club! I did a quick Google and there's a very long thread on Talkford 

https://talkford.com/community/topic/133905-flat-battery/page-32

 

Worth a read but no solution 

We have had this problem for the last two years and have found what the cause was at least for our car. 2009 Ford Mondeo MA TCDI.

The problem turned out to be the roof antenna. Probably a slight earth leakage as the vehicle lives outside and close to the coast. In our case the Antenna caught an overhead wire and whipped backwards and forwards - the plastic had deteriorated and the spring was corroded. Never heard of this issue before but makes sense and problem fixed.

Hi, just recorded the exact same symptoms (having had to replace a battery that had drained flat too often and was unusable).

However - what I noticed is:

1) PCN relay only does it's cycle if the ignition has been turned on and then off. It does not do it if you unlock and relock the car.

2) More importantly - the cycle stops after a while! It performs the 2min cycle for about 10 mins, then stops - my guess is either a timed process or a required charge level for something being achieved. Then the drain on the battery drops to a base load of about 0.25A and is stable.