Battery Drain

[willowbob]

Afternoon all. My elderly father has a 2012 Ford Fusion (a 2006 one before that!), with only 13k on the clock. Bought it about 14 months ago, been great apart from a few small things. A few times over the ownership, my Mum has rung me to say "the car won't start". One time I had to battery pack jump start it the other, when I got there, it started fine. Last week my Dad rung me and said the car won't start. Went over and the battery was so flat not even the dash would come up (3v left only). I thought it was a dead battery (as it looked like it had been in there ages) so we bought a new battery. All good for a few days then went dead again. Outwardly, no 'aftermarket' items fitted to the car. When I investigated further however, I found an aftermarket dashcam unit wired into the cigarette lighter fuse (see photo). Traced the wires to the top of the windscreen, then removed the unit which I suspect, had gone faulty and was drawing power even though no camera attached.  The (new) battery was really drained, dead.  Jump pack started it and used the car for an hour or so. Then left overnight. Since then the battery has dropped overnight, but not by the large amounts it had previously. Just down to 11 or just under 12 volts. Not enough to start the car but all dash displays work, central locking etc.  Quick jump start all good. My questions are, if the battery has drained that low, should the battery be charged for much longer so it then holds the 12v and gets back to normal? Also, do the starter motor relays typically play up with these cars? Is it worth replacing that also as a failsafe? Everything else in the car that could be draining power has been checked, courtesy / interior light, boot and glovebox lights etc.  Many thanks.

[unofix]

The battery really should be fully charged with a Smart battery charger (Maypole for example) for at least 12 hours but more likely 24 hours.

A common problem with cars of that age that have a factory fitted bluetooth module fitted (usually for the phone) is the module goes intermittently faulty. It then does not shut down when the ignition is turned off. This causes the Canbus system to remain active, and in turn it causes all modules to stay awake instead of shutting down 20 minuets after the ignition has been turned off.

 

battery charger: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maypole-7423A-Battery-Charger-Electronic/dp/B009A83P1E?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

[willowbob]

Thank you for the reply, much appreciated. Is there anyway of disabling the bluetooth module, as, my parents (elderly) never use that function.

[unofix]

Not sues about your exact model, but on Fiesta and Focus of that era, the bluetooth module is located up behind the glovebox. It has a separate plug that can be disconnected.

There are 4  or 5 versions of the module but they all look similar to the one below:

[willowbob]

Again, many thanks, definitely worth disconnecting it (if I can locate). Is there a fuse for it in the Fusebox? Is it an option to remove that fuse? Appreciate your help.

[unofix]

No separate fuse for the bluetooth module as it is powered via the radio unit.

[willowbob]

57 minutes ago, unofix said:

No separate fuse for the Bluetooth module as it is powered via the radio unit.

Got you, brilliant, thank you. I will disconnect it tomorrow and hopefully that will be the last link in this chain of events. I have spent, literally, hours chasing down this parasitic voltage drain! I think the dashcam control module resister had gone faulty and then started draining straight to earth, so, that massive decrease overnight of battery power has now ceased. But I am still left with this 1 - 2v drop which, could be the battery not properly recharged; it is likely a combination of that combined potentially with this bluetooth issue also. I will update in a few days. Thank you for taking the trouble to reply, very much appreciated.

[willowbob]

I took the glovebox out and (literally) searched everywhere for the module and could not for the life of me find it. There is a Telephone symbol on the car audio so I am confident there is one in there somewhere??  Anyone looked at one /location for a Fusion please? Once the glovebox is out, is there more trim to remove before it is visible? Thanks.

[TomsFocus]

The telephone symbol button doesn't necessarily mean the bluetooth module was also fitted.

It just mutes the radio on cars without the bluetooth module fitted.

[willowbob]

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

The telephone symbol button doesn't necessarily mean the Bluetooth module was also fitted.

It just mutes the radio on cars without the Bluetooth module fitted.

Thanks, so I guess not all Fusions had a bluetooth option fitted? The one my parents have is a very late one, a 2012, but, as I say, it only has the telephone symbol on the radio, nothing more than that.  Any other suggestions from anyone for parasitic drain would be greatly appreciated. 

[unofix]

4 hours ago, willowbob said:

There is a Telephone symbol on the car audio

What happens when you press the Telephone button ?

[willowbob]

22 minutes ago, unofix said:

What happens when you press the Telephone button ?

That I am not sure, I will try it tomorrow and update. Cheers 

[willowbob]

The button, as stated above, just mutes the radio. Pretty sure now there's no bluetooth functionality. IAM charging for 24 hours the battery, as it's only now dropping a volt or so overnight. Will see how it gets on 

[Paulkp]

No bluetooth on our 2010 Titanium.

If you continue to have problems, I can only suggest that if you have a good DVM, that you try and measure for any voltage across the main fuses in the engine compartment.  With zero current, there will be zero voltage drop across a fuse, but with any actual current you may get a small voltage (mV)  Probably five main fuses, so you may be able to narrow down where the current is flowing. You will then need to move into the fuses supplied by that fuse, in the internal fuse box behind the glove box, and measure across them.  I attach a diagram that may help, but it does have some additions for mods I have made.  In the past, I have checked for battery drain by measuring volts between chassis and battery earth terminal, which is generally a very fat piece of copper, so you will get something across a fuse, which by design will have resistance, otherwise it would not be a fuse !

[KenM]

This chart may help with measuring volt drop across various fuses giving an idea of actual amperage, just measure the mv drop across the fuse then look across to the corresponding fuse size to get a draw in milliamperes, obviously not an endless list so if for example you had a 20 mv drop you double the 10mv reading, hope it helps.

[willowbob]

Thank you all for the replies. I have been testing fuses tec., and think (maybe) I am following a Red Herring. Originally, as stated above, I found a hardwired dashcam loom with a control module (no dashcam), which I removed, which I am convinced was the main issue.  Before doing that, as stated, I had bought a new battery, which went completely flat as, at the time I fitted it, I hadn't found this dashcam unit. Once I found the dashcam unit and removed it, I am pretty sure I didn't charge the flat batteries back up enough. I therefore charged the old battery first to a good 12.5v, put it back in and this only dropped a volt or so overnight. Still needed a bit of a boost from a Noco GB40 portable boost unit (highly recommend) but after that car starts fine all day. I have trickle charged the 'new' battery back up for the last 18 hours. I will put that back in tonight and see if its flat by the morning. If so, I have a dud new battery. If not, we are in business! I will update.

[unofix]

1 hour ago, willowbob said:

bought a new battery, which went completely flat

Once any 12V car battery gets discharged below 8V they never usually make a full recovery no matter how often or how much you try and charge them.

After a good solid 18 hour charge the battery should be at least 12.54V (test it 1 hour after disconnecting the charger).

[willowbob]

 

Unofix, I am coming more and more to that conclusion that the new battery, which was drained to 3v, will not recover. 

[willowbob]

Final update.....the problem is fixed. In a nutshell, the original battery drain was the hardwire dashcam. The 'new' battery that was then purchased wasn't, as it transpired, as new as we thought. It would not hold a charge overnight, which then led us to believe we had a secondary source of parasitic drain. We proved that by charging up the 'old' battery, putting that on the car which, by morning was still around 12v. Do the same with a 24 hour charged 'new' battery, next morning, completely dead, down to less than 3v.  Replacement battery, dashcam hardwire removed, car is now fine. Thanks for all the help. Cheers.

[Vancat]

I was looking for a fuse to connect my new dash cam to, and had considered the power socket fuse, but saw from the wiring diagram that the socket seems to stay live, even with the ignition switched off. It was probably your drain as you suspected.

[Paulkp]

13 hours ago, Vancat said:

was looking for a fuse to connect my new dash cam

Just to the left of the RH fixing bolt for the fuse box as shown in OP's first post are two unused fuse ways.  One is permanent 12V, and the other is switched.  If you insert a piggy back, then you could use the switched supply.  See my diagram above for how I did it for a couple of modds to my Fiesta.

[willowbob]

Final, final update, just in case this helps other members. The problem came back, albeit less severe. There was a secondary (or even a third) drain....how lucky am I!! 

I did what I should have done at the start and rigged my multi-meter up to look for fine margins (please see pictures). I noticed straight away that there was nearly an amp draining with nothing on (0.78a). I am no auto electrician, but around 0.10 to 0.20a I would expect? Took fuses out one by one and the big drop was the radio (after factoring in the memory, so did it a few times). With that fuse out went down to a more normal 0.06a. Since this discovery I have now read loads of articles online about the 6000CD (and similar) Ford radios draining batteries through a progressive internal fault (linked to the muting system apparently).

So my advice, to avoid the delays I had is identify the precise source first (sounds obvious to me now LOL).  If anyone is interested in how I rigged my multi meter up, as long as you have a fairly decent one (mine's a Draper one, about £40-50) and some crocodile clips 2 of which have a 12v wire in between, take the Red lead out of its normal socket on the multi-meter and pop it into the 10a DC socket.  Undo you negative terminal clamp and take it off the battery. Attach one of the croc clips to the battery clamp (disconnected from the battery) with the other croc clip (with the wire in between) attach to the Red MM lead exposed end. Put the exposed part of the black lead of the MM to the negative battery terminal (use a spare croc clip) and this will then run through your MM what is going into your car from your battery. You can play around then removing fuses and relays one by one until you get a drop in the readings on the MM. That's likely then to be your issue. It was with me.  

Hope that may help someone else, like I was helped by other members above, which was appreciated.