Dead Battery

V

Vindikacione

Member
I drive my MS3 maybe once a week. Battery is totally dead when I get around driving it. Why? Anyone else have this problem?

Is it because I'm leaving my Dashhawk plugged in? Or do I have a defective battery?
 
I'm assuming your dashhawk is plugged into the cig. lighter, or the power point in the console. Both of those are only hot with the ignition so they won't be draining anything unless you're leaving the car on.

Are you sure all the doors are closed? Any lights staying on? There have been a few regular 3's where the switch for a door (or the dome light?) has gone bad and it just leaves them on.

Also not sure about the speed3, but the regular 3 doesn't come with a maintenance free battery. If you're low on water in the battery then it can die sooner.
 
MSD Dashhawk. Diagnostic device that is plugged into the OBDII port. Neat little gadget. Sux though, if its the source of my dead battery.
 
Fully charge the battery, unplug the Dashhawk and see how it goes a week later... my guess is that it is in fact the dashhawk thats draining it
 
I doubt it... Where does the Dashhawk get its power from...?

All the power sources in the MS3 shut down once the ignition is turned off.
And you can't connect to the (ECU) OBDII port without the ignition on.

Unless the wiring has been customized...any aftermarket stereos, amps, etc...?
 
Yeah, well... the last thing I've considered is my R7 (hush-hush, I know V1 is the best, but R7 is stealthy.). I hard wired (soldered) a connection using the map light 12volt power. I know I did the install right, but even when I unplug the R7 the battery still dies. Do power wires still draw current if it isn't plugged into the device? Meaning the lights work when key is out of the ignition, therefore the connection I created is always hot, but if no device is plugged to the connection then the circuit should be open, so there should be no draw. Does this make sense?

She started today without a problem, drove her almost 1.5 hours hoping that would help charge the batteries more. The nice thing about the R7 is the girly voice actually tells you that the battery is going dead. When I garage her, I usually turn the R7 off. But it will turn itself back on when it senses the battery voltage getting low, thus the voice telling you to start the car and charge the battery.

Again, the last time the battery was dead, I had the R7 unplugged, but the Dashhawk was plugged in... Today I unplugged the Dashhawk and turned off the R7, so we'll see.

Thanks All for helping with this issue.
 
The battery probably is just toast. Some lead-acid batteries hold up, some don't. It might be possible for the factory battery to still be under warranty, so check on that. Otherwise, just put a quality battery in it, and you should be ok.


Side note: The electrical system appears to have a cutoff timer built in for issues like map lights and such being left on for a time without the engine running. I was working on my sound system with interior lights serving as a light source while I worked, and they suddenly cut off. I figured I'd drained the battery, but when I tried to start the car it behaved perfectly normal and started without a fuss. I know some fords do this as standard operating procedure, to protect against battery rundown.
 
Thanks Fourthmeal!

I heard the Optimas are the best battery for the $, but there are the new lightweight CF Braille batteries, not totally sure about those. Anyone have suggestions?

I'm running stock electronics (+GPS, Dashhawk, and R7) and the car will be used in the winter in areas where it snows, so max amps is ideal -I think.

Another possibility I wondered about is using aftermarket grounding harnesses. Some people swear by it, I'm one of the cynics. Not sure if it would help with the battery issue. But can it actually improve MPG and HP over the long run? I read in another thread it was a temporary "high" and the ECU re-learns the condition. Haven't seen a single signature with someone claiming a Grounding kit... so I can't ask the question directly. Thanks in advance.
 
I tried to address this earlier but the forum server appeared to die for a while.

I've not seen a Braille battery in use, but I understand the concept. Not a bad idea, IMO. BATCAP is also another one that does this small battery thing. I have, however, used lots of Optimas, both red and yellow (though no blue), and I love them all. Particularly, I find them to be near bullet-proof. Example: I had a Nissan stanza that liked to eat alternators for one reason or another. During one of its sessions of destruction, the voltage the alternator produced to the battery was a searing 20V+ The battery didn't care, and simply out-gassed a little bit as the internal pressure probably went a bit overboard. I quickly disconnected the alternator, and drove the car until the battery started to die from starvation. In a desparate attempt to get home, I reconnected the alternator, and got the battery ultra-charging again, and made it home with no other consequences. Of course I changed the alternator and no permanent damage observable through tests or through real-world use was detected from the battery. The only time I've managed to destroy one of these batteries was when I accidentally stuck one on a charger/start box, and left it on START instead of trickle charge. THAT killed it! LOL. Dumb me. Crazily enough, it actually didn't fail immediately after that. The battery terminals were distorted, the plastic warped..but I had to get home, so I connected my terminals of my car to it, and it started and ran! I quickly got to the parts store to buy another one (and was fully covered with a replacement one!)

Short version of what I recommend to you...Optimas are unstoppable.

Now grounding kits...Well I'll be frank about it, and say you can make your own for a few bucks using quality wire and crimp your own. But, if you can find a quality grounding kit cheaply, then why not? It isn't really a mod, its just a nice thing to do if you want to. When you have an upgraded sound system, it does come in handy (we call it the "Big 3" in the audio world.)

Vindikacione said:
Thanks Fourthmeal!

I heard the Optimas are the best battery for the $, but there are the new lightweight CF Braille batteries, not totally sure about those. Anyone have suggestions?

I'm running stock electronics (+GPS, Dashhawk, and R7) and the car will be used in the winter in areas where it snows, so max amps is ideal -I think.

Another possibility I wondered about is using aftermarket grounding harnesses. Some people swear by it, I'm one of the cynics. Not sure if it would help with the battery issue. But can it actually improve MPG and HP over the long run? I read in another thread it was a temporary "high" and the ECU re-learns the condition. Haven't seen a single signature with someone claiming a Grounding kit... so I can't ask the question directly. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
 
make sure your trunk light isnt on. i dont believe that its shuts off when the trunk closes.
 
GoFast said:
make sure your trunk light isnt on. i dont believe that its shuts off when the trunk closes.
Click to expand...

Can someone confirm this? I tried to test this quickly the other day but the hatch cover made it difficult to tell. I didn't bother taking it out. I'll try testing this again in a day or two but I believe that the light does turn off when you close the hatch door.
 
(naughty)Just confirmed, the trunk light does turn off when the door shuts. I will call the Associated Press as I am sure this is front page news worthy. Carry on... (naughty)
 
Dang it- And last night I assumed that was another reason why my battery died, since I noticed yesterday it was in the on position.

Maybe, I do have the polarity to my R7 backwards, but then the inline fuse should have blown, but it hasn't because it still works.

Yesterday the voltage was low, 11.4 Volts, but that reading was 9 hours after I last drove her, so I don't know where she was at right after I garaged her. I'll check again this morning and see what it dropped to.

On a good note- I checked on my Tranny mount. Removing the battery box was simple. Getting my smallish Walmart jack positioned perfectly under the tranny was time consuming. Lots of little dead bugs in the box. Maybe, they were sucking all my power? Yeah, well the mount is tight, so that's a good thing. Still has the 8 bolt and not the 10, though. I'll have to get the right bolt when I get stateside. IS that the ECU right next to the battery box or the PCM?

Thanks to all who are helping. I will get a Optima, but it'll have to wait until I get stateside...
 
I found a secret in keeping the battery charged.

My R7 stays plugged in and I turn it off using the Remote. For some reason, the R7 doesn't turn itself back on when I use that method. The DH stays plugged in too. For safe measure I also made sure the trunk light switch was off. We'll see if she starts in the morning and again where the voltage is.
 
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