Electrical fault or leak – 1999 Ford Taurus

[Harish Chandra]

I need to diagnose and fix the source of an apparent electrical/battery leak in my 1999 Ford Taurus. When left parked, with all battery-consuming features (dome light, radio etc.) turned off the battery loses most of its power in three/four days. So, apparently there is something that is draining battery power even when the car is sitting idle. I have started to disconnect the battery everytime I park the car. With the battery disconnected there seems to be no loss in battery power; it starts up with no problem when I reconnect the battery, even after sitting idle for four or five days. How do I go about diagnosing this problem, and what if any special tools I might need for this. Would be grateful for any suggestions/help about this problem. Thanks.

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[Sean]

[quote=”chandra0102″ post=160507]I need to diagnose and fix the source of an apparent electrical/battery leak in my 1999 Ford Taurus. When left parked, with all battery-consuming features (dome light, radio etc.) turned off the battery loses most of its power in three/four days. So, apparently there is something that is draining battery power even when the car is sitting idle. I have started to disconnect the battery everytime I park the car. With the battery disconnected there seems to be no loss in battery power; it starts up with no problem when I reconnect the battery, even after sitting idle for four or five days. How do I go about diagnosing this problem, and what if any special tools I might need for this. Would be grateful for any suggestions/help about this problem. Thanks.[/quote]

Watch this:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIKNnwEjIs[/video]

[Matthew]

I would go with a multimeter and check voltage drop across fuses. Read this doc to get started. Voltage Drop Parasitic draw test.

[Larry Bible]

I didn’t watch the video, but I expect it is worthwhile.

The way I have sorted drains in the past is to setup an ammeter in series with one of the battery cables. I doubt that the current drain is more than 10 Amps or so, which most DMM’s can handle. With the ammeter in place, pull the fuses one at a time and watch for a drop in current draw. If after going through all fuses, you have not seen a drop in current draw, pull them all out and find your other circuits that are not fused. An example would be the alternator connector. When checking the unfused circuits, you might want to remove the battery ground cable when you disconnect hot cables, tape off the cable/wire or otherwise ensure that it is isolated and then reconnect ground cable and monitor current draw. Keep disconnecting things until the current draw goes away. When it does, that is the offending circuit.

[Author]

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