Intermittent Battery Drain

[Fordley]

Hello Ranger Station !

first post on forum, I am having a non consistent battery drain, the battery is less than 2 yrs old. The charging system appears normal, but twice now, in a 10 day period I went to start the truck only to find batt was 99% drained.


manual locks/ windows

Batt (static voltage - unplugged) 12.40-12.72 V
Batt (engine running) 13.23 - 14.42


I discnnctd the POS lead and checkd batt after 4 days and it has not gone down


a) removed batt
b) dealt with rust, cleaned painted batt box
c) cleaned checked batt levels



Curious if anyone has had this issue, or any suggestions on what to look for next ?



Thank you, Fordley in upper Midwest

 

[DeeRanger]

Do you have any kind of alarm/anti theft system in place, be it factory or aftermarket ? That's what it was for my 2001 2.5 Ranger.
Slowly but surely drained the battery until the system was removed. Still don't know why ?

 

[Fordley]

Hello sir


no alarm, I am aware of (the vehicle did not come with a fob either)
thanks

I have 2 Ford keys ( PATS system )

 

[Fordley]

Update, checked voltage from neg terminal to neg post on batt, and saw no reading.
Next going to check for any potential amp draw, and look at fuses, possibly drivers door latch/switch

Update(AUG 3rd): switches, pinwheels seem fine, checked for amp draw on neg term to neg post it was .19 a

have not tried using meter for neg continuity and allow batt saver to go to sleep (some say 20-30 min some say an hour) .....I assume its ok to use meter to provide continuity, but its ok to turn meter off

Been going thru lots of old threads/ videos

update Aug 4th forgot to mention, that during this ordeal, the fuel and temp gauges stay on (24/7) for whatever reason (they never did that previous)... the only time I noticed those gauges go off, was when I engaged the key