The battery on my 03 ranger recently died, so I replaced it. Everyday since, I've had to jumpstart the truck. Before going back to Sears and getting another battery, I decided to do some troubleshooting. I thought something was draining the battery overnight, so I left the cable disconnected, and the next morning saw 12 volts. Ok, not the battery. I put an amp meter on the battery and saw a drain of 1.36 amps. After pulling fuses one by one I pulled fuse # 26, (10 amp) I saw the current drop. This fuses runs the battery saver relay, GEM, Aux relay box, Restraint central module, and instrument cluster. How do I go about troubleshooting the part that needs replace/repair?

 

howdy and welcome,

I'm not real sure, something is def wrong none of those things should be draining your battery overnight.

I thinkk at that point I might take it to Ford, but if you are determined to do it yourself there are some really electrical savy guys on here that will hopefully chime in.

sorry this isnt much of an answer but I wanted to bump it to make sure everyone gets a chance to see it

 

Someone told me to get my alternator checked. Not sure why this would cause the problem, but I'm going to do it this weekend just to be sure. I was also told the GEM is not functioning properly, not making the battery saver relay kick in. I'm not sure how to test this.

 

What did the amps drop down to when you pulled that fuse? 1.36 amps is way to much as long as you had the door shut when you did this. Acceptable is around 200 milli-amps.
As for the alternator I was told in school that if it is warm in the morning before it is started it's got a problem. You could also eliminate that form being a problem by checking the parastic drain like you were and disconnecting it, to see if it drops or stays the same.
For testing the GEM and battery saver relay I can't really help you there unless you know where ther relay is located then that can be tested by itself easily when removed.

 

rwenzing should be able to pinpoint the location of the devices or wire to check to see which is the problem, you may want to PM him if he doesnt catch this thread

 

Check your alternator yourself. Fire that baby up, get under the hood, and d/c your positive (+) terminal. If the engine shutsdown take it to autozone they'll test it for free.

 

Things are getting silly now. The truck sat all day yesterday, and this morning when I checked it, the battery had 11.18 volts, but it just wasn't enough to kick it over. Jump started it, and pulled the + cable. Engine didn't shut off. I checked for current draw with the engine off, no accessories on, no fuses pulled, and found 233 mA. I don't know what happenned to the 1.36 A from before. Checked voltage again, and battery was at 11.76v. Started truck, had a consistent 14.44v. I think there is some sort of ghost in the machine. Unless anyone else has any suggestions, (I don't know how you could with the way things changed) I think it's time to take it to Ford. I just don't want to get ripped off. Warranty expired 17 days ago.

 

if you have a 12v battery charger, and time to spare, pull your battery and charge it all the way and then test the battery and see what it putting out. 11.76 is atoo low, your batt my be fubar'd as a result of the system's errors

 

Well, after giving up for months and driving my work truck everywere, I decided to take another look. Turns out I was wrong from the start. Saw the current draw, started pulling fuses again, and found one in the distribution box under the hood that killed the draw. 10A fuse for the a/c clutch solenoid. Swapped the relay with a known good one of the same type (wiper motor), and no draw. Got a new relay for 10 bucks, and everything seems to be back to normal, except that I feel like an idiot for not catching that a lot sooner.

 

Doh!!!

 

I'm glad you got it fixed!!!! One thing to remember, however. NEVER pull a battery cable while your engine is running! An alternator can put out some large voltage spikes, and just the Di/Dt of pulling the battery cable can create large voltage spikes. All of the electronic components (GEM, PCM, radio, etc.) are sensitive to voltage spikes, and can be blown.

 

glad you got it fixed for cheap too!