'02 - Ford Windstar - Battery Drain

[oilboy123]

Originally Posted By: brianl703
Originally Posted By: punisher
Bad alternator diodes will draw even with the key off.


A clue that this might be the case is when the car's been sitting parked for hours and the alternator is the warmest thing under the hood...


No need for a multimeter for that......

 

[JTK]

Like said, having owned a 2001, the Windstar forum over at automotiveforums is probably the best Winny source available. There's many threads on slow battery drains. Here's one snippet from the fine fella 12Ounce over there:
"...Some posters found various current "killers". One that I do remember was wipers that weren't allowed to "rehome". Something in the way would prevent the wiper arm/mechanism from getting fully back to the start position ... and the wiper motor would stay loaded. But I would think that would cause higher currents than you are seeing.

I remember also one poster had a problem in his rear glass defroster.

Some had problems in the audio systems.

Some even attributed elect leaks to failing brake pressure switches (the ones on the brake master cyl). I don't know if this is even possible.

I'd start by pulling the "switched power relays" individually to see if that affects the current draw."

Joel

 

[eljefino]

I had a ford contour that I got cheap to flip. Was walking by with it of course shut off and the thing was buzzing, an electrical sort of buzz. Traced it to the ignition module. Back traced it to a relay that powers more stuff when the key is on. Switched it with the horn relay and had no more problems. (figured if I did, I'd hear about it

)

Also check your glovebox light, and anything in the vicinity of the sliding door(s), or any other fufu stuff like remote control door openers etc. I'm amused/chagrined at the variety of stuff people are chiming in with that could be the cause.

On GMs you can cheat the passkey antitheft by IIRC leaving the ignition on for an hour or doing some other lengthy dealie. Might check around online to see if there's a redneck way to get the key relearned.

 

[StevieC]

Ok so I got the stupid van running finally!

It turned out to be a broken/corroded wire in the the collection of wires that pass through the firewall on the drivers side beside the shock tower.

I can't even begin to tell you how many scrapes on my hands, bumps on the head and curse words I used in the process.

My dad and I took almost the whole drivers side dash apart, and under the hood wiring harnesses apart to check for problems.

While we were having a cup of coffee, out of the corner of my eye I noticed some green corrosion residue on the rubber grommet where we found the broken wire.

We connected it up, and it started right up.

We checked the computer for codes and there were none so it must have been a power supply wire for the PCM/ECU.

Thought I would update everyone in case someone has a similar problem.

 

[mechtech2]

Electrical problems are 10 minutes or 10 hours.

 

[StevieC]

Or in this case... 10 days!

 

[StevieC]

Or in this case... 10 days!

Ford has a module, and relay for everything and they put them in the "stupidest hardest to get at" places! I think the engineers must be a bunch of Grass-Toting hippies!