Dopplerkool
New LVC Member
Hello All,
I have a 2005 Lincoln LS V8 and am having some issues with a parasitic draw/battery drain. I have swapped out the battery already. I also did a parasitic draw test over the weekend and found that the car seems to be drawing about 1 amp and doesn’t seem to go into “sleep mode”. Let me tell you what happened before and since this started happening.
Leading to my problem:
This all started after I had left the car sit for about a week. When I went to unlock my car, the horn started blaring like someone was pressing on the horn (not the alarm style horn). I started frantically looking through my manual to find the fuse for the horn. By the time I figured out where the fuse was, the horn either burned itself out or blew the fuse because when I went to the fuse, the fuse had been blown.
On a side note, at the same time I also noticed that there was some condensation built up on the inside of the windshield (I live in Florida) and the backseat diver’s side floor was soaked. I noticed a few weeks ago that water would leak into my vehicle during a hard rain down the front driver’s door window post. I am not sure where this water was coming from and have someone look at it since then and we seem to can’t find how this water is getting in. With that said, I know this is probably going to be the cause leading to whatever is causing my electrical problems.
On a very side note, about 9 months ago, the high beam on the driver’s side started randomly turning on and off and would sometimes turn on by itself when I would turn the car off. The only way I could prevent this high beam from randomly turning on and off was to unplug the headlight in its entirety. I realize now that I could have just pulled the fuse. It really didn’t bother me much because I don’t drive at night much.
Troubleshooting:
So aside from replacing the battery, I did do a parasitic draw test although I would probably do it again because it may have been done a little sloppy. It seemed as if the only way for me to get the draw down to 50mA, I need to pull multiple fuses. The car also seemed to never go to sleep. At one point during the test, I was getting readings that were jumping up and down nearly 400 mA. These readings normalized after I pulled fuse 20 in the Central Junction Box. Pulling this fuse also seemed to lower the draw quite a bit although I don’t have an exact number. I know there are a few devices on this fuse so I would expect that to happen.
After reviewing some of the wiring diagrams, I noticed that the CBJ 20 fuse was inline of the schematic for the Horn. Thinking that the horn switch in the steering wheel may be stuck or something, I went about disconnecting the horn switch in the steering wheel. Once this was done, I went to go put the fuse back for the horn in the junction box under the hood and the fuse blew right away. I then realized through the wiring diagrams that the horn relay was probably involved so I pulled the relay as well. Now the fuse is not blowing. Unfortunately, without doing a test or waiting for the battery to die, I can’t tell if my parasitic draw is still happening. I am assuming it is because when I left the car site for around 4 hours today, the battery went from 12.4V to 11.9.
With that said, I am leaning to attack the possibility of my FEM needing to be replaced. With the head light flashing on and off, the water leaking, and the parasitic draw, it easy to point to this device as it controls a lot of devices. If it were this device, would this device have any codes that it would report and not send a trigger to turn the check engine light on? My check engine light is not on thus I have never tested for codes. Is there any way to possibly isolate the issue to the FEM? I am also thinking it could be the instrument cluster or another module in the vehicle.
Thoughts on this are much appreciated.
Dopplerkool
I have a 2005 Lincoln LS V8 and am having some issues with a parasitic draw/battery drain. I have swapped out the battery already. I also did a parasitic draw test over the weekend and found that the car seems to be drawing about 1 amp and doesn’t seem to go into “sleep mode”. Let me tell you what happened before and since this started happening.
Leading to my problem:
This all started after I had left the car sit for about a week. When I went to unlock my car, the horn started blaring like someone was pressing on the horn (not the alarm style horn). I started frantically looking through my manual to find the fuse for the horn. By the time I figured out where the fuse was, the horn either burned itself out or blew the fuse because when I went to the fuse, the fuse had been blown.
On a side note, at the same time I also noticed that there was some condensation built up on the inside of the windshield (I live in Florida) and the backseat diver’s side floor was soaked. I noticed a few weeks ago that water would leak into my vehicle during a hard rain down the front driver’s door window post. I am not sure where this water was coming from and have someone look at it since then and we seem to can’t find how this water is getting in. With that said, I know this is probably going to be the cause leading to whatever is causing my electrical problems.
On a very side note, about 9 months ago, the high beam on the driver’s side started randomly turning on and off and would sometimes turn on by itself when I would turn the car off. The only way I could prevent this high beam from randomly turning on and off was to unplug the headlight in its entirety. I realize now that I could have just pulled the fuse. It really didn’t bother me much because I don’t drive at night much.
Troubleshooting:
So aside from replacing the battery, I did do a parasitic draw test although I would probably do it again because it may have been done a little sloppy. It seemed as if the only way for me to get the draw down to 50mA, I need to pull multiple fuses. The car also seemed to never go to sleep. At one point during the test, I was getting readings that were jumping up and down nearly 400 mA. These readings normalized after I pulled fuse 20 in the Central Junction Box. Pulling this fuse also seemed to lower the draw quite a bit although I don’t have an exact number. I know there are a few devices on this fuse so I would expect that to happen.
After reviewing some of the wiring diagrams, I noticed that the CBJ 20 fuse was inline of the schematic for the Horn. Thinking that the horn switch in the steering wheel may be stuck or something, I went about disconnecting the horn switch in the steering wheel. Once this was done, I went to go put the fuse back for the horn in the junction box under the hood and the fuse blew right away. I then realized through the wiring diagrams that the horn relay was probably involved so I pulled the relay as well. Now the fuse is not blowing. Unfortunately, without doing a test or waiting for the battery to die, I can’t tell if my parasitic draw is still happening. I am assuming it is because when I left the car site for around 4 hours today, the battery went from 12.4V to 11.9.
With that said, I am leaning to attack the possibility of my FEM needing to be replaced. With the head light flashing on and off, the water leaking, and the parasitic draw, it easy to point to this device as it controls a lot of devices. If it were this device, would this device have any codes that it would report and not send a trigger to turn the check engine light on? My check engine light is not on thus I have never tested for codes. Is there any way to possibly isolate the issue to the FEM? I am also thinking it could be the instrument cluster or another module in the vehicle.
Thoughts on this are much appreciated.
Dopplerkool
