Hi everybody...I'm glad I foud this site...

[Daytona60]

2002 Lincoln continental

Shortly after the 1st of the year, my mother had not been driving her car much during December, so in January car wouldn't start...our mechanic said new battery..
Throughout the last 6 weeks my mom kept needing a jump because her battery had died. She has owned the car for the last 1 1/2 years and this hasn't been a problem in the past.
We took the car back to our mechanic and he said there is a parasitic draw but that because it is "intermittent" he cannot find it. He recommended we not take it to a dealer, it would cost way more than we could afford, so he put a "lever" on the battery where we turn it off and on.


I tried over this past weekend to check the fuses with my meter:
The draw peeks @ .16 on 10a scale
We have pulled all the fuses on the "Entertainment system" ( radio, cd changer, and sub woofer amp and unplugged the amp)
At one point I had all the inside panel fuses pulled and it still had a .05a draw.
The #38 Fuse fluctuates the draw by .04a all byitself. It has several things listed including the front seats, the power door locks, etc

My mother is 80 and I'm just trying to figure out something so she doesn't have to raise the hood and power on the battery every time she wants to go somewhere.
I appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks in advance

 

[MooJohn]

.16 amps is well within the normal range and would take weeks to kill a healthy battery. The car even has a battery protection mode that cuts all power if you accidentally leave the lights on or a door open.

What does the voltage read with the car running? If the alternator is healthy the next suspect is the new battery -- they can be bad!

 

[Daytona60]

Hey, everything that I have read and been told gave me the impression that anything over a reading of .05ma on a 10a scale was excessive. I initially took the battery back implying that it must be a bad battery and the mechanic said it was not. This same mechanic has replaced a battery for me before that went bad in a year's time and did acknowledge that it was a bad battery and did replace it at no charge so I assume he is being honest. He's just a "mom and pop" shop that we have taken our cars to for years and has been really good to us but he doesn't have all the high tech stuff to track it down and then him saying it was intermittent so which makes it even harder to find. He supposedly checked the alternator back in January when we got the new battery and then again in early March when I took the car into him. He had me bring the battery in so he could charge it all day and then I picked it up that night and was told not to install it until the next morning right before bringing it to him which is what I did.
I have not taken a reading while the car is running. After this past Sunday when it seemed like the above mentioned fuse #38 seemed to draw too much, my mother claims that she could not move the seat with the switch. I haven't checked that out yet...and I am going by to get a chilton's on my way home to see whatother fuse panels may exist that I am not aware of and to have wiring diagrams I haven't been able to find on line.

 

[MooJohn]

A flaky door switch can trigger the interior lights at random times while the car is off. The repeated triggering can kill the battery leaving no trace of how it happened.

The driver's seat is the first to quit working on these cars. The seat motors sling grease onto the windings inside, weakening the motor. It can be fixed by cleaning the insides of the motors but it's quite a PITA to reach them.

The door lock circuit pulls power with the car off because of the circuitry that listens for the key fob commands or the exterior keypad. I have seen a flaky keypad too, that kept turning on the interior lights at regular intervals.

 

[Daytona60]

hey...well i didn't see any door switches in the opening so i'm assuming they are inside the door frame not visible to my naked eye....so what are you trying to tell me. The draw is an exceptible draw or things that I should test for faulty wiring or switches. I personally are better with older vehicles like an 1987 jeep I recently sold, an 1988 dodge daytona I recently sold and now drive a 1994 mercury cougar...all this fancy computerized stuff is crazy. Thanks for the info...

 

[MooJohn]

My bet is you'll find an intermittent power draw. The constant parasitic draw you see now shouldn't be enough to be an issue.

The door switches are integrated into the latch in each door. It's a lot harder to reach and troubleshoot them than normal door pinswitches.