Got it back from the dyno now the battery dies.....

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Latchkey Kid

Latchkey Kid

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Drive it to the hippie pizza joint or get some tamales next door every morning. Stay away from that horrific Paul Buyan toothbrush dentist guy. What dyno shop did you go to? They are very scarce in NE Ga. Recommend them?
Injected Engineering out of Kennesaw. Yes I would recommend them. I felt comfortable dropping it off. They specialize in Ford and must have had a dozen different built mustangs in the parking lot. Along with 2 Enzo's and a badass Benz. It was impressive. They had good prices and GREAT reviews!
 
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Latchkey Kid

Latchkey Kid

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What battery maintainer are you guys running? Are they a direct install? So I have to do anything special with the BMS for them? Do you typically plug in every end of day?

Also..... I want to thank everyone on this!! I have been beyond stressed I had another parasitic draw and I don't think my blood pressure could handle that experience again!!!!!
 

wheelman55

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OP. Kudos for finding the first battery drain. You might have a new drain, but…

Your current drain could easily be caused by your low driving frequency and short distances.

Sort things out in order. Start by determining if your battery is ok.

As suggested get and use a quality smart charger with a “recondition” mode. Do a recondition on your current battery. Then let your Raptor sit with smart charger disconnected for a full 24 hours. Now check battery voltage. It should be in the high 12’s, like 12.9 or even low 13 volts after sitting.

If the battery voltage is mid or low 12’s it’ll need to be replaced.

If you replace the battery do a regular charge with your smart charger, let the battery sit per above - charger disconnected for 24 hours. Check voltage. It should be nice and high, new batt with new charge.

Once you have a battery that you know holds a good charge, let the vehicle sit for a week. Ride your bike to work, drive your Ferrari to karaoke, take an Uber, phone a friend. Test voltage once a day.

If the battery holds a good charge all week you can rule out a new drain. If the battery goes low you have a new drain.

Either way your driving habits will cause your battery to drain and lead to early replacement. Use your new smart charger at least once a week. Daily use won’t harm your battery IF you use a quality smart charger. If you use a cheap a$$ charger all bets are off.

Rather than write a longer novel, do a YouTube search for F150 battery drain. There’s a good one by a Ford tech who had the same drain issue. He explains where to put the negative battery clamp…

Search for “Ford Tech Makuloco“

Best of luck, hope it’s not a new mystery drain.
 

GCATX

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Ive made a ton of mods to my gen 1 from drivetrain and suspension to body and bolt-ons. I've got a lot of aftermarket lights but have not wired a single one up while I try to track down my electrical issue. I thought I had the issue resolved but it has come up again.

For a background on my driving habits I put less than 5k miles a year on the truck and the distance from my house to my business in 3.1 miles away. I take the trip usually twice a day and other than that I don't drive it much further. Once a week I drive 5.5 miles one way to and from karaoke. That's about it. Maybe a trip to Home Depot and that's only a few times a month at the most at about 6 miles one way. Its only had one "longer" trip of 40 miles one way to a dyno shop last month. That's when the problem started (again).
A few years back I had a parasitic draw that took almost 6 months to find. Replaced the battery 4 times (it's less than 3 years old) with no success trying to rule it out (per my dealership) Turned out to be a crack in the plastic on my led strip on my driver's mirror(which I figured out) that allowed water to seep in and short the board. After replacing it the problem went away.

Fast forward to 3 weeks ago. I started having dead battery issues again after getting it back from the tuner. I'm not certain if the tune or time at the shop would have an affect on battery life but I also did just replace the mirrors with Evil Baja mirrors so the lights were unplugged and I left the wires in my door as opposed to pulling them out. (After unplugging them from the mirror).

I just hooked up my battery tender and did a slow charge to 100% and I'm now waiting the mandatory 8 hours for the BMS to do whatever it does. I'm assuming if tomorrow morning when I go to start it if the battery is dead or low I have a draw. If not I guess that would point more towards my driving habits being the issue as I have researched and discovered my very short trips require more juice than the alternator can replace in the time its running. (I'm assuming). I did most all the mods myself but electrical is my Achilles so I'm very ignorant on it especially the BMS. I carry a jump box with me everywhere and have to use it every time to start it now.

So here are a few of my questions. Hopefully I still have your attention after all that.......

Would a bigger/stronger alternator help (Mean Green or another brand)?
Would a hardwired battery saver help? If so is there a specific brand and way it has to be wired to not confuse the BMS?
How can I know if its a draw vs my driving habits? In laymen terms please hahaha
Am I even going about this the right way?
Hold on... Karaoke?
 

MurderedOutSVT

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Injected Engineering out of Kennesaw. Yes I would recommend them. I felt comfortable dropping it off. They specialize in Ford and must have had a dozen different built mustangs in the parking lot. Along with 2 Enzo's and a badass Benz. It was impressive. They had good prices and GREAT reviews!
I will look into them. I want a dyno tune on mine


Dammit, now I want a built 5.0 LX 5 spd again...
 

mprice1234

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What battery maintainer are you guys running? Are they a direct install? So I have to do anything special with the BMS for them? Do you typically plug in every end of day?

Also..... I want to thank everyone on this!! I have been beyond stressed I had another parasitic draw and I don't think my blood pressure could handle that experience again!!!!!
$20 buck at Amazon.

I added longer wire at the ring connectors to be able add enough length to go from the battery terminals to just reach outside the grill so I don't have to open the hood every time to connect.
 

rschap1

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Thought I would check this out since I just lost a 10 month old Interstate battery over winter storage...
found this after seeing the before mentioned suggestion... (THANKS Wheelman55)


 
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