95 Explorer battery discharging

Hello folks, I have a 95 Explorer 4 door XLT with manual transmission and 133,000 miles. I was in Ottawa on business last week and my wife called and told me that Exp. was barely turning over when she tried to start it, but it would run fine when it did start. When I got home and tried to start it, it would even turn over. A volt meter across the battery read

9.2 volts. So I removed the battery and charged it and reinstalled it. I then measured the current draw with the key out of the ignition. I got a reading of 390 mA. This seems to be excessive. I believe I read that the draw should be no more than 50 mA. I verified that all of the interior lights were off. I then went to the power distribution panel and started removing fuses. Current draw went to zero when I pulled the 60A I/P fuse panel fuse. I reinstalled that fuse and went to the fuse panel inside. When I pulled fuse 27 the current draw dropped to 220 mA. I think this is the fuse that protects the interior lights. When I pulled fuse 25, current went to zero. This fuse protects the always hot, 12v feed to the GEM. So I think I have sort of isolated the problem, but I don't know what to do now? Does anyone have an suggestions or ideas? Thanks.

Jay

Reply to
Jay
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When measuring parasitic draw, the car needs to be "prepared" beforehand. It can take up to 45 minutes for all modules to "go to sleep". Something as simple as opening a door can wake a module up.

Preferred method... open all the doors and trip the latches so that the GEM "sees" them as being closed. Make your connections with your ampmeter and leave the car for at least 45 minutes. When you pull fuses, start with the CJB (underdash fuse panel)... Keep track - once a fuse is removed - do not reinstall it until the process is finished. If the fuse is reinstalled too early, it can wake a module up and skew your test results....

Reply to
Jim Warman

Jim, Thanks for the info. Parasitic draw was closer to 10 mA. One thing I did notice was that the battery voltage had dropped overnight. The last time I measured the voltage on the battery yesterday, it 12.8v and I left the negative terminal disconnected. This morning it was 10.6v. Jay

Jim Warman wrote:

Reply to
Jay

If the battery is self-discharging without being fully hooked up (the neg was disconnected you indicated) then it's time for a new battery I would think...

Reply to
Al Williams

Bad cell. (cell voltage is about 2.1v so any time you see multiples of that magic number, you know what it is) Time to replace the battery. Probably what happened is one of the cells has disintegrated inside so that almost no active material is left in the electrolyte.

sdb

Reply to
sylvan butler

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