reamer Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 My 2012 Escape will kill the battery after @ 2 days if not started. 2nd new Motorcraft battery, Load testing good (no bad cells). No error messages, codes. No lights or radio, ect stuck "on" Let the car go to "sleep" with doors closed and locked., hood open, No hood light. I did a quick amp reading (disconnect neg. bat. cable then series hook up of meter), waited 10 minutes, reading 30 milliamp draw Which is quite normal BUT persistent me, I stared at the DVM display for over 10 minutes, and a see there is a @170 milliamp spike "here and there" ….I'm thinking enough of these spikes could bring the battery to under 12V after 48 hours? Is there a device I can buy that I can data record the draw that is capable of recording down to 10 milliamps? Thoughts? Thanks Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 This Fluke does: https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/electrical-testing/digital-multimeters/fluke-289. But at $650..... But, the Pokitmeter has intrigued me: https://pokitmeter.com/. At $89 it sure looks good. My nephew put me onto it. Let me see if he bought one...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 This Fluke does: https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/electrical-testing/digital-multimeters/fluke-289. But at $650..... But, the Pokitmeter has intrigued me: https://pokitmeter.com/. At $89 it sure looks good. My nephew put me onto it. Let me see if he bought one...... He hasn't, but is still thinking of it. Maybe you should be the tester for us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rembrant Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 I did a quick amp reading (disconnect neg. bat. cable then series hook up of meter), waited 10 minutes, reading 30 milliamp draw Which is quite normal BUT persistent me, I stared at the DVM display for over 10 minutes, and a see there is a @170 milliamp spike "here and there" ….I'm thinking enough of these spikes could bring the battery to under 12V after 48 hours? Ron, The one little thing I can add is to do this test again with the meter in series. Do you have the alligator clips for the tips of the probes? I used a couple pieces of wire since the clips on my are fairly small, but whatever...so you can leave the meter in place hands free. Watch for your spikes, and then pull each fuse out of the fuse box one at a time and see if the spikes/draw goes away with any of them. That will at least narrow down the problem area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reamer Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 I did a quick amp reading (disconnect neg. bat. cable then series hook up of meter), waited 10 minutes, reading 30 milliamp draw Which is quite normal BUT persistent me, I stared at the DVM display for over 10 minutes, and a see there is a @170 milliamp spike "here and there" ….I'm thinking enough of these spikes could bring the battery to under 12V after 48 hours? Ron, The one little thing I can add is to do this test again with the meter in series. Do you have the alligator clips for the tips of the probes? I used a couple pieces of wire since the clips on my are fairly small, but whatever...so you can leave the meter in place hands free. Watch for your spikes, and then pull each fuse out of the fuse box one at a time and see if the spikes/draw goes away with any of them. That will at least narrow down the problem area. Hi Gary...Will look into this Now.. Cory this was done in series, The problem is that it spikes only for a second, not long enough to pull 1 fuse never mind a series of fuses. it would be an easy find if the draw was continuous.... When you coming to Corona,.... I mean Massachusetts, can you say "roll bar":nabble_anim_blbl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reamer Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 Hi Gary...Will look into this Now.. Cory this was done in series, The problem is that it spikes only for a second, not long enough to pull 1 fuse never mind a series of fuses. it would be an easy find if the draw was continuous.... When you coming to Corona,.... I mean Massachusetts, can you say "roll bar":nabble_anim_blbl: Gary, I ordered one, lets put it to the test...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old55pete Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 Gary, I ordered one, lets put it to the test...... Wasent the 2012 Escape one of the ones that were recalled because the alternator had a draw when the engine was off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 Gary, I ordered one, lets put it to the test...... Excellent! My nephew and I are anxious to see how it works. I recently almost purchased a Fluke for more than twice that price, and it doesn't do as much as that thing does. Please let us know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reamer Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 Gary, I ordered one, lets put it to the test...... Excellent! My nephew and I are anxious to see how it works. I recently almost purchased a Fluke for more than twice that price, and it doesn't do as much as that thing does. Please let us know how it goes. could be a while, looks like they come from Australia.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 could be a while, looks like they come from Australia.. What did that do to the shipping cost? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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