Just received my Noco 10 volt charger and digital volt meter..Wanting to monitor my battery but I don't know what numbers are good and what numbers indicate a problem..My battery just registered 13.13 volts. after being on a trickle charger for several days...Is that within normal range? I took it off the charger and will check voltage again in 24 hours and it willl not be driven... I'm expecting it to be less but I don't know what it should be..What is the normal expected drain and what would indicate a problem?

 

 

You can't tell much with a volt meter. My advice is to take the truck to pretty much any auto parts store and ask them to check your charging system. There is usually no charge for this, at least where I live.

 

I think my charging system is good..My problem is that my trucks goes to sleep when parked for only a couple of days. Dealer says that there is nothing wrong. .I've been keeping it on a trickle charger on days I don't drive it.

 

Sounds like you have something that's drawing too much current when the truck is shut off. You can use a DMM to test that. Disconnect the negative battery terminal. Then connect the DMM between the battery negative terminal the the negative cable you disconnected with the meter measuring current with the truck shut off. But be careful when doing this, as too much current can pop the fuse in your meter. If your meter is for voltage only then you won't be able to do this test. You want to see low double digit milliamps. Actual measurement to expect depends on trim level and what options are installed.

 

Plenty of 14G F150s have had bad batteries that needed to be replaced before the truck stopped shutting down due to low voltage.

 

Dealer did that..It did not help..

 

Ok so an AGM H7 battery which most the F150 with stop/start engine have the battery fully charged should only read like 12.6V. Repeated short trips with stop/start sequences takes more power from the battery than the alternator can put back in it. Use Engineering mode on truck. Hold OK button on steering wheel, press start without foot on brake to turn on truck the display will go to Eng. mode and do a lamp test, who cares. Use up/down buttons scroll through till you get to battery voltage display, if charged it should be 12.4-12.6 range for a factory AGM battery. Now press the accellerator to the floor and hold, the starter will run but the engine will not. With the starter trying to start the engine the load on the battery while cranking will drop the voltage to around 10.8 about, now let off the pedal the engine will start and voltage will go to around 14.5 while it is replacing the power you took from it starting the engine, now drive away in this mode as the battery charges the voltage will drop till about 13.2 volts, that mean the system Battery Management System thinks the battery is fully charged so it does not need the full 14v plus of a low battery. Once you do a good long drive and turn off the engine your display should be around 12.6, after a couple weeks without driving the truck just sitting it will drop to around 12.2 on it's way to going to sleep mode. My truck can go 3 weeks before sleep, but I toss the NOCO 10 on it over night once a week if not driven so that the battery is not abused going charge and drain cycles. When I use the truck it is for a multiple hundreds of miles trip, not a grocery getter, and I used Forscan to disable stop/start so it never wastes electricity on that stupid system.

 

Dealer undoubtedly installed another crappy Motorcraft battery. I bought a Wal Mart H8 and no issues since.

 

What is confusing this much of the time is the Charger is controlled by it's internal program designed for AGM battery charging.
You may well see 13 + volts at times until the program is satisfied and goes into float level that is lower by design.
Looking at it another way:
13.13 / 6 cells = 2.19 volts per cell rounded up. This is a max.
12.6 /13.13 = 96% of full charge.
This is inside the range Ford uses in the BMS Program for an AGM Battery control system from the BMS section of the Body Control Module.
After charging and some drive cycles, the BMS system will again take control and you will see anything from 12.0 to 12.8 in a fault free system..
The Battery actually has two Current ratings.
A. Reserve capacity mainly for low draw time.
B. CCA for heavy drains and temperature.
.
These drain levels act quite differently on the internal cell structure of a Chemical Power derived Battery where cell area is in play and gets worse with age..
Good luck.

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