It is progressively charging longer and longer before giving an error that the battery needs to be replaced or serviced. At first it would only charge for a few seconds before the error, now it charges for a few minutes. I think the battery is just shot.

Going to try a regular jump and if that doesn't work call Ford roadside assistance.

Is it okay to ground to the silver part of the engine or is that aluminum?

 

Yeah it is ok that is still a ground,,, the only thing aluminum isn't is magnetic.. it is still a very good conductor of electricity so positive and negative flow through it very well!.

I doubt your battery is shot however you never gave me the year or anything but I assumed it was only about a year old. For some reason Ford is having a little issue with battery draining and it is probably because of the Battery current sensor. Like I said that is normal with a battery charger especially the small ones. they can see a load so they report a battery problem. A battery charger that size is great if you come out and your truck almost starts but just doesn't have enough power,,, then the charger will work but still not as a jump start,,, you need tons more amps than 75 to start a truck.

 

It's a 2010 Lariat but I think the battery is newer than that. It is an OEM battery.

I think I left the headlights on, but from my understanding they are supposed to auto-shut off. Not sure what happened there.

 

You need a multimeter to properly diagnose the problem. Even the $5 harbor freight one can work for something simple like this. You need to check what the battery voltage is. You also need to voltage drop your ground(s) to make sure you have a good connection.

You can pull the battery out and take it to your local parts store and they can test it for you. I'm more of a diy guy so learning how to properly diagnose electrical issues has saved me a lot of wasted time and heartache.

 

I tried jumping with another vehicle and while there was more power to the cab the vehicle did not turn over. The electrical on the interior was going ape**** with lots of ticking and clicking going on.

Ford roadside is going to try and come jump it and if that doesn't work I'll either get a new battery myself or have it towed to the dealership.

 

Mechanic friend came over to try and jump it. He connected to the dead negative terminal and we were able to get the truck to turn over 1-1.5 times but no joy on the start.

I didn't think we were supposed to connect to the dead negative terminal but he didn't even hesitate? He works at the local mercedes as a maybach tech.

 

The jumper cables can be connected to the negative and positive terminals of your truck battery BEFORE connecting to the vehicle providing the jump. The final connection to the vehicle providing the jump is positive first and negative to a good engine ground AWAY from the battery. The reason for this is IF any hydrogen gas has been emitted from either battery there will not be a source of ignition (spark) at the battery. A load test on the battery is important because if the battery is in a sulfated condition, then no charge in the world will bring it back to life. I don't drive my truck as an everyday driver, so I keep a battery tender connected to it. Works great - keeps the battery fully charged without ever over charging. Hope you get the truck started and get things squared away with the battery.

 

Well as a last ditch resort before going to buy a battery I put the jumper/charger on one more time but this time put the black clamp directly on the terminal instead of grounding it somewhere. It immediately began to charge and wasn't giving me "replace your battery" error messages like it was when the black clamp was grounded on the block.

I left it charging for 90 minutes and then it fired right up. Drove for an hour and should be good to go. Would have cost me $100+ if I had just stuck with grounding it to the block or frame.

Will try to start it up again in 6 hours to ensure it's working. Gotta drive to the airport at 0330!

 

at my old job in a shop for a big mining company we would take the booster pac and attach to both the positive and negative. the pack we used had an on off switch and had a volt meter on it and if your less than 5 volts i would seriously consider not jumping it and just getting a new battery, reason being we had 5 batteries blow in two months.

 

if your battery has a dead short it will not crank and could explode. just remove it from truck and have it tested.