Ryan M

Looking for some help,

the battery on my 2004 f-150 seems to be draining really quickly (overnight). The alternator seems fine cause the battery will charge when the vehicle is running. I checked all of the fuses and all are fine. Also since I charged up the battery last the radio will not turn on, perhaps that may have something to do with it or possibly another issue. Any help would be great thanks.

YellowFX4

time for a new battery try that first

Jake

You could have a power drain. Before you buy a battery, disconnect the negative battery cable, hook up a VOM between the negative battery terminal and the negative battery cable. If a drain is present it should show up on the meter...
Jake

Ryan M

The battery is about a month old so I going to assume that the battery is fine.

Jake, could you explain a little more on your solution. Sorry I'm pretty unfamiliar with electrical stuff. I'm assuming that VOM is a volt meter? If I connect it to the negative terminal and the negative cables what will show up on the VOM that will tell me whether there is a drain or not?

Thanks for the help

Mod (Ret.)

VOM - Volt ohm meter. If you have one of these, you would disconnect the negative cable from your battery, put the VOM on "amps" with the guage scale set to 100 amps, place one probe on the battery cable you just disconnected, and the other probe on the negative battery post. If the VOM needle shows a readining, then something is drawing the battery down.

Here's a much easier way; take the truck to your nearest Ford dealership; the service manager (or tech) will do a free charge check for you. They will test your new battery (it could still be defective; it has happened), they will also test your charging system (alternator/generator circuit).