Ok guys im stumped with my truck and need help trouble shooting, The problem is im in Afghanistan so im have to tell my wife and father inlaw what to look for. Before i came out here a year ago i replaced mu battery and a year before that i replaced the alternator so i know neither one is the issue. The problem is if my truck 2004 F150 fx4 s/c set for longer the 2 days the battery is dead and wife has to jump it off. If she drive it everyday after doing so there is no issue. Just if it set for longer then 2 days. Its been doing it for a year now and im out of ideas what it could be. Took the truck to the dealer before i left the states and they said the battery was bad so i change it. Truck still wont start after 2 days of seating, my best guess is something is pulling on the battery i just dont know what everything is oem stock that deal with the electrical. If anyone has had this issue or could shed some light on my delima it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Guys

 

does anyone have any insight seriously

 

You have a mild electrical draw. You mention the truck is stock, have you owned it since it was new? Do you have any radar detectors, stereo, phone chargers etc? Remote start or alarm system OEM or otherwise. With that info I can try to offer some advise in easy to understand terms to pass along.

Thank you for your service!!

 

First I want to reiterate what CJW02001 said where anything that's been added into your truck even a head unit or alarm or anything plugged into a cigarette lighter should be the first thing that's unhooked to rule it out, because they're the most common sources of a draw.

Draws can be tough to find, and are even tougher to help someone find over the internet. If your father in law or wife are at least familiar with a multimeter and have a wiring diagram we can probably figure this thing out. If they have no clue, all you can really do is have it draw tested by a tech, preferably a dealer tech.

What you have to do is disconnect the negative battery terminal and attach the black lead of the multimeter to it, and with a pair of vice grips lightly clamp the red lead to the negative battery terminal and with the multimeter set to the 10 amp setting, not the milliamp setting, wait about 45 minutes to make sure all the computers and modules in the vehicle have gone to sleep. Obviously all the doors and everything have to be closed and everything turned off. And if they try to start the truck or run the headlights the meter will blow a $15 fuse. After you let the time pass if the meter reads more than .02-.04 amps you've got a battery draw for sure. The way you find what's causing the battery draw is one at a time you pull each fuse from the under hood fuse box and after each one check to see if the amps drop down to where it should be, then when the amps do drop down, you've pinpointed the fuse that powers the problem and can find the problem by checking all the circuits controlled by that fuse.

So like I said, it'll take someone fairly knowledgeable about electronics and has a decent multimeter to find it, but if they are equipped and want to give it a go that's all the basic steps. And I would also like to thank you for your service, and hopefully we can help get your truck fixed for when you get home

 

Thank you. No dont have any thing like radar detector or nothing like that and still have stock head unit. Electricly the truck is stuck with the exception of adding the oem aux port but dont see that bein the issue but i can tell them to unhook it and see if that solve the problem. My wifes grandpa is a ford mech and i took the truck to the dealer before leaving the states the told me it was a bad battery luckly was still under warrenty red top optima so put it in before leaving but still got the draw. Thank you for you insight i relay the advice

 

Yeah if they just tested the battery they didn't do an amp draw test. You'd have to specify that's what you want, and it probably wouldn't be super cheap, at least 2 hours labor depending on what they find.