Chipadelphia

Okay, I know it's not really haunted...but it might as well be. I have a 2004 Ford F150 Lariat (5.4L). I've recently been experiencing weird electrical issues. The starter and battery were replaced no more than a year ago. The battery seems fine. Hooked it up to my Black and Decker BC15D and puts out the proper voltage and it's fully charged.
I do notice however when it's below freezing, it seems drained and usually doesn't start. I can jump start it fine as well. Now, when it's to the point where it won't start, the dash lighting usually gets really dim before even cranking. Today however, it was even more peculiar. I turned it on and let it warm up just to test it out this morning. I tried to do the same tonight after work and it would not start. At first they flickered (which never happened before) but then you could see the power being drained. At this time the headlights and brake lights would not shut off. The keys were out of the ignition, I messed with the **** and even took it out to see the wiring for any signs of damage or wetness; nothing out of place. I checked some of the fuses and tested them with a cheap tester and the only one that was bad was fuse 102 which is for the ignition switch feed. I tested it and the light didn't turn on so I swapped it with Fuse 103 (ABS valves) which uses the same type of fuse. Thing is when I pulled fuse 102 out, my truck went crazy. A strong clicking noise right next to the throttle body was going on. I put my hand on it to feel the constant clicking. Also, a prominent clicking could be heard underneath the rear seat, close to the gas tank. I ended up disconnecting the negative battery terminal so my lights wouldn't be on through the night.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm not an electrical savvy person, but if I'm pointed in the right direction, I don't see why I wouldn't be able to fix it.

Nocturnal1

Don't know if this is it, but......

redfishtd

Common problem, any bad electrical fault will cause our trucks to go crazy when battery gets low .
It could nave ruined your battery ,get auto zone to check out alt and load check battery after you put new FPDM on standoffs . Water/Salt on aluminum laying on steel bad news .
Dog gone it fuel pump demand module .

BadFish523

I would start with checking the FPDM, then have the battery checked where they can tell you the CCA. Since its having a harder time in the cold I also suspect the CCA are low. Bad battery can cause weird symptoms also. These trucks like to have 850 CCA I believe. From experience they will start with about 460 CCA but that wont last much more than a few months probably before it just wont start.

Chipadelphia

I've already replaced the FPDM. A little over a year ago as a precaution. The original one was pretty corroded. I think I'll jump it and take it to an auto parts store and have them check it. If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. Thanks for the help so far guys!

BadFish523

Then my guess is either bad connections in or around the battery or the battery itself. Beware some auto parts stores cannot check the CCA and I would guess if it is the battery its because of CCA. Some auto parts stores will tell you the battery is good because all of their tests can show good but it will still have low CCA.

techrep

iTrader: (1)

If you have a multimeter you could troubleshoot.. what's the date on your battery ? a bad voltage regulator in the alt. will cause crazy stuff also.

Chipadelphia

I finally had some time off work to resolve this problem. I have a Black & Decker battery charger with a "Battery Reconditioning" feature that pretty much breaks up sulfates. So I did that for about a full day then fully charged it the day after which took about 24 hours.

This time, I cleaned the terminals that were pretty clean to begin with and used my multimeter's 20V setting. To start it was 12.4 volts. Then I turned the headlights on for 2 minutes and eventually dropped to 12.1 volts. Now, when actually starting the truck, the lowest it dropped while cranking, was 9.04 volts. Then it gradually increased to 14 volts when the alternator began charging.

The YouTube video I got advice from mentioned that if your CCAs dropped below 10V then it's a sign your battery's got some wear and starting to go. I looked up when I bought this battery and it was in January of 2016. Thing is, truck was barely used until recently after fixing a problem with the catalytic converter and getting safety and emissions done.

So although I charged the battery before creating this post, THIS time I used the reconditioning feature. Maybe that's enough to bring it back to normal? The alternator checked out on my multimeter. Didn't see anything unusual with the wires either.

Lenn

Check the condition of your battery cables inside the insulation as well. I had an '02 that did some funny things like yours and it ended up that the cable that went from the battery to the fuse box was corroded/burnt. I replaced all the battery cables and all was well with the world. I know you can't see much by way of visually inspecting the cables, but feel them. They should be nice and pliable (relatively speaking, of course). If they're hard and you can't move them around easily, you might have some internal corrosion similar to what "grows" on your terminals.