Stupid weather...stupid batteries

[westend]

It's been worse than a walk-in freezer up here, lately. I just tried to start my truck and the battery is dead. Put the shop charger on it and at the 40 amp setting, I had electrolyte streaming out of the cap vents. It must be frozen to act like that. The case sides are not bulged and I've now pulled it to thaw inside the shop. After it thaws and is charged, I'll put the hydrometer on it and fill the cells.

I noticed the battery cable terminations were kind of crudded up. I'll have to pay more attention to those in the future. That, and Ford's stupid door ajar system that is probably the reason for the discharged state (it keeps the overhead light on even with all doors firmly closed).

[MEXICOWANDERER]

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:
AGM
No outgassing to crud yer terminals..
No "Its got electrolytes!!" to check or add water..
and I dont care what people say about heat and AGM, all my vehicles have AGM and in Phoenix in 118 degrees with the AC on high, Im sure its a balmy 200+ under the hood. Still going strong after 5 years.

It's like people reading newspapers and arriving at an "Alternative Reality".

Actual reporting is always trumped by guesswork, assumptions, and clever advertising.

[marcsbigfoot20b]

AGM
No outgassing to crud yer terminals..
No "Its got electrolytes!!" to check or add water..
and I dont care what people say about heat and AGM, all my vehicles have AGM and in Phoenix in 118 degrees with the AC on high, Im sure its a balmy 200+ under the hood. Still going strong after 5 years.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Call me comfortable. Call me lazy. Just don't call me late for ice cream...

[Passin_Thru]

You bunch of Cry Babies, It was 120 and rained all the time in Vietnam. So hot the front of your thighs sweat. I worked at Yuma and it was 119 all summer. I was in Minnesota and it was -50 and the chill factor was -90. You know what the Mongolians do about the -50 degrees? They don't do anything but let it be -50. I walked to school, backward in blizzards, in Miami too. It's 25 and I'm on the porch with shorts and a T, (under 3 layers)

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Well, no excitement with the weather (yawn) sort of boring. It's a pain to have to smear on suntan lotion and be forced to choose which color shorts go with which color tee shirt. Once the sun ducks behind the big parota tree I'll sneak out and check the oil and radiator. Dang! Out of ice cubes again...





JAN 4
Sunny
83°72°

10%
WSW 9 mph 77%
UV Index Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset
8 of 10
7:21 am

6:27 pm

9:32 pm

9:42 am
Sunny skies. High 83F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Thu Night
JAN 4
Clear
--72°

10%
NNW 7 mph 92%
UV Index Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset
0 of 10
7:21 am

6:27 pm

9:32 pm

9:42 am
Clear skies. Low 72F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Fri
JAN 5
Sunny
82°72°

0%
SSE 8 mph 78%
Sat
JAN 6
Mostly Sunny
82°73°

10%
SSE 8 mph 77%
Sun
JAN 7
Sunny
81°71°

10%
WSW 10 mph 77%
Mon
JAN 8
Sunny
81°71°

10%
SW 9 mph

[hawkeye-08]

Mex, how's the guest room? Got some vacancies? How far to the beach? I'm not even in the deep freeze part of the country and already done with this winter.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Hmmmmm 300 watts for a dog...


Does this mean 900 watts for a Three Dog Night? And for years, I thought...

[pnichols]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I can load up and inside four hours go from tropical summer to seventy degree 40% humidity in the pines. Can anyone up there drive from Anti Algore to seventy degrees in four hours? By switching AC units I tinker in cool dehumidified air or sleep in it. Five hundred watts worth. What can your 500 watt heater do? My pipes don't break, and there is no "Tropic Ice" for an idiot to smack into me on the roadways. Batteries don't quit and skin does not get Tropic Warm Bitten. Eighty degree ocean temperature. Three or four showers a day. Hmmm I wonder who has it harder...?

X2. Bout describes where we live when not on the road.

Sometimes the DW sleeps out in the RV in the winter because of it's fantastic mattress. When she does, she uses this 150 (no, I didn't leave a zero off) watt heater to keep the dog warm. We have a couple of these just in case 300 watts are needed on really chilly California nights:

[westend]

DiskDoctr wrote:

westend wrote:
To answer a few questions:
Ford's implementation of "door ajar" and what it does/doesn't do. This is all about the truck in my sig line, 2003 Ford F-250 Crew Cab 4x4 5.4 V8. When a door is left open or closed/unlatched, open/latched the door ajar circuit is powered, a signal voltage is sent to the instrument cluster illuminating the located open door and the trucks ECU keeps the circuit powering the cabin overhead light powered for about 10 minutes or until 1/4 mi of forward travel has occurred. When I first brought the truck home, a mechanically disinclined ex-buddy monkeyed around with a rear door child safety switch and the door ajar problem has persisted, since. The result is that the cabin overhead light remains on when parked or, sometimes comes on by itself for a short time. I guess it is time to do some surgery and repair/replace the offending mechanism. At the same time, I'll replace the cabin lights with LED's.

If you have access to something like AutoEnginuity, it can tell you which door is reading as ajar. Once you find it, simply replace the sensor unit on that door.

Some get lucky with WD40 or whatever, but on my Excursion the sensor is different than the latch, no moving parts. Remove and unplug old, in with the new.

Often it isn't the door people suspect. FYI on the Excursion there are TWO sensors on the back hatch and only on the top, not the bottom doors 😉

Unless you have a bad GEM module, this should fix the problem. I've not experienced the GEM as mine has the hybrid cluster. Not sure if that fails the same way as the GEM or not?

Fix it up, thumb your nose at this bad weather :C

Good stuff! I don't know what Mr. Screw-around-with-a-door did. I wasn't looking and he had futzed something up by the time I discovered an issue. The instrument cluster warning light does depict the door location and I am fairly certain I know which one is causing grief. I'm just getting lazier and don't like pulling door panels but it isn't that difficult to fix, IIRC.

[westend]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Holy Water For Vampire Battery Terminal Corrosion...

I had thought about using a penny or a piece of copper under the (+) post clamp, like the old days (sacrificial anode). I decided I didn't want a bunch of oxide on the battery top, I'll just do better maintenance.

The post clamps on this truck are copper plated steel with a space in the center of the clamp. The steel is exposed at the edges and offers a perfect oxide building location. I'm going to change them out. I did hit the posts with grease and the clamps with spray protectant.

[westend]

Terryallan wrote:

westend wrote:
To answer a few questions:
Ford's implementation of "door ajar" and what it does/doesn't do. This is all about the truck in my sig line, 2003 Ford F-250 Crew Cab 4x4 5.4 V8. When a door is left open or closed/unlatched, open/latched the door ajar circuit is powered, a signal voltage is sent to the instrument cluster illuminating the located open door and the trucks ECU keeps the circuit powering the cabin overhead light powered for about 10 minutes or until 1/4 mi of forward travel has occurred. When I first brought the truck home, a mechanically disinclined ex-buddy monkeyed around with a rear door child safety switch and the door ajar problem has persisted, since. The result is that the cabin overhead light remains on when parked or, sometimes comes on by itself for a short time. I guess it is time to do some surgery and repair/replace the offending mechanism. At the same time, I'll replace the cabin lights with LED's.

.

From what I am reading. It is NOT Fords system so much, as it is your buddy messing with the circuits.

Correct!

[DiskDoctr]

westend wrote:
To answer a few questions:
Ford's implementation of "door ajar" and what it does/doesn't do. This is all about the truck in my sig line, 2003 Ford F-250 Crew Cab 4x4 5.4 V8. When a door is left open or closed/unlatched, open/latched the door ajar circuit is powered, a signal voltage is sent to the instrument cluster illuminating the located open door and the trucks ECU keeps the circuit powering the cabin overhead light powered for about 10 minutes or until 1/4 mi of forward travel has occurred. When I first brought the truck home, a mechanically disinclined ex-buddy monkeyed around with a rear door child safety switch and the door ajar problem has persisted, since. The result is that the cabin overhead light remains on when parked or, sometimes comes on by itself for a short time. I guess it is time to do some surgery and repair/replace the offending mechanism. At the same time, I'll replace the cabin lights with LED's.

If you have access to something like AutoEnginuity, it can tell you which door is reading as ajar. Once you find it, simply replace the sensor unit on that door.

Some get lucky with WD40 or whatever, but on my Excursion the sensor is different than the latch, no moving parts. Remove and unplug old, in with the new.

Often it isn't the door people suspect. FYI on the Excursion there are TWO sensors on the back hatch and only on the top, not the bottom doors 😉

Unless you have a bad GEM module, this should fix the problem. I've not experienced the GEM as mine has the hybrid cluster. Not sure if that fails the same way as the GEM or not?

Fix it up, thumb your nose at this bad weather :C

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Holy Water For Vampire Battery Terminal Corrosion...

[ktmrfs]

westend wrote:
It's been worse than a walk-in freezer up here, lately. I just tried to start my truck and the battery is dead. Put the shop charger on it and at the 40 amp setting, I had electrolyte streaming out of the cap vents. It must be frozen to act like that. The case sides are not bulged and I've now pulled it to thaw inside the shop. After it thaws and is charged, I'll put the hydrometer on it and fill the cells.

I noticed the battery cable terminations were kind of crudded up. I'll have to pay more attention to those in the future. That, and Ford's stupid door ajar system that is probably the reason for the discharged state (it keeps the overhead light on even with all doors firmly closed).

sounds like the battery was discharged. a reasonably charged battery electrolyte won't freeze even at -40F/C. a discharged battery will freeze not much below 32F.