petermbooth Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 I went to a motocross race yesterday and at the end of the day my FTC (Cargo) battery was dead. The doors were open quite a bit throughout the day. Im surprised that this killed the battery as I have left the doors open for a day while in the race pits and have never had this problem before. I'm wondering (a) does it make sense to others that having the doors open all day would kill the battery? (b) is there something else I may have done yesterday that may have killed the battery or (c) is there a way to disable the dome lights if this is what killed my battery? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta Don Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 My interior lights go off after a period of time when the doors are left open. You didn't say how old your TC is or if it's the original battery or not. An aging battery will eventually give up the ghost doing ordinary things it can handle when it was newer and in good shape. If your battery is more than 4 years old, at least it gave you a warning that it's time to replace it, rather than just not starting one morning when there's someplace you really needed to go ? Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petermbooth Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 Sorry for the lack of info. It's a 2018 Cargo LWB. I bought it in November, so the van (and battery are less than a year old.) Is there a way to modulate (or turn off) the brightness of the dome lights in the back of the van? There's a switch on the light in front, but I can't find a way to turn down/off the rear lights when a door is open. Likewise, I'm looking for a way to turn off the outer parking lights when a door is open. Anyone have any ideas on how to do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtn Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 My battery has gone flat several times. Today the latest. Could not get the car running after it has sat outside for an hour after a two hour drive. I had forgotten my laptop charger in the 12V socket but it should not kill the battery in an hour. There’s definitely something wrong with it. Had a towing service give me a jump start. Should really get a battery pack of my own. Drove back home for two hours and the battery charge had only gotten up from 48% to 65%. Charging voltage seems fine (14.3V), battery voltage during charging is 14.1V but after that it’s 12.3V (at 65% charge), which is basically a dead battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windguy Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 3 hours ago, petermbooth said: Sorry for the lack of info. It's a 2018 Cargo LWB. I bought it in November, so the van (and battery are less than a year old.) Is there a way to modulate (or turn off) the brightness of the dome lights in the back of the van? There's a switch on the light in front, but I can't find a way to turn down/off the rear lights when a door is open. Likewise, I'm looking for a way to turn off the outer parking lights when a door is open. Anyone have any ideas on how to do that? Check out this thread below for a thorough discussion. Since you have a 2018, the dealer "should" be able to disable the approach lights. Or you can do it yourself using Forscan with the right ODBI reader. In the meantime, if your driver's window is down, you can use the high beam lever to turn off. Push forward then back. Better to have that featured disabled permanently. Good luck! PS - If you don't have one, as poster MRTN mentioned, good to have a jump start battery pack handy. I now have one for both our vehicles. There's a thread about this subject as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booner Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 Take your truck into the dealer and have them load test the battery. A one year old battery shouldn't go bad, but some do; get it load tested so you know what kind of shape it's in. If it's bad, the warrantee should cover most of the cost of replacement. and it's a female dog to remove it. I'll pay someone else to do it. My battery went bad real quick, but it was four years old. These batteries are not very big, so when they start going south, it's a fast trip. It went dead twice in one week, and if I hadn't had my POD (Power on Demand) in the vehicle, it would have been a long walk. The price of the unit was just about what the cost of calling someone and getting a jump start, so I call it a worthwhile investment. On the second time it went dead, I kept on getting an error message about "Key not detected."????? I also found out that if you try and start the truck 5 or 6 times within a few minutes, the computer locks it out for 30 minutes as it resets before you can try another restart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtn Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 Oh yeah. I got a new battery. Took me an hour and a half to get it replaced. There was an inch of clearance to get to the rear terminal and the rear battery cover did not come out, too tight. I looked like I had gotten into a fight with a cat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifty150 Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 I'm really starting to not like the big sloping windshield, short hood design. Even the valve cover, engine oil fill cap, and spark plugs are hard to access. If you disconnect the ground wire at the body, next to the driver side hood hinge, first; that will allow the battery to slide out further for you to disconnect the negative terminal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtn Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 I did that first, but the weird block of wires in the front of the battery box did not move down/away enough to slide the battery out to the necessary position. Perhaps 3" only or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta Don Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 It is hard to change a battery in a Gen 2 TC - You gotta cut some ties and lay that front part with the power distribution panel down near flat before you can slide the battery out. I replaced mine way before it went bad with a larger AGM battery because I was also installing an inverter to charge my Segways. The AGM has more amp hours and can be discharged more deeply without hurting it than the little flooded battery Ford installs. There's a thread here somewhere which details the installation of the AGM battery - Several of us have done it By all means, if you need a new battery and you buy one from anywhere that includes free installation in the purchase price, stand back and watch whoever installs your new one use up all his cuss words and save yours for another project! ? Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtn Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 Haha, the shop I bought the battery from told me right away that they would not want to install it if it's possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Double Nickels Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 It's more work. But nothing really hard. It helps to know what should be removed, and in which order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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