Odd electrical issue with my Lincoln.

[shady]

I know it's not a Chevy, but I'm kind of in a bind.

97 Lincoln Town car, completely stock.

Car has only been driven about 3 miles in like 2 years. It has been started and moved around the yard/shop here and there basically. Longest it's sat without starting has been about a 3 month stretch. Usually just get in, hit the key, and it goes.

Now it acts like it has no battery.

Electronic fancy battery charger says the battery is fully charged and good.

No dome, dash, or head lights.
No dings or anything when the key goes in or turns.... Nothing.

I've checked all the visible connections and every fuse.

Anyone ever had something similar ..?

Started and ran fine when I moved it to where it is a week or 2 ago .

 

[rampage]

Have a multimeter? I wouldn’t trust that fancy onboard battery charger thingamajig. It can read 12V without a load, but once a load is placed on the battery it could go to 0V. Start checking at the battery with no load and then with something like the dome light or headlights on. If battery checks out good then continue moving upstream. You might find that there’s internal corrosion inside the cables coming off the battery that isn’t visible. If so you could test that by using a pair of jumper cables from the battery to starter. Also, any sign of rodent activity? They love wire insulation!

 

[diesel4me]

Most Fords have a giant "master fuse" somewhere under the hood,that is like 50+ amps..
I have seen some mounted on the engine or bell housing area or elsewhere, the main power feed wires are protected by it..if a major short happens it'll pop that fuse..

I'd suspect rodents also if the battery ends up being able to pass a load test..

My friend "fixed" an older Crown Vic in his shop a customer had brung to several other shops with no success,it had similar symptoms..everything "dead"...one shop charged him $600 for "diagnosis labor" with zero results--and he paid it!..a few other shops just gave up after an hour or two and said "get it out of here,we can't figure it out"..

It took him a few long days of wire tracing,but he finally found a thick red wire that ran behind the drivers side headlamps trapped in between panels,that chafed in one spot,then turned gangrene and finally failed to allow any current to pass..

The car was supposedly cutting out or stalling every once in a while ,wouldn't do it every time it was driven,and was able to re-start and drive normally again usually,but the last time it did it it wouldn't crank or do anything at all...evidently the last few strands finally gave out that day..my friend charged the customer $200,said he lost about $1000 worth of time trying to pinpoint the issue ,he had to turn away several brake & muffler jobs while he worked on the Crown Vic..

 

[shady]

No sign of rodents. And it had no lights or signs or electricity with the charger running.

I haven't had time to throw cables on it yet. Probably try that tomorrow.

Every thing looks great connection wise. But I cannot see the engine/frame ground. It's under the car and I can't jack it up well where it's at . I'd say it's most likely fine though.

 

[rampage]

You can also try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery cables or wiggling the wires, seen that work a few times. Other than that you need to break out the correct tool to do electrical diagnostics.

 

[diesel4me]

I'd start by testing the battery,though with a charger hooked up,you should at least get a dome light and other things to work..maybe a battery cable turned to dust inside while it sat ?..

Maybe the battery terminals have a nice black grunge growing between the cable ends and terminals..

I have spare batteries I leave in the garage to jump start things and every time I go to use one,the terminals look black,especially the positive,and I have to either scrape them clean with a knife or really twist the jumper cables on the terminals to get a connection..that lead oxide is a good insulator..

 

[shady]

The power comes of the batt and lands on a main terminal of a big fuse box. Then another wire from the batt parallels that one past the fuse box and continues to the starter.
I'm not positive but I seem to remember it doing this once before and it started immediately after hooking up jumper cables... Then didn't mess up again.. .

Maybe the batt does have an issue. I have a few newish spares to try

 

[shady]

Pulled batt cables and theyre clean.

 

[shady]

I'll try a different batt tomorrow I think...

But the no juice with the charger on still sort of sounds odd

 

[pblaze725]

Sounds like the battery fell asleep.

I’ve been working a a few cars that have been sitting for several months and the batteries cells can seem to fall asleep (for lack of a better term).

I’ve put them on the charger, a few hours later it says it’s 100% , then unplug the charger and plug it back in and i’m Back to 10-15%. After repeating the process several times over 3days the thing finally wakes up (sometimes).

I’d put my 2 cents on a dead battery due to a small draw like a clock or memory.

 

[shady]

I had thought of the small draw. But it started like a champ maybe 2 weeks ago. Sat a month or 2 before that.

I have another top post that I'm going to try in it... Wanted to try today. But it's raining pretty good. So it'll have to wait.

 

[shady]

Didn't change the battery, but I put a set of cables on it and it took off. I'll put the other battery in it for a while and see what happens I guess. Probably take it down to O'Riley's to have that batt tested.

Thanks for ideas guys. Hope it stays working

 

[fordsucks!]

Sounds like battery to me. it hasnt been cycled, gave up the ghost. Battery charger will show good but it won't start the car. If it started on jumper cables then you definitely have a bad battery

 

[diesel4me]

Some of the cheaper "battery tenders" never taper off the charge,and after a long time even 1 amp can fry a battery...batteries need to be discharged and cycled to maintain good cells,keeping them on charge constantly can kill them..

 

[shady]

I changed the battery finally and power to spare now lol. Hopefully it's a bad battery and not the car killing the batteries.