Battery drain. Ford transit connect
Discussion
Evening all.
2014 Transit connect. New battery fitted at Ford in July. Keeps going flat. Can’t find any issue.
My question is, is it the way it’s being driven / used?Typical use Mon- Fri is 1.5mile drive. Park for 1/2hr. 800m drive. Park for 6 hours. During which van is in and out of for stock so being locked /unlocked and courtesy light coming on. Drive 1.5 miles home. Repeat Mon-Fri. No use at weekend other than open / closing for stocking up. Monday am battery flat.
Should I get a trickle charger?
Thanks.
2014 Transit connect. New battery fitted at Ford in July. Keeps going flat. Can’t find any issue.
My question is, is it the way it’s being driven / used?Typical use Mon- Fri is 1.5mile drive. Park for 1/2hr. 800m drive. Park for 6 hours. During which van is in and out of for stock so being locked /unlocked and courtesy light coming on. Drive 1.5 miles home. Repeat Mon-Fri. No use at weekend other than open / closing for stocking up. Monday am battery flat.
Should I get a trickle charger?
Thanks.
That sounds like almost worst case use scenario for a battery. Started 3 times a day with less than 15 minutes to recharge and lots of extra strain during the day won’t be doing it any favours.
It won’t just be the lights coming on; a lot of the vans electronics will be wakened as soon as you press the unlock button on the fob, and probably won’t immediately shut off when it gets locked again.
Turning the courtesy lights off/down, especially the duration of them would be a start.
Set interior lights to not come on with door openings.
A permanent fly lead for a battery charger/maintainer would be a good idea if you’re going down that route to save faffing about connecting it up; it sounds like you’ll be doing it regularly.
As an aside, taking the van for a proper drive, taking it up to temperature and running through the Rev range once in a while would probably do it the world of good. Iimagine that amount of use never sees it get up to proper running temps.
Another option might be a solar panel on the roof to help offset some of the drain, but it would probably be more involved and expensive.
It won’t just be the lights coming on; a lot of the vans electronics will be wakened as soon as you press the unlock button on the fob, and probably won’t immediately shut off when it gets locked again.
Turning the courtesy lights off/down, especially the duration of them would be a start.
Set interior lights to not come on with door openings.
A permanent fly lead for a battery charger/maintainer would be a good idea if you’re going down that route to save faffing about connecting it up; it sounds like you’ll be doing it regularly.
As an aside, taking the van for a proper drive, taking it up to temperature and running through the Rev range once in a while would probably do it the world of good. Iimagine that amount of use never sees it get up to proper running temps.
Another option might be a solar panel on the roof to help offset some of the drain, but it would probably be more involved and expensive.
Vron said:
Thanks for the replies. Looks like a trickle charger is needed. I’ve looked at the solar panel ones, are they going to be any good in UK weather ?
I bought one for a car I use infrequently, and it has stopped me having to replace the battery every year. If you're parking somewhere that you have power, a cheap "proper" trickle charger would probably be better though.If it's got a DPF, this will be making matters worse - regeneration will start on a short run & can't complete causing the cooling fans to run at full pelt for several minutes to cool things down. A decent run every couple of weeks will prevent this (and possibly the battery flattening issue).
I used to have a similar problem with both a Transit Connect and then a Vito.
A two mile drive to work, in and out of the van during the day and then a two mile drive home. Not much of an issue through the better months of the year but during winter when your lights were on, heater on, wipers etc the battery would discharge faster that the alternator could recharge it.
I used to have to stick the battery charger on it once a week or once a fortnight just to give it a little boost. The problem rectified itself when I moved to about eight miles away from work.
A two mile drive to work, in and out of the van during the day and then a two mile drive home. Not much of an issue through the better months of the year but during winter when your lights were on, heater on, wipers etc the battery would discharge faster that the alternator could recharge it.
I used to have to stick the battery charger on it once a week or once a fortnight just to give it a little boost. The problem rectified itself when I moved to about eight miles away from work.
I am also facing intermittent battery drain on my 2014 Transit Connect. I have been watching the problem for many months - and have made a correlation that maybe will help someone more educated than me make a diagnosis.
When things will be fine, my backup camera works and the 4" center screen looks normal -
When I'll have battery drain, the backup camera won't work and the 4" screen has bright blotches where text would normally appear.
It seems to run for days in each of these states, and I have no idea what triggers it to toggle between them.
Any thoughts?
When things will be fine, my backup camera works and the 4" center screen looks normal -
When I'll have battery drain, the backup camera won't work and the 4" screen has bright blotches where text would normally appear.
It seems to run for days in each of these states, and I have no idea what triggers it to toggle between them.
Any thoughts?
Gassing Station | Home Mechanics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff