Continuing problem with Ford Transit

swingaloo

My son has a Ford Transit. Its a 06 reg, diesel engine LWB.

When he bought it the guy said it had a new battery on. After using it about 6 times the battery was dead. I suggested that he may have heard the guy wrong and that maybe the guy had said it needed a new battery on.

So he got a new battery fitted. after a few uses the new one was flat.

He took it into a garage who could not find a problem so they called out an auto electrician. The auto electrician could not find any fault and said it must be a duff battery.

Not convinced he called out a mobile auto electrician who came to the house and said there was no electrical fault, everything was doing what it should and the only thing that could be causing the problem was a duff battery. He said to get a new battery and if still a problem call him back but he said he was 100% certain the problem was the battery.

So he ordered a new heavy duty battery through the garage as the first one had come from Halfords and even though they had looked up the registration to find the correct battery type he thought there may have been a mistake so the garage ordered him a 'better' battery.

Got it home and fitted it and again after about 6 uses it is dead again. The garage (who we have used for years for all our vehicles and is always reliable and has a good reputation locally) cant find any mechanical fault, they have changed the terminals on the battery and done everything they can try.

We have called the auto electrician who was adamant it was the battery but he apparently retired at Christmas and he gave us the number of another auto electrician.
This auto electrician turns out to be the one the local garage had used when my son took the van in to the garage. He said that having previously checked the van and found no fault he doesn't see what he can do differently.


Obviously there is a problem but its had 2 new batteries, 2 different auto electricians and a mechanic all saying there is no fault and they are baffled.


Any idea where to go with this please? Its pointless replacing the battery again and keep on getting auto electricians out to say they cant find a fault seems crazy.


Anyone have any idea what it could be?

tonyh66

parasitic battery drain? check out youtube for the tests.
get a multimeter and check the voltage every day.
The flat battery should be chargeable. so its not lost.

davidwood681

You say it's a LWB......some have 2 batteries. Both under the driver seat

swingaloo

Thank you for the replies.

They have already checked for battery drainage and say nothing is draining it.

It is a long wheel base and the battery is behind the drivers seat but there is definitely only one battery.

Its so frustrating that no fault can be found when there clearly must be one.

alan_d

To me, this sounds like either:
- An intermittent parasitic load, that happens after it's been off for a while
- An alternator fault, which is overcharging the battery (maybe at higher engine speeds), then killing it

As it's not practical to continually monitor the battery voltage over long periods, maybe a cheap voltage data logger taking a reading once a minute would show if the voltage starts to nose-dive after a while.
The same could record the voltage when driving, and prove it it goes too high.
I've got one I bought from Maplins back in the day which can do this.

There could be something daft like an aftermarket heater triggered when the temperature drops too low.
Or dying alternator diode pack that shorts when it gets too hot or cold.

Your son has found why the previous owner sold it