Battery Tender/ Charging - Continuous Relay Clicking

[P_Baff]

Hello all! I’ve got an issue where my Bronco has been going in to battery saving mode and I put it on a 4AMP battery tender. It’s hooked up with the + lead at the + battery post and the - lead behind the voltage sensor. Bronco is locked and the fobs are far away. However, the tender never reaches “charged” and the Bronco is in a continuous relay loop. You can hear the relays click and small electronic whine that I figure might be the fuel pump. It’s does this every 70 seconds or so.

Has anyone else noticed this or experienced similar issues?

Thanks in advance!

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[DefNotBuddyLee]

Random relay clicking...yes. Not as frequent as every minute though for an extended period of time(I assume we are not talking about the first 2 minutes or so, but continuously for 15/30 mins?).
Not reaching "charged" status ever is weird. Generally the only time I can think of hearing relays continuously running and the battery never charging...dead battery with bad cells. Let's rule some things out-
-Does your battery tender work on other vehicles? (ruling out battery tender as issue)
-Are there signs that your battery is bad/dead? (ruling out battery as issue)
-Try attaching the negative clamp on your tender to a metal ground point instead of the negative terminal. Honestly, this is unlikely the issue, but I have seen a few random tenders that don't like being connected to the negative terminal for whatever reason.

 

[P_Baff]

Random relay clicking...yes. Not as frequent as every minute though for an extended period of time(I assume we are not talking about the first 2 minutes or so, but continuously for 15/30 mins?).
Not reaching "charged" status ever is weird. Generally the only time I can think of hearing relays continuously running and the battery never charging...dead battery with bad cells. Let's rule some things out-
-Does your battery tender work on other vehicles? (ruling out battery tender as issue)
-Are there signs that your battery is bad/dead? (ruling out battery as issue)
-Try attaching the negative clamp on your tender to a metal ground point instead of the negative terminal. Honestly, this is unlikely the issue, but I have seen a few random tenders that don't like being connected to the negative terminal for whatever reason.

Yes, the battery tender works on other batteries/ vehicles. But this is the only one where if only the + is connected it reads a .5V draw. (- not even connected and I’m not touching the Bronco whatsoever

It’s been in a continuous loop a for hours, probably even over night. If I pull the tender off the continuous loop stops.

I tried connecting the - to the battery mount bolt and cable and the same symptoms occur.

I should mention that this is the original battery since I took ownership in Feb. 2022. Been going into power saving mode more often ao it might be a bad or going bad battery.

 

[Brian_B]

Disconnect the battery from the Bronco and let it charge by itself for a while

Sounds like the computers are trying to reboot but the battery doesn’t have enough power and the 4amp charger isn’t quite enough either - so stuck in a reboot : not enough power so cycles off : reboot a bit later when a bit more power gets charged

Your battery probably is on its last legs but you may be able to eek a bit more out of it this way

 

[DefNotBuddyLee]

If you replace, don't forget to do the Ford Battery Maintenance System reset procedure.
Link
Thought this was crazy, but I do see a change in how the battery is maintained by the vehicle.

 

[Area51BS]

Is the maintainer made for AGM batteries? Does it have a force mode? Some can’t charge batteries below a certain voltage. I know 1st hand the NOCO will. Killed my work van AGM dual batteries dead. Brought them back 3 years ago and going strong Since 2019

 

[Brian_B]

If you replace, don't forget to do the Ford Battery Maintenance System reset procedure.
Link
Thought this was crazy, but I do see a change in how the battery is maintained by the vehicle.

My battery was starting to act funny - hadn't got deep sleep, but was constantly in high charge.

A night on the trickle charger and doing this procedure seems to have got it back to normal. It may not last a lot longer, it's got a few miles on it, but I hopefully can eek a bit more out of my battery as well. You aren't supposed to reset with an old battery in, but ... what the heck, if the worst that happens is I was about to replace it anyway.

 

[BigFootie]

Mine lives on the maintainer during the winter. Never makes a peep unlike my Sport which makes all kinds of sounds just when you walk by it. I do have a maintainer that has an AGM mode so maybe that does make a difference.

 

[Bill K]

I may not know for sure, but 4A seems kind of high for a maintainer. I use a 1A unit and it frequently gets to maintenance mode on my 2 year old battery. Time will tell whether this still works the same as the battery ages...

 

[Brian_B]

I may not know for sure, but 4A seems kind of high for a maintainer. I use a 1A unit and it frequently gets to maintenance mode on my 2 year old battery. Time will tell whether this still works the same as the battery ages...

Depends on what you are doing really. If you are leaving it unattended for days and weeks, a 1A will do ok.

But even my 10A, while trying to do something like Forscan or something, isn't enough to actually put any charge in the battery with Key On Engine Off.

It takes a while for all the automated stuff in the engine bay to die down for the amp draw to actually drop. There are computers on almost all the time.

And a ~good~ maintaner isn't going to sit at 4A all day long, they will throttle back as the charge gets up (that's why it's important to make sure your maintainer has an AGM mode) and actually maintain the battery, rather than just sit and overcharge and cook it.

 

[Owl]

I use a tender with AGM button about twice per month. It works fine. No problems, and no clicking... except when I've pulled the charger and close the hood. Then I get one click and that is it.

I got the charger off Amazon for about $25. It has three white buttons on the left, four red buttons on the right (lithium, ordinary, AGM, and Maintenance), and a small display that tells the charge-level on the top-right.

12v, 24v, AGM, and lithium batteries supported. This charger has worked well.

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