SPONSORED LINKS

1998 Mercury Sable Short causing drain on battery

Tiny
EDFEETS
  • MEMBER
  • 1998 MERCURY SABLE
  • 6 CYL
  • FWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 100,450 MILES
I have a short in the electrical system causing a 300ma drain on the battery when car is not running. This causes the battery to run down after a couple days to the point the car will not turn over. I have isolated the short to a 5A fuse#23 that is marked WIPE-VAP on fuse cover or GEM. When I pull the fuse out the drain basically goes away and the car will start after many days idle. The car will run fine without the fuse, but the power windows, power door locks, windshield wipers and the remote door locks will not operate. What does the fuse control and where do I look for the problem. Thank you, Eric.
SPONSORED LINKS
Sunday, June 6th, 2010 AT 9:14 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,873 POSTS
Hi Eric. Welcome to the forum. "GEM" is Generic Electronic Module. That's Ford's name for their Body Computer which runs all the things you mentioned. Isn't it funny that all those systems worked fine for decades but now they need an expensive, unrelaible computer to do the same thing? Sounds like something inside the module is not turning off, but don't overlook a glovebox light that is staying on.

Caradiodoc
SPONSORED LINKS
Was this
answer
helpful?
Yes
No
-1
Monday, June 7th, 2010 AT 4:21 AM

Please login or register to post a reply.

Related Battery Drain Content

How to Test for a Battery Drain-Draw
VIDEO
How to Test for a Battery Drain-Draw
Instructional repair video
Battery Parasitic Drain Repair
GUIDE
Battery Parasitic Drain Repair
A car battery should hold its charge for a few months before needing to be recharged, if not the battery has gone bad or the car has a parasitic draw, something is staying ...
VIEW MORE

Sponsored links