These things are what I feared would happen. For liability reasons and also for money reasons, any Ford dealership (some use another term) is going to require a diagnostic procedure to document the state of the system for their records in case you decide to sue them. For that they are going to charge you for the recommended procedure as per the Ford factory and their lawyers, so you cannot get the $50 "drive in charge up and leave" quickie that you want.

You should not see that much voltage drop at the terminals if the battery is in good condition and the terminals are also. I still recommend trying the jump start button procedure with another vehicle attached safely via jumper cables. Now you also have to suspect that you have a current leak through the terminals that should not be happening under normal circumstances. You're depleting the 12V battery somehow, or the terminals are not good.

You cannot argue with Ford dealerships. Period. They are going to do their procedures by the book to make sure they dot all the "i's" and cross all the "t's" according to the Ford lawyers who make sure they cannot be sued by anyone. That's how it is, unfortunately. They are not your local mechanic who is sometimes willing to try something "unorthodox" - they are strictly "by the book." Big companies get sued *dozens* of times every single day by people who want to try and extort money from them, and the dealers are not going to take chances on a 14 year old car that is so far out of warranty it might as well be an antique. In their minds, if you really want to drive an antique, you should be willing to pay for it, buy a new car, or get out off their property.

This is part of the reason WHY SKeith wrote the charger thread to help people.

 

If you are using a 12V TRICKLE charger that is part of your problem. That onboard jump start charger pulls a lot of amps. Two cycles will discharge a fully charged, healthy 12V. You need a 10-Amp charger or a booster cable connection to a running vehicle.

We can discuss this for another 2 weeks but we still come back to the same answer: Build the SKeith charger and charge up your GD battery!

 

It's very confusing to try to follow the shifting story here. First you said that "they also just recently replaced the PCM" and that "when it comes to electrical or auto work, I'm an absolute noob". Now you're saying "I installed the PCM. They only programmed it".

Which is correct?

 

Oh ok. Yeah - the trickle charger I have is 5 Amp. But nonethless, it charges it fairly quickly and it’s not doing anything even when fully charged. I think they’re right that the HV battery isn’t responding because it’s too low in voltage.

Now the question is do I schedule with the dealership and wait 3-4 weeks for availability or do I make an attempt to build this charger and possibly kill myself charging this thing because I have no idea how to do it due to me not being mechanically savvy. lol. Seems like an easy answer but my idiot self is still pondering it. -_-

 

Literally getting the vibe that you’re a troll at this point attempting to antagonize me, based off your two responses to me. Go find a better hobby man.

Replacing the PCM is literally taking off the nuts, disconnecting the connectors, and putting a new one in and tightening the nuts back in. In order for you to fully replace it, they have to program it and I obviously can’t do that. So where you get “shifting stories” from goes beyond me. And the fact that you think that’s a question that would give you any type of insight that would allow you to give me any type of proper recommendation just shows you’re just attempting to bug me. Like I said to you in the other post: “Have a good night.”

 

That makes sense. I guess for legal purposes, they need to protect themselves since people will find all sorts of reasons to sue — but then again, couldn’t they just have me sign off some type of clause giving up those rights if I strictly just want them to charge the **** battery? lol. I know - I’m being stubborn here but it’s annoying to know they can’t just charge the **** thing without them “diagnosing it” by putting it on the charger. -_-

So based on what you wrote there, I’m going to order some new clamp on terminals and try replacing that. They do look somewhat raggedy.

And I know — it’s just frustrating that him and I have conflicting personality types because he clearly has knowledge. I just don’t like his disposition. I’m more of a visual person and sometimes when I read through some of these responses, I don’t know the terminology you guys are using and what you’re referring to so it makes it hard for me to walk step by step beside you guys.

Ideally, there’d be a video that shows you how to use one of these chargers because that I’d be able to follow along a lot easier. FML

Thanks so much again for all the time you spent and the info/advice.

 

What happened with the clamp-on ammeter? Did the current from the 12v battery increase when you pushed the jump-start button?

I don't know your overall situation, but another way out of this problem could be buying a remanufactured battery from Greentec and get the mobile install https://www.greentecauto.com/mobile-installation

$2k would get you a charged battery installed with a 12mo warranty. If their battery won't start the car, meaning there are problems other than the battery, they would immediately take the battery back. The reman battery, being for a 2007, would have a working jump-start circuit as well, and you can test that when they do the install.

My 2007 OEM battery lasted until this year but I had to jump-start it repeatedly (several times a week) until I replaced it. So even getting your current battery charged isn't the end of the problems if the jump-start function is dead.

 

Ford near me won't charge at all. They don't have the chargers. They are terrible for service all around. For instance, nobody wants to flash my car to update the PCM. You don't know your battery is bad, it could just come back. It sounds like you let it sit to discharge for a long time, right? If you had parked for 2 days and came back to a non-starting car then you'd know to just get a battery from greentec/junkyard/etc.

If you replaced the PCM, the charger isn't that hard. It's 2 wires and a bunch of screws for the battery cover. You use the service plug to not electrocute yourself. Get HV rubber gloves if you are still worried. I don't think you're charging your 12v all that good either. Take it to autozone to test/charge. Fully discharged lead acids can die. The thread on HV chargers here was really decent, if you read the whole thing it you should be able to do it if you replaced the PCM.

Here is someone taking the batt completely apart, it's most of the work for charging in video form:

 

I don’t think I’m using it right. Never used one before. When I pushed the jump start button I didn’t use the clamp on - I used needles. When I put it on the battery I got a reading over 12V but when I put it on the metal part of the terminals, the number was weird and didn’t seem accurate. Someone mentioned there could be a problem with the terminals so I just ordered new clamp on terminals because mine do look like ****. I also noticed that the battery drains from full to low without the vehicle being used much (by used much I mean when the keys are in the ignition in start position to use my scanner.) I don’t know if that’s normal because I’m not driving the car and my car alarm just keeps randomly going off too (not sure how much battery that drains) but I went outside again to check it this morning and it was in the low 12s when it was in the high 12s when I last left it.

I started buying the parts to build the charger but I’m still a little bit weary. Everything should be here between Friday and early next week. I found a Youtube video where a guy does it but the vehicle he got already had pre-installed wiring with XT60 connectors that he said a previous owner must have installed. It does seem convenient so I also ordered those connectors and likely will have to find someone who could help me put that together. Seems fairly self explanatory but I also feel if I make a few critical mistakes I could electrocute myself or destroy the car.

More than anything I was hoping someone knew how to get the jump start button working again and I wouldn’t have to go through all this. It’s stressful knowing my confidence level with electrical related fixes is extremely low. I almost feel embarrassed for buying this Ammeter because with all the features, I don’t even know wth I’m doing.

 

The PCM is silly easy though (obviously, the shop had to program it for me though). Is the service plug that orange **** that you twist and pull out?

And no - the 12V battery is fully charged when I use my trickle charger. It gets up to like 12.8V.

And I read almost all of it. I just know nothing about diodes. Again - if someone had a video teaching how to build it I’d be confident because I’m a visual learner. Half the times when people on here mention a part or tool, I have to look it up.