dead battery or a short?

Asked by tamera22 Aug 12, 2014 at 02:41 PM about the 1996 Ford Thunderbird LX RWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

1996 Ford Thunderbird LX v-6. I had a dead battery one morning used jumper cables to get it started made it to work and came home. I used the car for the next 7 days with no problems. The eighth day I opened the door noticed dome light and door lights were on but as soon as I turned key all went dead, no more lights. At the time of trying to start it I heard no clicking at all. I am not sure where to begin looking for a problem. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

1 Answer

15,715

You don't say how old the battery is but you may have a slow drain on the circuit that is killing the battery over time. I had this problem and had to replace the battery 3 times. Each time it would only register 2-3 volts and the battery was only a couple of months old! Finally, on the third battery, they found a partial short in the trunk light circuit. You never know where it will be.

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