2015 explorer civilian

crt6mrt-265

Member
May 23, 2010
800
Central NJ
So I have a 2015 explorer civilian. Simple set up in amber for work. Recently had a problem with the battery leaking and corrosion on the negative terminal. It was at the end of its time so had the battery replaced, the mechanic cleaned the corrosion, new battery and was on my way. Not too long after I was having issues with it starting a few times where it just wouldn’t start despite the battery having enough amps (voltmeter checked), if I messed with the terminal and got the battery to spark it did a kind of reset and I was good to go…. mechanic couldn’t duplicate it, found nothing else but some light corrosion on the negative terminal again that he cleaned. Brought it to Ford, they went from the battery to stater and full diagnostics and found more corrosion that apparently the other mechanic missed but nothing else in the electrical system. They commented that a bad ground in anything aftermarket could cause corrosion and interfere with the amp draw at start.
The set up I have, 2 feniex fusions in the grill, rear has a set of feniex cannons and 2 sound off nforces. I also have a whelen air horn connected to a feniex speaker.
Everything is controlled by a feniex 4200mini, the power to that was from a fuse tap that created its own fused circuit from an existing fuse which is ignition based. I’m sure but will check again that all my grounds are good. I had a similar set up in my previous two vehicles and never battery issues, starting issues etc.

So my question now that everything is explained, anyone ever have any issues with the fuse taps with the battery corrosion or any issues for that matter? I disconnected it all because I’m concerned with going that route again not knowing was it the tap or just the bad battery. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
im guessing you dont have the AH power wire going to the mini 4200 right just using it to "activate" the tone?
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Yea I wouldn't recommend a fuse tap for either ..

Just run a 8 ga wire from the battery to a circuit breaker than run power off both from it.. no more than 25a since you're not running much. Without taking pics of the whole set up...I'm guessing you have everything grounded as close as possible and not running everything back to a single ground point?
 

crt6mrt-265

Member
May 23, 2010
800
Central NJ
Yea I wouldn't recommend a fuse tap for either ..

Just run a 8 ga wire from the battery to a circuit breaker than run power off both from it.. no more than 25a since you're not running much. Without taking pics of the whole set up...I'm guessing you have everything grounded as close as possible and not running everything back to a single ground point?
A couple things are not grounded immediately…. The grill lights ran back to the center console at a common point of grounding with the controller and the amp for the air horn.

The reason for the tap was for the ignition power ..

a single wire like suggested would provide constant power then to the controller and air horn so my next clear the cob webs out of my head concern is that constant power… would I have to worry about any battery drainage or only if I accidentally left the controller on?
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
You need to ground your grill lights close to the grill....

I have a mini 4200 but I don't remember if it has a built in time cut off... I'm sure the LEDs on it would take days to kill a topped off battery...
 

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