Any Ford mechanics out there?

A 2013 Ford Escape that was working perfectly fine in the morning would not start in the afternoon. I mean, everything was dead… No lights, no anything… Except, for some reason, the power seat works… Nothing else electrical. The battery is new with clean contacts. The battery is reading 12.8Vs across the terminals… Yet no power anywhere else. Metered every fuse… Including the 40 amp main fuse… And all are good. I'm baffled.

What did you "meter" at the fuses? Voltage or resistance? Get a test light and connect it to battery negative and check for power at the fuses. No power, check for a bad cable from battery positive to distribution box.

Power at the fuses is good, get a jump (donor negative cable to Escape engine ground). Turn headlights on. Headlights are good, turn it off. Key ON, lights in dash? Yes, try to start. Car starts and stays running when jumper cables are removed, get the battery load tested. Car stalls or runs rough after the jumper cables are removed, check for bad ground cables to engine and to frame.

No lights in dash, check for a bad ignition switch.

Hi so as you don't understand that old batteries produce far less voltage when it is being cranked. Then measure the voltage.

It's possibly a blown FUSIBLE LINK. Look it up.