Beargap

Any thoughts on this problem? After a 1300 mile trip my '08 GT Premium, manual trans, with Nav, sat in the garage for 2 days. When I went to start it the battery was dead, reading about 4.5v. I left it on a trickle charger for around 13-15 hours and brought the battery back to 12.5v, but then 12 hours later it was down to 11.5. Charging is 14.1v and seems fine. I have not had any similar issue in the last 2 years even when the car sat in an airport lot for 8 days.

I took it in to the dealer as I suspected a bad battery, but it tested as fine (at least on the tool Ford requires they use). So they let the car "go to sleep for 30 minutes, disconnected the battery, and put another test light on the see if there was some load. For 5 minutes...nothing, then the test light started glowing and pulsing bright about every second or so showing some load was continuing. While that explains why the battery was being drawn down, finding the culprit will likely be difficult.

I should note that I do have an external transceiver in the car, but it was disconnected from everything during the test. I also have WebElectric sequentials, but no lights were on. Any idea as to what the phantom, pulsing load might be? The tech grounded out the system again to attempt to recreate the problem, but the second time the load was on right away and steady, although at a lower rate (brightness) than before. Any ideas on similar issues? I know the procedure will be to pull fuses one at a time to try and isolate this, but thought the symptoms might suggest something that can be looked at first.

=Vic=

PTRocks

I don't know for sure, but if you could get it back into that state (with the test light illuminated) I would then start pulling fuses to see which circuit the load was on.

karman

Look at the Shaker radio first.

Doogie

Yep... mine started doing all kinds of screwy things this past summer including the display lighting up when I open the door. One last thing for the dealer to fix before my warranty expires in May.

Coupe66US

I've heard of navigation units (not just Ford) continuing to "look for signal/satelites" after the car is shut off, resulting in a dead battery... Not sure what was done to fix it, still waiting for a response from my source on that.

MadGT

This is/was a big problem with the 05-07, i thought issues was fixed with 08...BTW, Ford never really fixed anything, I just plug my stang to a trickle charger...

Rapture

I just started mine up today for the first time in two months,washed it and drove it no problems. I can't wait til spring, I miss that car

Beargap

FWIW, mine has an '08 Ford NAV unit, although it was installed after delivery. I've had no issues with it and it works well. I thought the power to the radio was controlled by the car system...keeping it on until the door opens, etc... although I am sure a small amount is always there. I did find that, unlike other radios I've had, this unit does not lose its settings for stations, audio preferences, etc., when the battery is completely disconnected for more than 30 minutes.

Since the issue first started with a dead battery 2 days after a 1300 mile trip I have been monitoring voltage to see if I need to get it back on the charger. I had charged it at a 2-amp rate for 13-14 hours and found the voltage dropped overnight to 11.5v, but the car still started. Now it is holding around 12.2v after 2-3 days of being idle with only local (1-2 hour) trips before that. I know these maintenance-free batteries are not real good about deep discharges and fast recharging, so I'm wondering if I just need to slowly "top it off" for a couple of days and write off the discharge to a fluke from some other accessory that didn't power down correctly. Hmmm...

=Vic=

ford4v429

the 09 can sit 2 weeks max without starting or its dead- the 06 has sat 5 weeks untouched, rained yesterday and washed the roadsalt away, so got to drive it to work today
started right up...it has gone dead at 3~4 weeks before, but only once I can think of- but the 09 has had to be charged half a dozen times already, 3 weeks it wont start, 2.5, iffy...so it gets warmed up every 2. wifes 07 has been in the garage 4 wks- I'll go start it up now while i'm thinking about it

cdynaco

Just fired mine up yesterday for a winter warm-up after 7 weeks in storage - that incl a week of single digit temps. Shaker 500, no Nav, alarm was not set. Fired right up... just like last winter.
This problem is so sporadic from vehicle to vehicle.

USMC0341

Mine will last about two weeks then it's dead! So now I just plug it into a battery tender/charger.

MY05SUX

YEA... i let the problem get so bad my shaker1000 just stopped working...then had a pioneer put in...no difference...its not just the head unit it can very well be the sub box in the trunk...i just took mine out...but because the door speakers/subs run off their own amps...i still get a drain...i ended up frying out my alt wire too...

impetus maximus

i've read leaving the radio on and killing the engine leaves the amps on in the doors.
get in the habit of turning everything off before shutdown.
alarms/LowJack units will drain the battery as well.

if you use a tender and have an aftermarket battery, make sure it's safe for your battery.
they are not safe for the gel cell battery i'm going to use.

for winter storage i fire it up at least once a week and get it up to NOT (normal operating temp).
helps keep the parts oiled and the battery peaked. and revving the engine gives me a warm feeling inside

pilatti1

***BATTERY SUGGESTIONS??*** I have been having the same issues with my '07GT/CS, do not have Shaker or Nav but I do have it sitting in the garage with radio shut off. If I let it sit 2 weeks or more without starting it is dead. I do have 75k for miles so I think it is time to replace the battery anyway. Any suggestions on what would be the best replacement - Optima Red Top, Sears Platinum etc.

Thanks & Bring on Summer

karman

How did you get a CS without a shaker 500?
I thought the shaker 500 came with premium pkg. and CS only came with premium.
BTW I always recommend Interstate batteries.

pilatti1

What i should have said is that I don't have the Shaker 1000 just the 500..Good pick up..thanks for the Interstate Battery idea..is there a particular one or any Interstate 9not sure if they have different grades of batteries)

houtex

I don't know if this matters, but I make sure to turn everything possible off in my car. Radio is off, a/c controls to 1/cold/off, wipers off... There's not much else I can do.

Only thing that's 'on' is the alarm, as I arm it.

I mention this because I had a bad Motorcraft battery and had to get it replaced under warranty. They threatened to make me leave my car for a day to deal with it, but thankfully the tester showed the bad battery.

SINCE THAT DAY, I've done the above. Before that, I would frequently leave the radio and A/C on, maybe even the wipers on a rainy day. Why? Figured it didn't matter, the car was off, right?

I got to thinking about it, and after reading things, well, I think, but don't actually have proof, that the Smart electrics in this car are to blame, so you have to specifically turn things off or they'll try to run, and drain the battery.

Crazy right? Well, sure, I'm with ya on that. It is crazy. Still, since I started the 'all off' checklist before exiting, this battery's lasted well beyond what the first one did (less than a year, btw, on that one, wanna say I'm goin' on year 2 now on this one.)

I don't know if there's any correlation, but it's workin' for me. Still got the Motorcraft, and it's fine.*

/* - Now that I jinxed it, watch it not start tomorrow.
//**PLEASE** don't do that, battery... *begs*

Silverback

After 3 years and 4,050 miles I am in the Dead Battery Club. Followed all the usual routines: radio off before shut down, no alarm armed, etc. Went to start today and no joy.

New Optima this weekend.

karman

When was the last time you gave it a charge?
I have found over the past 20+ years of storing cars that after the winter (even if I started and ran the cars several times), I would sometimes need to charge the battery at the beginning of the season. Then I was fine for the rest of the year.
Also...
I still don't understand why people are so eager to spend the extra money on Optimas.
Except for off-road and extreme racing involving banked curves, I don't see any advantage over regular top quality batteries.

mike05gt

Ford issued a TSB for this problem for the 05-06.

Basically they said if you leave the car parked for a few weeks at a time, you will need to keep a battery tender on it.