willie053

Well, I brought the car to the service dept and I have no good news. After explaining the problem to the service manager he showed me a service bulletin Ford had sent out concerning Ford vehicles and battery drainage. It stated that 4-5 different models of 05-07 Fords are all having this problem, the battery drains when the vehicle sits for a period of time (30 days) or while only driving short distances. This car is my daily driver but I only live 5 min. from work, so I fall under the second category. The manager told me he thought it took 10-15 min of driving before the battery starts getting a charge. So me driving to and from work everyday isn't charging my battery, it's actually draining it if anything.
When I asked what my options were, he said I could take the car out for a longer drive once in a while, let the car idle for 10-15 minutes, or buy a $100 trickle charger from the service dept. I asked if Ford had any plans to fix this, and he found no hint of them taking any action. Needless to say I'm not very happy with these options, I'm going to try to contact Ford and let them know this is something that needs looked into. IMO a reflash of the computer to start charging sooner could solve the problem, hopefully something as simple as that will come from Ford soon.

Sonic Boom NH

While I am a little late to the party there is nothing a reflash can do to start the “charging” sooner. The battery is getting a charge as soon as the vehicle is started but, from my understanding, until it sees approx. 1,500 rpm is not enough to actually begin chagrining. It’s not “when” does it start charging but rather “time needed” to completely charge a battery.

In any regards I did not think I had this problem with my 2006 GT. It had sat before for a good 2 months and started right up no problems. It just sat for approx. 1 month and is deader then any battery I have ever seen. It actually measures approx. 7.5 volts. Never seen a battery measure that low for voltage.

I have had the car for 14 months and it has approx. 2,400 miles on it so yes it sits a lot. When I stored it last winter I did take the battery out and put it on a battery tender. Had no issues with it sitting for 4 – 5 months then.

Can’t really blame the dealer on this one but it is an absolutely pathetic design flaw by Ford and Ford should be forced to at least provide at NO CHARGE to all owners of affected vehicles free battery tenders.

mygt500

After all this time this thread is revived?! Well to answer any question as to what my battery problemwas first it was a bad cell and Ford replaced the battery. That one died 2 months later and I checked every fuse from when I shut the car down for a long storage period......it was the driver side window relay that was faulty and was fixed and problem solved! It has been about 9 months now and the battery is fine and the car starts everytime regardless of how long it was sitting in the garage. Now I had bought a battery tender to keep the battery at a good full charge and I still use it in the winter time when I don't start the car but once a month for 30-45 minutes. Hope this helps others......J

jbailer

I had the same symptom with my 06 GT. It never died over night but if I let it set for more than a few days it would die. I took the battery out and had it load tested at a shop and they told me the battery was weak and would not hold a charge well. At that point the car was only a few months old with about 1,200 miles on it. I bought a new battery and it wasn't long until it died too although it took a lot more to kill it. One day I went to jump start it and the alternator went up in smoke! LITERALLY! I bought a new alternator for it and I've never had a problem since then and I've let the car set for a month. -Joe

Larry65401

Thebattery in my 05 Mustang V6 convertible has gone dead twice now. This time the dealer found a Tech Service Bulletin, TSB 07-5-13, that describes the condition. Itsays that all the little electrical drains add up and if the 05-08 Mustang is left undriven for about 30 days, mine seems to go dead in three weeks, the batterydrains entirely. And it isn't just on the Mustang. It is also the 2005 Explorer Sport Trac, the 2007-2008 Explorer Sport Trac (wonder what they did different in 2006), the 2005-2008 Expedition, the 2005-2008 Lincoln Navigator and the 2005-2008 Mercury Mountaineer. The solution they tell the dealer is to havethe customer buy a battery maintainer or charger. I don't think that is much of an answer. We should all write Ford and tell them what we think of their solution and which GM product we are going to buy next.