geocomp

I have a dead battery in my 09 Mustang, the car only has 6000 miles on it. I was in a slight accident last week. Small hit to the drivers side front fender. Nothing real major. The car ran fine after the accident. I drove it home and parked it in the garage where it has sat for 8 days. Went out last night to start the car up and the battery was completely dead. Volt Meter reading of only 2 volts. Jumped the mustang using my truck and let the Stang idle for 30 minutes. Volt Meter reading while running was 14 volts at the battery. I tried starting the Mustang again and it was dead as a door nail. I realize idling for 30 minutes is not that long, but I thought it would have given it enough charge to start it back up. Tried jumping it again and after 20 minutes of being hooked up to the truck (with the truck running) it was still dead and did not have enough charge for the headlights to even come on.

My question is could the small accident have caused enough of a jolt to the battery to internally short it out? I have left the car sitting for two to three weeks before and it would fire right up.

alkemist

If it's the stock battery, then it's a POS. I wouldn't be surprised if it just died on you.

deekum1627

stock battery sucks so bad. i just bought a red top to replace it

geocomp

After reading several post this morning before starting this thread it appeared the stock battery is not good. I am just concerened because it happened so shortly after the accident.

Deekum, may I ask why the red top instead of the yellow. My car is more of a garge gueen. I am thinking the yellow battery may be a better fit.

Nuke

It's possible that the physical shock to the battery at the time of the accident was enough to cause some of the seperator plates to fail which is a common cause for catastrophic battery failure (one reason that marine batteries are made with stiffer seperator plates; to handle the pounding from wave action). When the seperators fail, the cells will slump against one another and short out.

deekum1627

the red has more cca and i dont need the deep cylce battery cause i not gonna be running heavey aux. mines sits alot as well and so far starts up strong everytime

.boB

Once the voltage drops that low, there's no coming back. Like Nuke said, the shock may have broken a plate.

I havn't heard much bad about the stock battery - until now. I often let my car sit for a week or two. It always sstarts just fine. Mine's more than 2 years old, still going strong. Maybe I should consider a pre-emptive strike, and replace it.

Every couple of years Consumer Reports does a battery test. The top three always seem to be Die Hard, Interstate, and Autozone.

Optima is nover scored all that well, and usually comes in around #5-6. It's never a recommended or best buy because the performance and durability don't match the price.

I have an optima in my Cobra, but only because it sits right over the passengers feet. In a crash, I want the m ost durable sealed case. All my other vehicles get Autozone batteries.

Nuke

Use the search feature. You'll find tons of complaints and info about the MotorCrap battery. Seems they must have had a large batch (from a particular factory perhaps?) that just weren't up to snuff. Short life, low capacity... add that to the parasitic power draw with the car off, especially with the '05 and '06 Shaker systems drawing power if you left the Shaker on when you shut off the ignition. Just a bad move by Ford.

OptimaJim

Hi geocomp, I’m sorry to hear about your accident and the battery problems you’ve been encountering. Whenever a battery is deeply-discharged to the point where it needs a jump to start a vehicle, it’s a good idea to fully recharge the battery with a battery charger as soon as possible. Most alternators are designed to maintain batteries, not recharge deeply-discharged batteries. Asking an alternator to recharge a deeply-discharged battery can lead to a cycle of dead batteries and jump-starts, until either the alternator or battery fails.

It should also be noted that many battery chargers will not recognize or charge any battery that has been discharged below 10.5 volts. Deeply-discharged Optimas can be recharged, using the parallel charging technique described in this video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIoaL3DWWEg

The voltage on your battery does sound very low and it might not be recoverable. If you end up purchasing a new battery, buying a good battery tender or maintainer would also be a wise investment, which will help extend the life of your battery. Batteries spend their entire existence either charging or discharging. Even when they aren’t connected to any draw, there is still a small discharge rate. The key to long battery life is making sure your battery voltage doesn’t drop below 12.4 volts. The parasitic draws on some modern vehicles can discharge a fully-charged battery to well below 12.4 volts in a matter of weeks.

If you have any other battery-related questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.

geocomp

OptimaJim, for my car do recommend the Red Top or YellowTop?

The car only has stock electronics inclusive of Shaker 500, factory alarm w/ motion sensors and remote start. It can sit in the garage for weeks at a time, although I try to drive it once a week.

Thanks