Nuke

Of all of the OE Motorcraft battery bashers on this forum, I'm probably up there at the top. So will someone tell me why I've replaced BOTH Stang's batteries with another Motorcraft?

My wife's '06 Pony's OE battery died, I mean just up and crapped the bed, back in 2012. I figured 6 years was a fluke and that my 5 year old OE battery in my '07 was going to go any day. I knew my '07's battery was showing signs of at least 1 weak cell.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had my '07's battery on the battery tender for over 2 weeks. After removing the Tender (which was charging at the correct float voltage above 12.6 volts, green indicator "on" meaning fully charged), the battery sat there at 12.4 volts; well below the 12.6 volts of a fully charged battery and much lower than expected for a battery that just came off of a float charge. So I took her out for a quick spin (not my DD and hadn't been out of the garage in over 8 weeks) and figured I'd stop at one of the auto parts stores and price a battery. As I passed the Ford dealership, I pulled in, argued with the parts guy but still walked out with another OE Motorcraft after giving them my 7 year old OE, still-not-dead Motorcraft battery. Go figure...

Someone schedule an appointment for me with a shrink.

Joenpb

How much?

That'll make or break whether you got a good deal. $150 or more & you definitely could have done better. < $100 and you probably could have done worse. Good luck Nuke.

Nuke

$119 plus tax. I figured I'd have paid about $60-$80 at Autozone or elsewhere but I've heard a number of folks state that the fit of their aftermarket batteries was problematic so I figured what the heck yesterday with my '07. back in '12 when my wife's battery died at work, she was less than 1 mile from the Ford dealership and everything else was located where traffic was bad. There are times in my life I'll bend over backwards to save a buck. These instances weren't 2 of them.

GCCBrian

I've had my OE Battery for 8 years now and it still works! Car only has 39,000 miles and it's a 2006 Mustang GT

Carcrazycorey1

Thats not a bad price at all. I work at advance auto, and the battery for my 05 GT was around $110 with my employee discount, so I don't think you did bad at all. The days of $60-80 batteries are long gone. The cheapest you would even find at walmart for these cars are going to be about 100

hammeron

Nuke, I just measured mine and it's 12.61, it's oem from January 2006. In your opinion is it best to replace based on shear age or am I ok for the time being?

I've been debating lately what to do and this thread is perfect timing.

jz78817

erm? my experience is that storage batteries last 5-7 years, no matter the manufacturer. not sure what the contention is.

Art161

Nuke, I think we have a "new normal" when it comes to batteries. My car started life with a group 96R (the smaller one) battery, which was replaced under warranty at about two and a half years. The replacement was showing a bad cell after about another two years. Since it was a warranty replacement for an original battery, there was no more warranty left.

I purchased an Interstate group 40R (the larger one) battery. That showed a bad cell after about one year, but it tested "good" on the Interstate dealer's magical machine, so no replacement. I took the car to another Interstate dealer, and his machine also showed "good." The battery did make it to the end of the 30 month free replacement period, at which time I replaced it with a group 40R Motorcraft.

This latest battery, after being in service for about six months, shows a no-load voltage of less than 12.5 volts after sitting for a few days. I haven't bothered to check the cells with my battery hydrometer, since even if a cell shows bad, they won't replace the battery unless the machine shows it's bad. The dealer routinely checks the battery when I take the car in for service and the report is always, "Battery is good."

Early on, I did have the parasitic draw tested, and it was 40 mA.

So Nuke, I suggest you adjust to the "new normal." That's less expensive than going to a shrink.

Nuke

12.61 volts, assuming that the battery hasn't been on a charger or driven for about 12 hours, is indicative of 6 healthy cells. One issue with an aging battery is degradation of the supporting structure that maintains the gap between the plates. As these supports fail, the plates begin to fall in to one another causing catastrophic cell failure. This is often the symptom of when the car starts and runs fine and then when you go start it again shortly thereafter; nothing. A lower voltage usually is indicative of a cell that has shorted out from sulfation or enough sediment in the bottom of the jar to short 2 or more plates out.

The problem with an aging battery, even though it appears healthy by various means of testing, is that the likelihood of failure from these issues becomes greater. My battery had been showing signs of not holding a full charge for about 2 years and I had felt that I had pushed my luck. There's really no crystal ball and you might get another 2 years out of that battery or 2 days.

Nuke

You may be right. I haven't priced shrinks lately...