BumbleBee

I realize there is already a post on dead batteries but I think this is significant enough to get its own topic.

On Friday night, I made a two hour trip with my sister to see a concert. At some point on the way there, the battery light started coming on and would go off. The car ran fine, I wasn't having any electrical problems whatsoever, I had just hoped it was a fluke. I was already near my destination so I just trekked on. In my two months owning the car, this is the first I had ever seen the light come on.

It was about 4 hrs between the time we parked the car and got back in it to leave. Once again the car started, no problems at all, and we drove off. Like before, the battery light came on. I don't know if it was on from the get go or not. The way my steering wheel is positioned it is hard to see the bottom of the gauges unless you make an effort to look. Unfortunately, this time the light was on and it was staying on. Being two hours away from home at 12 am, I really didn't have a lot of options so I just hoped that the car would make it home. About two thirds of the way home things started to take a drastic change for the worse.

First, the radio dies. No sound but the lights surrounding the unit are still on although the readout with the station/volume information was dead. About 30 seconds later, the lights on the entire center console are out. At this point I am really getting worried but trying to be optimistic and hoping the car will limp itself home. About a minute later, the ABS and traction control lights come on. There were probably some others as well but I don't remember at this point. Next to go is the headlights. On a unlit road, in an unfamiliar area at 1 am. I was able to pull over on to the side of the road and the car immediately died. This took less than 5 minutes.

Fast forward to the next day. The car was towed to the dealership in the middle of the night. I wanted them to have it first thing in the morning so they could look at it and assess the damage. I called them as soon as they opened, explained what happened, and asked that they tell me how long they'd need it in case I would have to get a rental car to go to work this coming week. They said they would.

I was at a funeral all morning so the first time I could call them was at 2. They hadn't called me prior to this so I checked in with them. They replaced the battery which had 0 cold cranking amps but they weren't 100% sure on the problem. The checked the alternator and some other stuff and said it was ok. My options were to leave the car so they could look at it again on Tuesday or take it home but I wasn't getting a rental car, the office closed at 1. Thanks for letting me know ahead of time you sons of bitches. I have places to go, I have to go to work, I don't have a personal driver to cart my *** around. I figured if they are willing to send the car home, whats the big deal? It must be ok. I drive the car out of the dealership, get 100 yards down the road and what do I see? My good friend, the battery light. Let me just say, the events that took place next were not pretty. My car is still at the dealership and I've got a car to drive but it took yelling, a little bit of swearing (which they don't like too much), and some tears. I tend to get frustrated very easily and I don't like being screwed around when it comes to anything, especially cars and dealerships.

I've bought over 10 cars in the last six years. In the past 5 years, I've bought 4 brand new cars: two Trans Ams, a Corvette, and now the Mustang. Not once have I ever had a problem like this. Not once have I been treated this terribly. I'm still too upset to think straight.

281GT

Can't blame you for being upset. I'd feel the same way. Apparantly though the battery light actually means something which is good. At least it seems to be an accurate indication of a problem. Not like many other cars where you can't trust the lights / gauges. I'm sure the dealer will figure it out quckly. Problems like this usually aren't too difficult to track down. And remember, mass produced vehicles aren't perfect. There's bound to be the odd flaw however Ford is certainly doing a lot better with their production quality than they were years ago. No offense to anyone here, but there was a time when I wouldn't have even considered buying a Ford, but the the last few years Ford has really impressed me. They have impressed me to the point where I switched from GM. I was a die hard GM fan for years. Not anymore. Hang in there and try not to let it bother you too much.

showam1

You did the right thing, go in the showroom and raise hell.

As far as the car, this is not good, the old cars would run without a battery! why would this one not, unless it has to do with the computer?
Hope they resolve this fast and to you're liking.
I told my dealership that EVERYTHING that they do goes out on the internet forums, including how they treat me. It is only
slander, if it's false.
I even gave them the links

BumbleBee

I'm a mechanical engineer. I don't know a thing about electronics but I know enough to realize that if something like this goes down there is probably something in the system that is killing the battery. I've dealt with batteries with dead cells before and not once has anything like this happened.

I have to go out of town again tomorrow. The dealership was aware of this and was still willing to send me on my way with the car. What if I wouldn't have noticed that light again until I was already on my way to Detroit? Who in their right mind would want to be left stranded in Detroit in the middle of the night?

The dealership acts like I planned this out. Had I been given the opportunity for this to not happen on Memorial Day weekend I would have gladly taken it. They also act like I should have just agreed to leave the car there with out a rental with no hesitation. I did NOT want to take the car. I made this absolutely clear. Unfortunately, I have a job that I need to go to everyday.

showam1

As I said, this is the holiday weekend where they want to sell loads of cars!
The LAST thing they want is a ranting customer in the showroom! If they
treat you bad, post their name and warn the rest of us! The days of the uninformed
consumer are over, and they need to understand that.

MobyDickDog

BumbleBee,

I'm not an expert on this. But I'd be thinking alternator problems.

Shifty

That blows. I really hope my dead headlight and non working brights aren't the start of similar problems.

don_w

That was my first thought, too, but he said that checked out OK.

mrbmp

Neither old or new cars will run long without an alternator.

Has to be a bad alternater or regulator or the connections between them.

BumbleBee,

Unfortunately thats how dealerships/ "mechanics" are, get used to it.

Reading your post I noticed a few things that could have gotten you home or at least a lot closer.


If something like this happens in the future, turn off anything electrical thats not absolutely necessary. Number one was the radio you were still listening to, a 500 watt system can pull 40+ amps if cranked up, that by itself can kill the battery in minutes , had it been turned off you may have gotten home.
Next is run the headlights on lowbeam or just foglamps Where there are no other cars and there is good visibility you could just use the parking lights.
Turn blower fan off, A/C off, etc....

I have had to do this many times over the years but always got home.

Hope you get the dealership straightened out.

.

BumbleBee

As I mentioned before, the alternator checked out ok. They looked at the obvious areas and said there weren't any problems. I don't think the mechanics were too interested in doing work on Saturday. They even closed up shop early. Hopefully when they look at it again on Tuesday they will have someone with half a clue do the work.

Sure, things could have been done differently but this is the first time something like this has happened. The actual time it took for things to go from seamingly normal to complete **** was less than 5 minutes. It is possible that not listening to the radio during the entire trip (2.5 hrs each way) may have helped but its still possible that whatever is draining the battery would have done so anyway. Hindsight is always 20/20. I bought a V6 model so foglights were an option.

Hopefully it will get fixed and everything will be ok. I've done some more reading and found someone that had the same problem and it ended up being a throttle body issue. I'm debating on trading it in for an '06 when the come out but I really love my car (has some custom stuff). I'd be hesitant to get another new one and basically start over again. I took a look at TSBs today for the Mustang and some of the other cars I had considered buying before going with the Stang. I am slighlty relieved in knowing that the other cars have even more problems.