ZZLEGEND

Maybe this will help. When i first bought mine in October of 06, there was a lot of talk about the shaker 1000 draining the battery even when the key was off. So from day one i have always turned the radio when the car was parked for a while. Well 2 years later and and i parked it one day and forgot to turn the radio off. Car sat one week and,,,,,,,,,,,you know it,,,,,,,,the battery was dead. That was in October of 08. Charged the batteryand keep it turned off now when parked and have not had a problem since. You would think this should not be a problem and when you turn the key off the radio should be off, off.

jahudso2

I got a dead battery letting my car sit for 3 days back when i never turned the shaker 500 off before i got out of my car. Its been about 8 months now and ive left my car for a week at a time without starting and it has never died since i started turning the radio off before opening the door. I know its a pain to turn the radio off before you get out every day, but i think its less of a pain than going to the dealer for a new battery.

tx_zstang

Make sure your radio is turned OFF before turning the key off.
Mine did the same thing, but sat for 6 days, and the battery was dead. It weakly-starteed one other time after sitting for 2 days. The radio was left on both times when the key was turned off (the shaker tends to search for cds and drains the battery, even with key off; pos.).

rdsx18

I guess I am lucky, I have a shaker 1000 and no battery problems. It has been sitting for a few weeks at a time now and it has started right up every time I get in.

Doogie65

I am still not happy with needing to worry about turning off the radio before the ignition, but since mine does sit for extended time on regular basis, I don't want to chance ruining another battery. I guess should not worry too much about it yet as I still have another 1.5 years of warranty

But when I think back, I could caused the initial battery damage last winter as I totally forgot about putting a tender on it before winter and by spring, the battery was toast as it never held a good charge after that and sometime would go dead in a matter of days.

nascaracing

It doesn't matter if it's the 500 shaker or 1000, had this happen on my 05, took it to the dealership and they found out that the radio, in order to maintain time and selected channels was drawing to much power from the battery. There is a TSB out there on this.

06 Gt on 20s

Yea Thanks. I charged it last night and now its fine. I must have forgot to turn the radio off when i last drove it.

Doogie65

was the TSB for the battery/extended storage recommendations or specific to the shaker?

Asking because when mine was in getting the battery replaced, the just referred me to TSB 07-5-13 "Discharged batteries - vehicles in storage/limited use" and they claimed nothing was wronhg with my shaker (500).

Heavyg72

I ran into the same issue just this last week. Haven't had an issue for 2 years and now if it sits for a week or more it will be dead. I'm replacing it with an Optima batter as I've heard good things about them.

07 Stang

I've noticed on cold days my car doesn't crank up as easy as on warmer days. I always turn the radio off as well as other controls about a block before I park in my driveway. I haven't had the battery die on my yet, but it does concern me. I did mention it to the Ford techs last month when I took it in for an inspection and to be serviced. They tested the battery and said it was good. They suggested to get a battery tender or trickle if you plan on parking it for 5 days or more. He said the computers in our cars run constant to maintain memory.
Since then, I try to get out and drive it at least once every 3 or 4 days depending on the weather.