Qusus

Hey, can any of you with the original Motorocraft battery for an 06 Mustang GT with the Shaker 500 tell me what your cold cranking amps are?

I swear that it was supposed to be 590... but here's the thing, about 16 months ago mine died and was replaced under warranty at a dealership. This winter I had some trouble starting the car on several instances, needed couple of jump starts.

The battery died near the end of winter and when I came back from overseas I was going to replace it with a DieHard from AutoZone but noticed that the battery only had 500 CCA's. Just wondering if the dealership gave me a battery that was less than the CCA's recommended by Ford.

Art161

I think it's 500 CCA unless you have the Shaker 1000 or the active anti-theft alarm, in which case it is 590 CCA.

Qusus

ahh thank you for the response. I have the shaker 500 and the active anti theft. So i should have the 590 cca battery. This is probably pretty important given that i live in michigan.

Qusus

Now that I think about it I'm pretty mad about the fact that I had a 500 CCA battery when I should have a 590. I had to jump start the car on several occasions during the winter and now the battery is dead. I'm gonna go to the dealership and ask them to replace it for free even though it is out of warranty.

Blue GT Mustang

I just went out to the garage and checked mine. It is an '06 coupe with the Shaker 500 and factory alarm, I have 590 CCA and it is the original battery.

ScottW311

I replaced my stock battery last week, 2006 GT with shaker 1000....590 CCA.

Art161

That can't hurt. I think both batteries have a cover (the blanket type thing) to help keep engine heat away from the battery. If you had the 590 and they replaced it with a 500, they should have replaced the cover. The covers are different sizes because the 590 is longer than the 500. Does the replacement battery have a cover? If so, does it fit properly? Also, since the 500 and 590 use the same battery tray, the 500 comes from the factory with removable plastic tabs that fit on the tray, so that the 500 does not move around in the tray, again because of the different physical size. You've got me wondering whether they installed the replacement without a cover, and did not secure it with the proper tabs.

Qusus

Ahh... the cover is to keep heat away from the battery? That makes sense... thats what I thought but wasn't sure.

As for your questions the battery does seem secured properly (does not move) and the cover also appears to fit properly. Not sure what you mean about the tabs... there was one bolt securing the battery in place. Since the fit is right does this mean perhaps I remembered wrong and my 06 GT did in fact originally have a 500 CCA battery original? Don't wanna get mad at the dealer if 06 GT's with a Shaker500 and anti-theft actually did use 500 CCA batts. Nah... that can't be right?

Art161

Maybe the factory installed a 500 CCA battery. The tabs I am talking about are pieces of plastic that snap into the battery tray. They provide support so that the battery doesn't move lengthwise, since the 500 is not as long as the 590. The hold-down clamp will probably keep the battery from moving, but the plastic pieces provide additional security. Shine a light at the ends of the battery and see if you can find them. They are rather small.

If you go for a longer battery, then you remove the plastic pieces. A cover for the Motorcraft 590 CCA battery lists for about $35.

Qusus

Took a look at the tabs and they are definitely there. Also talked to the dealer and they said they can only install the battery they take out for warranty purposes. The combination of these two facts makes it very very very likely that for some reason, I got the 500 CCA battery from the factory.

Called Ford 800 number to complain about this, but the person helping me couldn't do anything more than offer an apology.

End result: two dead batteries. 100 bucks out of pocket for a third. And hours and hours wasted having to jump start the car in the winter because of a lower than recommended CCA rating.

Thanks to Ford for owning up to their mistake and replacing the battery out of warranty as a apologetic gesture. Oh wait what? They didn't do any of that and just told me to go screw myself? Oh ok... cool.

Edit*** one more thing, thanks to the people replying to this thread with info on battery CCA ratings and etc. Couldn't have "solved" this mystery without the info about the tabs.