Chris,

If you have the Steeda UDP's. I can assure you they have nothing to do with the problem. Being that they only reduce parastic drag by 25% It doesn't hurt the charging system at all.


Rocky

 

I have an '08 GT with the Shaker 500 and factory alarm. My battery is the BXT96R.

Where is the documentation that says I should have the BXT40R battery? I'm going to the dealer in the morning for some other things and I'd like to bring this up (and have some back up )

 

This document has it listed on page 29. It doesn't have the part number, but does say "Medium duty battery required for Shaker 1000 or Active Alarm System"

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=464941

 

"GP": I too have been thinking of upgrading to the red version of the Optima battery this year! Do you think you could find the time to shoot us a picture of how good that bad-boy now looks in your Stang? Would like to see how the battery cables now run up to it! One salty dog to another. Thanks! CalStang

 

That's all well and good, but it still doesn't seem any less like somethings not right.

Although, does it say anywhere in the owners manual that if you leave your car parked and armed for a period of time (few days to a week or more) that it will die? Can't say I've read that, but can't say I've looked real hard, either.

I would think that if the onboard systems draw that much power, potentially leaving me with an unreliable situation, it should be written out in the manual.

 

The reason why it's not documented in the owners manual, is because the battery related issues weren't reported until much later.

However it is documented in the latest TSB.

 

I had my battery replaced under warranty today. They replaced my BXT-40-R with another BXT-40-R. If you are not having battery issues, don't tell anyone. I had mentioned that I have the Shaker 1000, Active Anti-theft, and my car routinely sits a week or more at a time without an issue. 3-4 weeks after I said that, I started having battery issues.

 

Welcome to the club. I feel lucky that my batter (in my daily driver) lasted 2 1/2 years and 37000 miles.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Had to have my wife's 06 jump started yesterday by AAA. Now it's at home in the driveway and won't start. I can't even jump start it! I'm really not sure it's the battery, because I took it out and put it on a trickle charger overnight, then reinstalled it, cleaning the terminals real good. It still acted like a dead battery, however, the electrical system is also doing really strange stuff, like the backup lights are staying on. Nothing else works and the battery started smelling really bad, like sulfer smell, so I just disconnected the negative terminal for now. I think this may have something to do with having the car serviced less than a week ago for the passenger airbag recall, where they supposedly recalibrated the RCM. The car's still under warranty, so I guess I need to have it towed to the dealer tomorrow. The car's been perfect until now.

 

First of all, trickle chargers are only capable of maintaining fully charged batteries. They are not designed to restore a deeply discharged battery.


What you'll need is a regular 12v charger, that's designed for restoring deeply discharged batteries. Which have far more amps than a trickle charger.

 

All of the strange electrical stuff happening on your car is from a low or dead battery. If you can't even jump start the car, it is a bad battery. Not a discharged battery, a bad battery. Probably a bad cell or something.

 

What theedge97 said. Low power from the battery causes the smart junction box to REALLY freak out. That thing directly controls about 99% of all the electrical systems on this car, so when it goes nuts, your CAR goes nuts!

 

I managed to get the car jump started and drove it to the Ford dealer today. They replaced the battery and all is well again. Thanks everyone for your input!

 

Until yer car kills it again....

 

+1 to that! GRRRRR

 

I would think this problem would be less of a big deal if it was happening to everyone, but to be honest, it doesn't seem to be. For example, my mother's Lexus has more tech and security widgets than my 'Stang, and it can sit for over two weeks without any battery issues at all. According to what's been going on with some cars in this thread, the battery would be dead.

 

battery died this morning, friend on the way over to jump start it, should i take this to the dealer or not, owned it since nov and it only has 8k on it, dang it

 

I recently had my battery go dead from the car sitting too long too. I agree with the guys who think it's actually a drain on the battery and not the battery itself. I charged mine back up with a 10 amp charger and then bought a battery minder and everything is fine now. I shopped pretty hard for the "Battery Minder Plus" and found out that it's a better buy than the "Battery Tender Plus". You can find the minder for about 10 bucks cheaper than the tender which does every thing the tender does plus it desulphates the battery...they also ship you a free battery monitor when you fill out the warranty registration form. The tender does not desulphate the battery. Sulphation is lead/sulpher crystals that form on the battery plates during normal battery use, but especially when you have severe discharge or overcharge...these crystals decrease the capacity of the battery. When someone says once a battery goes dead it's never the same...they were right, unless you desulphate it...then you can get it back almost all the way. The Minder has a pulse charge that it gives the battery at a specific frequency while on float charge that breaks up the crystals.
Check out the Minder here: http://www.vdcelectronics.com/batteryminder_12117.htm
I found it for $45 here: http://www.batterymart.com/c-battery...=batteryminder

 

Actually that is incorrect. The battery tender (plus) does indeed eliminate battery sulphation through it's BTP microchip technology. In fact here's part of the product description taken from Battery Mart's website.

Product Description: The Deltran Battery Tender Plus is a 1.25 amp battery charger designed to fully charge a battery and maintain it at proper storage voltage without the damaging effects caused by trickle chargers.

• Includes BTP microchip technology that virtually eliminates battery destroying sulfation

Battery Tender Plus's new BTP microchip technology applies the correct peak charge, then automatically maintains the battery at the perfect float voltage which virtually eliminates battery destroying sulfation.