For the past two weeks have been recuperating from corrective surgery on my right foot. The hired help has been driving me around. Just this past Tuesday we brought the horse out for a spin, gave it a good highway ride. Put it back, without a thought. Everything was turned off. I checked.

Welp, had an appointment with the surgeon this afternoon in Indy. Thought the 05 Mustang could use another run. Imagine my disheartenment when I opened the door and saw no lights. The helper couldn't adjust the seat of course when we turned the key. . .utterly, totally dead! Nary a spark!!

The helper thinks the alternator shorted and drained the battery. Had to go and get some stitches removed, so it was too late to haul it in today. He told me I might as well wait till Monday.

Any other '05 Mustang GT owners have this problem?

 

well know problem of the shaker system amps not shutting down and draining the battery I believe...

 

Would it help if I replaced it with something non-shaker?

 

Who's this "Helper " guy??

 

I think many of us have experienced the mystery battery drain at least once. When mine happened, I attributed to the rader detector being left on. I never reallly bought off on it though cause I used to leave that thing on with my '97 and it never went dead. Another time I got in the car and turned the key and NOTHIN. Not even a click. Took the key out in bewilderment. Then, 2 minutes later, put the key in turned it and to life she roared. I've not experienced any issues since those.

First year UFO issues or something.

 

Do you have the anti-theft system? That has been known to drain the battery over a period of weeks.

 

I have a Shaker 500 and anti-theft. Does anyone know if this problem is limited to the '05s or do I have this to look forward to with my '06?

 

You might want to sweep your garage for any signs of these guys >>

 

Wow dude, relax. First off it's a Ford, accept it, it's a kickass car but it isn't perfect. That's why you got such an exciting car for so little money. Every once in a while some little thing will go wrong. What do you mean by "haul it in"? I hope you don't mean you're getting it towed to the dealership for a dead battery! Go to the nearest autoparts/hardware store and buy the cheapest battery charger they have, unhook the car's negative battery terminal and charge the battery for a couple hours. Then see if it happens again. At least that's what I did, no big deal, so far so good.

To re-iterate; I can almost guarantee that the alternator didn't "short". It's probably just that Ford's automatic battery manager didn't go into low-power-draw-storage-mode due to some misc software bug or something. It probably won't happen again, no need to freak out.

 

When I got it I was given an 800 number for roadside assistance, and they usually see to things, but since the dealership's personnel only works till noon on Saturday, I've decided to wait till Monday, and then have 'em come and get it first thing. My concern is with the computer, or as I like to call it "the black box", that, after having been deprived of juice, it will give me all kinds of grief.

But then, it comes to me. . .it's '05. It's still under warranty. If they can't rectify the problem, they owe me a new one.

 

its a ford?? so its expected?? *******

yes its not perfect because its a ford unlike all those perfect camry's with busted tranny's and steering failures or exploding altimas.. they explode just right..in a perfect way

yea go get yourself a nice $40k toyota avalon ...no problems there lol

 

That reminds me of a certain Nissan my buddy had years ago....
It died with just about the same amount of miles.
They had never connected the alternator at all !!!!!
It ran fine until there was no more juice.
That could be all it is.

 

Unfortunately, the difference here is that such problems will NOT put Toyota out of business, because they have banked YEARS of good will with the buying public.

Ford...well, that's another story.

 

My old 88 5.0 LX , I had replaced the battery. A week later, had it towed to a dealer, new battery dead shorted. A few days later 2nd new battery, car was dead. Same thing, bad battery. A month later the 3rd new battery was re-called. I know for a fact a new battery can go bad. It happens.

 

I had the same problem with my 06 Mustang GT. I was out of town for two weeks, and when I returned my car was dead. I didn't leave on the lights or anything. I think this problem carried over to 06.

 

The 05+ batteries tend to die when the car is sitting for more than a week. That's just the way it is. If you put your car away for the winter, disconnect the negative battery terminal right away.

 

With all the gizmos in cars these days, it'll be more than a common occurance.

If you lock your door with the FOB, the sensors on the anti-theft will drain the battery faster than if you lock it manually etc.

Minor bumps in the road we have to deal with (and this isn't the only car either)

 

So my anti-theft is basically useless if I have to leave my car parked outside while on vacation for over a week? And I have a dead battery to look forward to when I get back? I had thought the upgraded battery that comes with anti-theft equipped cars would prevent this.

 

There is an old thread on this. The car draws something like .3-.5 amps or more if you have the Shaker 1000, just for the anti-theft and other computer gizmos when it is shut off. This is not uncommon for some new cars. My wife's VW comes with a solar charger to plug in if you leave it at the airport for more than a week. There is a TSB on this as well, so when you call Ford, have them check for the TSB. It could get you a new battery. During the winter, I keep my Stang plugged into a battery maintainer, that way I don't have to re-program stuff like the windows, which won't go up all the way after the battery goes dead. There is a procedure to reset them in the owner's manual.

So don't shoot her yet, and just rmember, with all the electronic crap in cars today, that thisis a fact of life we have to deal with.

 

Mine was fine after 3 weeks of vaction, then less than a month later i was gone almost 2 weeks for work, then 3 weeks after that i was gone just over 2 weeks, came back that time and it was dead. (solar charger wouldn't have helped since it was in a garage). Took it to the dealer, they accused me of leaving the lights on. Funny since they turn themselves off. But they found a dead cell in the battery and replaced it under warranty. Haven't had a problem since, but haven't left it for as long since either.

I've been told that the motion senser eat up alot of power, so if you use your key to lock the car, instead of the interior button or key fob, it will activate the door, trunk and hood sensors but not the motion or tilt. Your car won't be defenseless then.

Only way to lock the car without arming anything would be to manually push the lock pins down.