I have an '05 GT, original battery. I park it all winter with a trickle charger attached. This year, when starting it after a few hours of rest, the clock is reset to 12:00 and it shuffles thru all the CD's. Car starts up ok. If the car has been idle only an hour or so, the clock is ok and it doesn't shuffle thru the CDs.

 

answer: probably. I took it for an hour on the highway last night. that should have charged it at least a teansy bit. anyways, I'm in the car trying to troubleshoot it, motor off, key in on position with radio on. Message "low battery" appears on radio. radio turns off and shuffles through the CDs. I hope it's not the alternator, but if it is I'm sure I would have been stranded last night.

 

do you have autozone in the area they can check it for free. Or you can go pick up a volt meter at sears and check it your self. I would blame the battery at this point tho. Any place that sells batteries can test it for you also. It takes less than a minute to check it.

 

Just a guess, but I'd say yes. 6 yrs is a loooooooooooong time for a factory battery.

 

So I guess 13 is really long?

HoopTBird was original and 13 years old... the alternator quit first, as it happened, and the battery was *still* in it when I got Awesome. And I drained that battery completely when the alt quit, and it ran for 2 more years... and may still be, for all I know.

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Methinks these Motorcraft batteries are pretty tempramental, sure, but I think it's more usage than anything else... like storing them, but leaving them connected, is a bad idea(tm), because the car is *never* off. The SJB keeps trying to run things if they're left to 'on' position, and an alarm is *always* on... it may be that a trickle charger isn't sufficient to keep the battery good if that's the case...

But that's just a theory.

/I turn everything off, and since then, no battery issues...
//Watch, now it'll be dead. That'd figure.
///Then again, she isn't stored, she's driven.

 

Just changed my original 05 this month. Mine did as yours. Radio/CD went snake, alarm would also sound every time I reconnected battery. Used hydrometer, found 1 dead cell and 3 low specific gravity.

 

I had intermittent issues with my original battery in my '05 until I ran it through a deep cycle charge. Once I did that it hasn't died since. Its almost like they were never completely charged from the factory.

 

I would say it is time to replace the battery. My '07 GT/CS did the same thing and once I replaced the battery I have had no issues. I went with a Bosch as it was rated pretty high from Consumer Reports and fit like a glove. I was going to go for the Optima (to high priced) or the Sears Platinum (would not fit) as they were also rated very high.

Good Luck & fill us in what happens

 

replaced my original june 05 battery last month; no problems but i didn't want to wait for them to start and then have to deal with it; i am happy with 6 years performance and only had it run down once; i am careful to turn off the radio etc. when i park it in the garage for extended periods of time; still love my vert - only 18,000 miles on her and she runs fine but after looking at the new 12's you just want to trade up - but you won't get what the 05 is really worth in the trade so will probably just keep on truckin