My Mustang stays parked about 5 out of 7 days (my son drives it to college dorms and drives home on week-ends). After 5 days of being parked all I get is "click click click". Battery and Alternator were replaced by Dealer under warranty at 30k service. There were NO symptoms at that time and was very surprised they needed replacing. OK, fast-forward 2 years; almost to the day after 30k service was performed by Dealer, The battery goes click click. I jumpstart the car and drive home. I read several posts indicating the Shaker500 is the cause of the drain on the battery. I replace the Shaker 500 (it was a POS anyway) with a JVC KD R-810. Prior to doing the swap of radios, the installer checks the current and the draw is .30 amps (1/3 amp). He starts pulling fuses and when he pulls fuse#66 the draw drops to .11amps. Owners Manual and shop wiring manual says fuse #66 IS NOT used. So we leave that fuse out and take the car for a drive. Everything works - lights, door locks, AC, Radio horn etc. So I tell the installer to just leave the fuse out. The the installer swaps out the Shaker500 for the JVC. Current draw was unchanged at .11 amps (apparently the Shaker500 was not the problem). Since the battery (Motorcraft) and alternator was checked by Autozone and tested OK, I am out of Idea's. The battery keeps dying and the Dealer tells me nothing is attached to fuse 66. Sooo, since I know .11amps is still too much of a draw, can anybody give me a hint as to what might be the problem. My son has the car right now but when he comes home again, I start pulling more fuses but in the mean time, I'm open to suggestions

 

Active alarm?

 

That's about 1.4 watts. could there be a lamp on some place? Trunk.

 

https://themustangsource.com/f637/ba...9/#post5879189

PDf 4 May Be Helpful



Also if you have a BXT96R BATT an UPGRADE to BXT40R will buy you a little more time. It has more CCA 590 vs 500. It is standard in the GT-500. I get about a month on the Shelby without driving before I have to jump it. Some SN197's are notorious battery killers.

KC

 

I have an 05 that I bought new in 05. I used to leave it parked all winter long (this is the first time she has been driven in the winter), and I am still on the original battery and it has never needed a jump.

But of course, now that I have said that....

 

I have this same problem OP. I've been trying to diagnose for a while now.

Mine is an 07 with Shaker 500 that i have long since removed. I even removed the amps themselves from the drivers side kick panel. I currently have about a 180 milliamp draw and i cannot find it for the life of me. Ive got mine pretty much narrowed down to something in the interior fuse panel. I've pulled every fuse one by one under the hood and some I've even pulled in different combinations because the item may use more than one fuse.

It's got to be some kind of relay somewhere that im not catching. It's really been driving me nuts. I hope you find it. If I ever find mine I will surely let you know what it was.

 

from what i understand there is a draw on all the cars with the shaker stereo systems. i have an 06 w/ and i have to pull a fuse in the winter while it sets so it doesnt die on me. i cant remember the # fuse but its the one that controls the stereo unit itself (maybe #58??) even though this kills the whole stereo i have not had any problems when storing it (Oct-Apr) if i leave the fuse in the battery is dead in a month. my mother has an 05 vert with base stereo, she leaves it set outside in the weather all winter, doesnt drive it and in the spring starts right up. if you can live without the stereo or dont mind taking out/putting in that one fuse then your ok. i keep it out unless i know im using the car all weekend then ill take it back out again. other than that put the car battery on a trickle charger. this was fords original fix back in 2006

 

I remember reading a couple of years that the Shaker current draw was mainly due to the system shuffling the CD's often. One of the fix that was proposed at the time was to always put the shaker on radio either AM or FM before shutting it down.

When I had the Shaker in mine I heard a couple of time the system playing with the CD's without any reason. When this is happening it probably pulling a lot of current.

 

I have a factory alarm and had the dealer install a LoJac system before I drove it home. I called LoJac and they said there is no way it (the lojac) would draw .20 amps. As an aside, the motorcraft battery, which was replaced under warranty 2 years ago, finally completely died. I bought a new battery from Autozone and the car started right up after being parked 5 days. I'm not ready to say it solved my problem because I still have a .11 amp draw, which to me is excessive.

 

KAM- Keep Alive Memory draws until the battery dies. I use a battery tender because I store my car and always had to charge it before she would crank over. If you search this topic we have almost all experiences these issues at some point or another.

 

I have a 06 GT vert. I always park in the garage never turn stereo or accessories OFF and leave the key IN the ignition. Drove it all summer that way having it sit for up to 10 days without a power failure. Last year I stored it but after a week it wouldn't start. I had left the stereo on not thinking it would be a problem. Anyway, I bought a battery tender and charged 'er up. All fine, all winter. That said last Friday I started my storage thing by filling 'er up and parking her. So I figured I'd do the same thing. Filled 'er up but this time I turned the stereo OFF, took the keys OUT of the ignition but did not lock it. It wouldn't start the next day. I put the charger on it and after awhile it started. I moved the car (had to get Christmas lights out) parked it but this time I turned the stereo ON and left the keys in the ignition. Today it started up no problem. Weird huh? Anyway, I won't be moving it for at least 3 months so I'm putting the Battery Tender on it for the winter. Anyway, this dead battery thing happened once before when I turned off the stereo and took the keys out and parked it for a week. This is an odd occurrence I'm sure, but next summer I WON'T be turning my stereo OFF when I park my car for 5 hours and play golf, as I did several times this year with no problems. I think she's knows she's going into storage and is playing with me. I should name her Christine. Ha LOL!

 

Mine has about a .12 amp draw as well. I think thats pretty normal and shouldnt cause ur battery to die. When I tested it, it was .35 for a few seconds till the dome lights went off then droped to around .12. I know its a little high but i think thats normal on our cars. Also I have a complete aftermarket stereo.

That being said im on my second battery in 2 years lol

 

Not being allowed to post an on topic comment for some strange reason.

 

The previous submission posted on my 3rd attempt so I'll give this another try.

2005 GT with 16k miles at present; sporadic parasitic power losses killing the battery. Measured 100ma parasitic power loss; pulling the fuses, circuit breakers and the instrument cluster didn't change this.

No easy way to unplug the alternator as far as I can tell so I can't check its parasitic draw (if any).

My first attempted posting was lengthy with a bit of history into the car and the current issue. I got the impression my connection to the board was being tampered with as letters were disappearing or appearing in the wrong places. Hoping this posts.

All thoughts appreciated.

 

I have a 2006 GT, and have the same dead battery situation. I started making sure I turned the radio off before turning the car off. I found if I would turn the car off, and the power delay allows the radio to continue to operate, and then I would turn it off, my battery would be dead in a day or two. I started turning it off before the motor, and so far I think that has helped.

Of course I'll probably go to start it tomorrow and it will be dead now......

 

I read about the radio situation some time ago and began practicing that procedure immediately. It appears that our cars have various modules that draw well above 50mA for up to 40-45 minutes after shutdown. Ford has a very specific procedure for checking parasitic loss in its newer gen cars and has to be followed to the letter apparently.

When I start the test the initial reading is a rapidly fluctuating 1.6A that powers down to a slowly fluctuating 90-100mA and drops to zero after about 45 minutes. Don't know if my meter is resetting or the reading is below what my meter is configured for. Resetting the circuit brings the exact same results. Going to have my new battery checked.

 

I gave up long ago, and just accepted that I have to replace my alternator/battery every few years. :shrug:

 

Update:

Ford has a very specific method for checking Parasitic Power Loss with these cars. My final reading was 30mA, within the 50mA spec. Connecting the battery cables in the right order is critical with these cars as havoc can be created with the 'smart modules' and the alternator diodes otherwise. Have had no other 'dead battery' issues to date.

More recently, I began experiencing the dreaded 'fuel fill' issue; can't fill tank past the half way point. Mechanic checked and stated he could find no obstructions in the venting system.

Well, something is blocked as the tank filled fine for years until the last couple of weeks. In the meantime, I found out I could leave the key turned on and hold the nozzle in the 2oclock position and fill the tank. New vent line filter in the evap system has been ordered ($20+).