Battery issues

55

Asked by Mike Jan 16, 2010 at 04:03 PM about the 2006 Ford Mustang

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Ok, I own a 2006 Mustang GT. I've owned the car since new and have now replaced the battery for the second time! It only has 34.000 KM, nothing has been changed, or modified.  Is anyone else having this issue? What could be the cause? The car is awsome, but this battery problem is driving me nuts! Any thoughts?

29 Answers

which one? the big one or the little one?lol how offen do you drive it? either you dont it enough or you got bad batteries

3 people found this helpful.

If you're letting the car sit a lot in freezing temperatures for days where the water inside the battery has a chance to freeze, that alone will explain why youre on the second battery.

3 people found this helpful.
55

I don't drive it in the winter, I have a car port and keep it covered. I start the car every two weeks. We did get a few really cold days, but I've had other cars that sat for months and started no problem. As for the little one, it's kept indoors. The only issue is keeping my son from driving it around the basement. :) Thanks guys!

heres something you can put on your pony. get a battery maintainer. i got one on my eagle(amc) and it keeps the battery charged. thats the only thing i could think of. theyre cheap and they go right next to the battery.

2 people found this helpful.
5

OMG m8 you are amazing with a 2006 mustang gt your are the best in the world the only people above you are people who own 69' ford shelby gt500's other than that your cars the dogs bollocks

85

ok man heres the deal i actually deal with this kind of stuff all the time and have ever since tech school the problem is what kind of battery you are using. and what brand, heres a good rule of thumb, if a battery has a handle (with a few exceptions) dont buy it. lol why do u think its there? to make it easier to take it out when (not if) if fails, so no wallmart battery's even if they are a goood brand name also avoid all maintenence free batteries, all that means is that u cant fix the problem your self. so basically the easiest fix is to go get a good expensive battery or a dry chemical one, now the dry chemicals like the optima batteries (deep cycle batteries) will cost alot (somtimes up to or over $200) but they will last and not break and have a great warranty, also if you do plan on upgrading the sound system like alot (extreme amounts of load and/or draw) then you would have to upgrade to a deep cycle anyway. but ya thats what is say your problem probably is. if not that then clean and protect the terminals, this needs to be done any way because even if u have a perfectly good battery if our terminal has corrosion it wont start pretty much no matter what so its allways a good idea to clean the terminals at least once a year. if neither of these work please let me know and there are a few other things you might be able to do. good luck man.

6 people found this helpful.

You gotta start it more often than every 2 weeks, like every few days and let it get up to operating temperature to thaw and charge the battery. Most times the battery doesnt start charging until the cars been running for 10+ minutes. The slow charge 1.5 amp trickle system will work.. the chemical reaction of the charging will keep the water in the battery from freezing.

2 people found this helpful.

clark, i dont have problems with wetcells. the handles are there for a reason. they can weigh 10-100 pounds depending on what you get. all batteries wet or dry are maintmencefree. dont nock walmart batteries because my truck came with one and its doin fine.i useto work at a rental shop. the batteries they use are big. look up sulair 800cfm. try and carry the batteries for it without handles.

Ive never had problems with Wal-mart batteries, either. Costco batteries on the other hand freeze very easily.

sounds to me like you have a ground problem,or something staying hot when you turn the car off,have you changed the radio in it,if so find a fuse that is hot with the key switch on,no juce with it off,use a test light on anything you may have put in it.

1 people found this helpful.
255

any car or truck that has a computer mangenment system is on all the time even when the key is off,,,,,if the car isnt run at least a half hour at least twice a week the battrie will dump out....either get your self a battrie tendr ,, about 10 bucks at walmart,, or disconect the postive cable... but be warned some times by takeing the postive cable off the computer will dump after a few hours......

1 people found this helpful.
30

My wife drives a 2010 V6 convertible and I have a 2013 GT coupe. I bought both cars brand spanking new. I also have a 2008 F150 FX4 also purchased new. Both mustangs had a bad battery failure within the first 16-18 months of purchasing the cars. After new Ford battery replacements and changing the positive battery cable, both Mustangs continue to have bad corrosion problems on the positive battery post. My F150 still has the original battery and not once have I had to clean the battery or post. Something is wrong with the battery or the grounding system with these Mustangs. FYI, the 2010 is a daily driver with about 38,000 miles and the 2013 is mainly a weekend car with less than 8,000 miles on it so it has nothing to do with how often the car is used.

3 people found this helpful.
90

I have a 2006 Mustang that has had a continual battery drain. While driving no radio, speedometer, air conditioner, windows, CD and windows clicking when they key is out of ignition ., and the car will not shift after battery recharged. I hear there is a class action law suit. Any body know about it? I am tired of the Ford Dealerships telling ne the battery is the problem

6 people found this helpful.
40

im going tru the same freaking thing 2nd battery!!!! I am pissed! have to have jumpers w/ me now at all times, Called AAA constantly. just fig out last week the CD changer keeps doing its own thing now hours after car is off, no key in ignition took out all cd. I have 06 gt! pissed trying to get to the bottom of this now I have to buy another battery

4 people found this helpful.
100

I have had the same problems. I have a 2006 Mustang v6 I bought brand new. I can't count how many times I've had to call AAA for a jump, maybe 8-10 times. Most of those times I just didn't drive the car for 5 days. Every single time, they (AAA or Ford mechanics) think I left something on or if I did anything aftermarket. My car still the way I first got it, and I've taken well care of it. It's been inside garages in California and North Carolina and Illinois, so it is not a climate thing. Nor is it a battery thing...I've had a couple of drains within 5 months of each other! Ford kept it for a week to do some diagnostics and found nothing! AAA and other mechanics have found no solution as well. Please can anyone help us?

3 people found this helpful.
100

And it's not the battery....AAA wouldn't replace the battery for free even though it was less than 1 year old because it was "still a good battery"---- just drained.

90

I had the same problem for years. I used a trickle charge all the time. Eventually after many batteries and a lot of frustration, I found out the original Alternator was bad, The dealership placed a new Alternator and the car starts now, everytime.

2 people found this helpful.
100

The alternator has been replaced and they said that's not the problem. They don't know what the problem is. My car also starts "all the time" until the battery is drained again. It's not just a matter of not driving for a certain amount of time. The amount of time of no driving could be related...but not the CAUSE. To explain, my car has gone up to 4 or 5 weeks without driving (I went on vacation once), and when I returned, it started just fine, and drive just fine. But on another occasion, I didn't drive it for 5 days, and the battery was dead! Now you may think, maybe it's just a matter of time regardless of time spent not driving. But I have gone maybe 2 years between dead batteries, but also I have gone 3 months between dead batteries. Whatever is happening, it seems random. But there's gotta be some cause. I don't think it's an issue of "something IS broken, so it just needs to be fixed" but more like an issue of "something BECOMES broken after a particular thing happens, so we need to figure out what is causing it to break."

7 people found this helpful.

Has anyone found the solution to this problem yet? My 2006 GT is doing the same thing. Driving us crazy!

10

I have a 2008 GT Bullitt edition. I'm on my fourth battery now; first 2 lasted 3 years each and the most recent was only 2 years. The first 2--including OEM--were Interstate, which I used to think was a good battery, and the last was Motorcraft brand. I drive almost 80 miles/day in my commute, mostly freeway miles, and once or twice a month I visit my parents, about a 170 mile round trip (all freeway). If the battery was low every day or two I'd suspect a current draw, but the battery cranks and works fine until it doesn't (in other cars, I usually got a hard start or other warning). I live in the SF Bay Area and the climate is temperate; it rarely even gets close to freezing. I'm beginning to think it's battery quality. I think, maybe, the manufacturers are using the thinnest zinc/lead plates they can get away with, and eventually the plates short through sulfation or they just get eaten away. Is anybody having this problem on other makes/models?

1 people found this helpful.
5

Im having a issue mhy 2006 mustang gt wont crank but will crank if i push start it, the battery is good, i changed the starter and safety neutral switch and it still wont crank

190

There is deffinately something using power while the car is parked. in the 60's it used to be the mechanical Clocks that used up the battery over 1 week's time. Does the Mustang have a Security System? The Security System would be on all the time the car is parked and locked. This would definately drain the battery over a few days. Can you turn the Security system off? Is it parked somewhere safe enough to leave it unlocked for a test? Cars need to run a minimum of 30 minutes above 1,200 rpms to fully charge the battery. When the Alternator is constantly charging at a high rate, that will wear the alternator out faster. The best answer is just to use a trickle charger, "Battery tender", or similar and keep it plugged in while parked for periods longer then 2 or 3 days. Make sure all accesories are turned off, light switches off, glove compartment closed, etc. Short Runs less then 30minutes, like town shopping runs, store hopping will need a full charge after the 3rd crank of the starter. Sounds like Mustangs should come with a plug-in under the pony on the grill.

6 people found this helpful.

I've heard it has something to do with the radio and/or Shaker Amp. Has anyone figured out what to do? Replace the radio and amp with aftermarket?

10

I have a 2007 GT with the Shaker 500 sound system and have gone though about a battery every two years. Alternator was changed about two years ago and that tests fine. Last week we went on vacation for a week. The night before we left, I drove the car nearly 40 miles on my commute home, mostly freeway (Los Angeles, so can only drive 65+ mph for about 15 of those miles) so battery should have been fully charged. We drove my wife’s 2004 Yukon to the airport and parked it in a structure while the GT stayed parked in our driveway. After returning, the Yukon started up right away like normal. The next day tried starting the GT and it would make a clicking noise. Threw the charger on it and it said the battery was at about 40 percent charge. I’ve noticed the same thing as others where I’ll walk by the car and the CD changer seems to go through some initializing crap when the car has been sitting all night and day. The CD changer is broken, so not sure if that is why it keeps trying to initialize. I guess I’ll have pull up a chair and watch the CD changer to see how often it comes on while parked, but now I’m wondering if it’s the sound system draining the battery since others seem to be having similar issues.

1 people found this helpful.
10

It is..IS, the CD player. It randomly will start searching or cycling for CDs. This kills the darn battery in a matter of hours. The only way to diagnose as this being the problem is to catch it in the act and being a random event...well....theres the rub.

1 people found this helpful.

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