[reconman0321]

Hello. I am having a problem with my battery dying. I have a brand new battery and believe the juice is bleeding out somewhere. Previously I have had to charge then start my car but if i did not start it everyday it would be dead and I would have to repeat the process. After so long of doing this the battery went bad. My terminal connections are clean and tight, and my main motor ground is the same.

I installed an after market triple gauge cluster and it all works fine. I used the add a fuse for them in the panel and i retraced all the lines and they seem fine. Any suggestions?

[10/05gt]

Do a thread search. It's a common problem. Make sure you turn your stereo off before you shut the car down. There has been some issues with that pulling the battery down.

[stlwagon]

Do you have an aftermarket alarm system?

[reconman0321]

no standard alarm system. Although i have had battery problems since i got the car new in 05. Maybe just bad luck w/ batteries. Do you think that continual charging and draining will make a battery go bad so quickly?

[pcfrisch]

Originally Posted by reconman0321

no standard alarm system. Although i have had battery problems since i got the car new in 05. Maybe just bad luck w/ batteries. Do you think that continual charging and draining will make a battery go bad so quickly?

Should have no effect on a lead acid battery.
Seems that people with shakers have this problem. I don't have a shaker and never had a problem. OEM battery almost 4 years old now.

[chp2150]

My original just wheezed it's last this week. It lasted 3 years and 3 months.

[Taxpayer]

Originally Posted by pcfrisch

Should have no effect on a lead acid battery.
Seems that people with shakers have this problem. I don't have a shaker and never had a problem. OEM battery almost 4 years old now.

I don't have the Shaker anymore. Replaced it with a Pioneer touch-screen and the battery still dies. Since I don't use my car too often, I disconnect the battery.

[reconman0321]

I have already been trough 4 batteries. All bad. I don't drive every day but batteries shouldn't be dying after a couple days w/out starting. I have a shaker 500 but y would that cause problems? Since we r talking about batteries i was thinking of getting a trunk battery relocation box. Anyone have one? Pro's Con's?

[10/05gt]

Originally Posted by reconman0321

I have already been trough 4 batteries. All bad. I don't drive every day but batteries shouldn't be dying after a couple days w/out starting. I have a shaker 500 but y would that cause problems? Since we r talking about batteries i was thinking of getting a trunk battery relocation box. Anyone have one? Pro's Con's?

There is test equipment that can tell how much load is on the battery when the car is off. A good shop should be able to pin the source down in a hurry if its killing a battery in a few days. Most likely a short in the alternator, the alt will still test ok even with a short.
I have my battery in the trunk. It's a quite a bit of work to do it right and other than weight transfer for drag racing there isn't much other reason to do it.

[reconman0321]

I did have my alternator rebuilt about 10 months ago. The clutch went bad in the oe so the rebuilder put a regular non clutch always engaged pulley on it. It has worked great ever since. How would you tell if it was a short in the alt? And would it drain it when power is off?

[10/05gt]

Originally Posted by reconman0321

I did have my alternator rebuilt about 10 months ago. The clutch went bad in the oe so the rebuilder put a regular non clutch always engaged pulley on it. It has worked great ever since. How would you tell if it was a short in the alt? And would it drain it when power is off?

The battery and main fuse/buss box are connected directly to the alternator so there is always battery voltage at the alternator even with the engine/key off.
Do a thread search and see if anyone has procedure typed up to isolate a short circuit. If there isn't one here I will try and get the method I use typed up after work tonight.

[reconman0321]

Appreciate that man. I will do some more searching.

[ACROZIER]

Seems as though it isn't the actual Shaker head unit that kills the battery, but the speaker amps. If you replace the head unit, are you still using the factory speaker amps? Seems like if you don't turn your head unit off BEFORE you shut down the car, the amps remain on and drain the battery. I found out the hard way. I just bought an 07. It sat for over a week and started with no problem. The next day, I went out and cleaned the interior up...had the stereo going.
Even started and let it idle a little while. But, when I cut it off, I didn't turn off the Shaker. Guess what....next morning, not enough juice to turn the engine over. Jump started the darned thing....drove it around a while. Shut EVERYTHING down. This morning it started just fine.

There really does appear to be an issue with the Shaker stereo system. Unfortunately, Ford doesn't seem to want to address it.

[joeyalex]

Having seen this myself, here is another thing to think about:

Does the car have any kind of LoJack type tracking system? Maybe something the dealer put on?

I've seen a few cars around 2005-2006 model years that have some cheesy dealer installed tracking system on them that was supposed to use the analog cellular network to communicate. Problem with that is, the analog network is now turned off. Therefore, the poor little tracking box will run at full output trying to acquire a signal, which in turn drains the battery. Kind of like when you leave your cell phone on in a place where it doesn't have a signal, and the battery goes dead real quick...

[AlaskanGT]

Thanks! I have been having the same problem with my 2005 GT...but I thought it might be related to the fact that it was a "total." As usual, I'm glad I looked here first.

I'll shut down the Shaker before I turn off the ignition next time and see if the battery issue miraculously goes away. If not, I will investigate the alternator suggestion.