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2010 GT - Replaced battery 1 week ago - now won't start

773 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  JBert 
#1 ·
Hi guys. Got a problem I wasn't expecting.
re: 2010 GT manual, 15k miles
So for starters I'll note that the car must have a slow battery drain. It's been an issue for a while. Around this time of year I need to keep replacing the battery as it eventually gets totally drained and jumping doesn't help. (once replaced she starts up no problems)

So last Sunday I replaced the battery. All was good, or so I thought. Thursday the weather was nice and I decided to give her the final good hand wash of the year. When I moved her into place for the wash, all was good. I went to start her up, all was good to move back into place. I moved her out into the street where she sat for 5-10mins as I was planning to go to the store. I go out to start her up and she wouldn't turn over. The lights on the dash all looked normal, radio was on, the fans blew fine. Battery indicator looked normal too. I thought MAYBE something got wet (I didn't wash the engine at all) so I have let her sit in hopes she'd bounce back. Now it's Monday and she still won't turn over. I have noticed that the brake pedal won't go down and first gear is very easy to slip into. The steering wheel has little to no give, it was very hard to push her into a safe place. I opened the hood and while my husband tried to start it I did hear a click noise with each try. Battery hook up is tight. (Can't hear the click noise once in the car, door closed).

Any idea what happened? Husband thought maybe I should disconnect the battery then reconnect. I don't know the point in that. Husband doesn't know anything about cars. I thought maybe it was the starter, but I never had a bad starter so I have no idea.

I really don't want to have to pay $100 for a tow to the dealer, but I may have to.

TIA.
 
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#2 ·
well, the easiest way to id the source is to connect a volt meter to the battery terminals to measure the draw, then pull the fuses one at a time until you locate the source......
 
#4 ·
Hi Kristen, I think I remember your posts from when you were having that battery drain problem, I had assumed that you fixed it but sorry to hear apparently not.

The clicking noise usually is a give away that the battery is too weak to turn the engine over. The starter needs a lot more juice than all the other lights and stuff.

It could be that you simply got a bad new battery, it does happen. Or maybe it never got a really good charge, if it was not fully charged when you bought it and you didn't go for a good long drive after installing it. I would put it on a charger for a while (if I had a charger available . . . )

The brake pedal and steering are hard because the engine is not running, so the power brakes and power steering are not working. That is normal.

It is not a bad idea to unhook and rehook the battery -- that is just to make sure that you have a really good connection, on both posts. If you twist the connector as you tighten it down you can make it bite in to the post a bit, to make sure it has good contact. Some battery terminal grease is a good idea but not required.

I had a similar issue with my 2010 and chased the current draw for a while. It is time consuming to track down yourself so this is a good one to take to a shop if you have a decent one around. I paid $100 or so for a good diagnostic that determined that there was a small draw on the battery, a few milliamps, with everything turned off, but it was within normal specifications so it was not a "problem" and couldn't really be corrected. It is normal for these cars to have a small current draw to maintain the various electrical systems while they are "asleep." The battery needs to good enough to take that small drain for a few weeks and not go dead.

sorry I don't have a more definitive answer
 
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