Dead battery 2020 BULLITT

[20CanadianBullitt]

Wondering if anyone has had similar experience. Car started Sunday no problem, backed it out of the garage and shut it down while I waited for my wife. It was in “accessory” mode for maybe 4 minutes. Hit the start button, dead, I mean click click click dead. I had to boost it with one of my other vehicles, needless to say I was not impressed. It starts OK now but something feels off. I’m not sure it’s idling the way it was, I have stalled the car twice since and honestly, in 3 months I have never stalled my car.

I contacted my dealer on Monday and the soonest they can get me in is next Thursday which is a 10 day wait. Again, unimpressed. They said they are doing the best they can with what they have in this COVID world, I get that. Sort of. I told them it’s a shame I can’t drive my new car because I can’t count on it starting. To which they repeated, we’re doing the best we can with what we have. Gotcha

Curious to know if anyone else has had a similar problem. Thanks, stay safe, stay healthy.

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[VinnAY]

Wondering if anyone has had similar experience. Car started Sunday no problem, backed it out of the garage and shut it down while I waited for my wife. It was in “accessory” mode for maybe 4 minutes. Hit the start button, dead, I mean click click click dead. I had to boost it with one of my other vehicles, needless to say I was not impressed. It starts OK now but something feels off. I’m not sure it’s idling the way it was, I have stalled the car twice since and honestly, in 3 months I have never stalled my car.

I contacted my dealer on Monday and the soonest they can get me in is next Thursday which is a 10 day wait. Again, unimpressed. They said they are doing the best they can with what they have in this COVID world, I get that. Sort of. I told them it’s a shame I can’t drive my new car because I can’t count on it starting. To which they repeated, we’re doing the best we can with what we have. Gotcha

Curious to know if anyone else has had a similar problem. Thanks, stay safe, stay healthy.

What have you got under the hood? YOu might not think or realize that Ford does put maint required batteries in the Mustang. My 15 did not have a maint free battery in it and since it lives under a cover in the engine bay I never saw. I know plenty on batteries to have checked it but being out of sight such as it is, I overlooked what is a routine maint item. If it's not a sealed battery, inspect the water level and refill with distilled, if needed. When I had the problem with mine it was on it's deathbed and couldn't be resurrected with water and charging.

 

[Torched10]

What have you got under the hood? YOu might not think or realize that Ford does put maint required batteries in the Mustang. My 15 did not have a maint free battery in it and since it lives under a cover in the engine bay I never saw. I know plenty on batteries to have checked it but being out of sight such as it is, I overlooked what is a routine maint item. If it's not a sealed battery, inspect the water level and refill with distilled, if needed. When I had the problem with mine it was on it's deathbed and couldn't be resurrected with water and charging.

When you add distilled water use a battery filler canister.if not and you Overfill cells,it's a real mess.thesr canisters stop filling when cell had enough wster.hetrs link


https://www.walmart.com/ip/Golf-Car...rEMUW7tv6_pbSfwWjTLxp02zVrxWQDcUaAkuVEALw_wcB

 

[20CanadianBullitt]

Thanks. The car is <3 months old so I am leaving this entirely to the dealership techs.

 

[Elp_jc]

My 2019 sat for months at dealer, and battery is toast too, but I'm keeping it fully charged before each use, until I change it. I'm looking for a 96R AGM battery (to replace it myself), but don't think there's any. If unsuccessful, I called the out-of-town dealer I bought the car from and they supposedly agreed to exchange it for a new one (I'd do it myself in their parking lot). The additional problem with our cars is the battery we have is ULTRA MARGINAL IMO, with only 330CCAs for a high-compression 5.0L V8; geez. My wife's 2.0L turbo 4-banger (with much less compression) has a 760CCA one. So it's super easy to run it down and get stranded.

 

[Ian94]

My brand new 2019 sat on the lot for 6 months or so, after I bought it, as I was driving home from work one of the first few days I had it, I was at a stoplight and the radio shut off, almost like the electronics rebooted. I was checking things under the hood, I was able to tighten up the battery cables on the battery, they were somewhat loose, not sure if they had removed the battery for any reason or if they were just loose but I snugged them, I haven't had any issues since then. All that happened back in October, 2019 (bought 10/3/2019), it's now June, 2020 and I have 6500 miles or so on the car. You might double check the battery posts are snugged up....just a thought...

-Ian

 

[20CanadianBullitt]

Great info. Thanks gents!

 

[Elp_jc]

Mine were fine. I checked them the day I got the car, when I installed a battery charger pigtail to avoid having to open the battery tray every time I charge it. The car sat for too long without a charge, and the battery is just too small/weak to overcome the sulfation that resulted. And yes, I tried 2 different chargers with sulfation cycles, and it helped some, but not enough.

 

[martin]

My 2015 eco-boost Mustang had a battery that went flat 3 times in the first 2 years I had the car. I was given all kinds of stories about the need for a "drain test". The third time it went dead after I had just driven 40 miles. The AAA came by, rescued me and replaced the battery. I have not had the problem since

 

[308 Cal. Bullitt]

Both cars,
One we almost bought,
and car we did buy,
i insisted on battery being replaced 1st.

(Both tested bad)

Car we nearly purchased, already was bad, & needed jump box, tomove, & was replaced before it could be gotten ready to sell or show.

Other car, we purchased,
i again asked to hav it chk'd before departure from lot.

as they said they couldnt replace it,
"" unless it checks bad.""

It did.

They replaced it.
Left tools under my hood to show they did...haha..
Any car, especially new for some reason,
that sits on lot a while,
seems subject to battery going bad.

And im not paying almost $50k for a car ,
only to hav to put distilled water and epsom salts in it to bring it back too life. Screw that.

Save that crap for when its 5 yrs old and im on the hook for it,
if Im that cheap at the time and my time is worth a baling sida flush muti times, followed by an Epson salt/distilled water solution , and a recharge..

Point:
Get a new battery , or at least request one be put of dealer any time u can.
( can only say no)

Single biggest failing component on any car.
Old, new..whatever..
New , if on lot almost a yr..or not..
is still a battery.
Most failed part on any car.
% wise.

If you take it in yourself, make them test it, & if its under 12 months old they have are obligated to replace/give u a new 1 , no pro rate,
under warranty.

Now, maybe they wont do it without it being in car, at time..!
@ your dealer.. I never tried it.

Always got them before they left car lot, too test battery.

But you are allowed a new battery replacement 100% free of pro rate in 1st 12 months.

Thats what my dealership told me after I forced them into a new 1 before it left the lot.
Regards

 

[cmxPPL219]

Wondering if anyone has had similar experience. Car started Sunday no problem, backed it out of the garage and shut it down while I waited for my wife. It was in “accessory” mode for maybe 4 minutes. Hit the start button, dead, I mean click click click dead. I had to boost it with one of my other vehicles, needless to say I was not impressed. It starts OK now but something feels off. I’m not sure it’s idling the way it was, I have stalled the car twice since and honestly, in 3 months I have never stalled my car.

I contacted my dealer on Monday and the soonest they can get me in is next Thursday which is a 10 day wait. Again, unimpressed. They said they are doing the best they can with what they have in this COVID world, I get that. Sort of. I told them it’s a shame I can’t drive my new car because I can’t count on it starting. To which they repeated, we’re doing the best we can with what we have. Gotcha

Curious to know if anyone else has had a similar problem. Thanks, stay safe, stay healthy.

I had a similar experience in my '19 PP2.

A few weeks after I brought it home, I drove home and parked it in the garage. It was night, and obviously I was using my headlights. I must have forgot to turn them off, (I did not use the Auto headlight mode) and the next day, getting ready to go to work, the car was dead; I realized the headlight switch was still in the On position. The fact that the battery died on me was strange because in all other cars I've had experience with (except much older cars from the early 90s or 80s) headlights would automatically shut off after a period of time to save the battery.

Anyway, I boosted it and off I went.
Now, important to note - I had the exact same experience as you, OP, with the stalling while trying to accelerate and idle observations.
What's going on, is that since the battery died, a lot of other parameters and things in the VRAM and KAM (Keep Alive Memory) in the car also have been erased - I presume in much newer vehicles with advanced ECUs and modules, this will continue to be the case. In our cars, this includes the Idle control (in the old days, the Idle Control Valve in the throttle body regulated idle speed).
In our cars with the manual transmission - if you notice, as soon as you let off the clutch, the car creeps forward. This is all done via the ECU, to prevent a stall, and assist the driver. This assistance programming somehow gets erased with the the battery being dead.
However, try this:
1. Engine On.
2. Vehicle at a complete stop, parking brake set.
3. Keep the car on and idling until the car reaches operating temp. Should be achieved in about 10 mins in summer.
4. Turn on the A/C.
5. Drive the vehicle for about 20 km.

This should reset the idle programming. Once you drive for a while, this assistance returns, and you should be back to normal - check for this, and you can cancel your dealer appointment.
This, I bet, is what caused you to stall, because you were used to the car creeping slightly, before applying throttle to accelerate, along with the car behaving seemingly "off" at idle and low speeds.

Another note I'd add, given a lot of use our Mustangs occasionally or seasonally - not me, I DD mine - and with all this COVID-19 stuff and folks driving less, is that on most late model vehicles, there is something referred to as "low power mode" or similar, when the car is off. In other words, most vehicles, the modules are always searching for the remote, and some modules never fully turn off or go to sleep, when the car is shut off. Especially in newer cars with all the complexity and electronics, this is more of an issue, in that the battery is at the mercy of all this stuff. This isn't really the same as parasitic drain, but it's a similar concept.

What you can do when you know the car will be parked for a while, is:
1. Press lock on the remote
2. Press lock again until you hear the horn beep
When the horn beeps, this means that the car is about to enter a low power state (lock and Armed) and eventually, the vast majority of modules will go to sleep after 1 minute or so (depends on the car) and thus, will use less battery power.
Further, for folks with battery tenders, this can help out here, too.

Also, just drive the car regularly - once a week, at least 20-30 mins, take it out on the highway, and once oil temps are up, you can get on it a little bit. I do this, and have no issues with dead batteries. Reason for a longer highway drive, is that if it's just a short drive around the block, the amount of energy needed to start the car can't be replenished from a short drive.

 

[Elp_jc]

Hey gang, I'm going to replace my battery very soon. Was wondering if I only take about 5 minutes to do the exchange, would anything be reset? I have one of those 9V cables with a 12V receptacle at the other end, but not sure it'd be good for anything on modern cars. Maybe our cars have the afforementioned 'keep alive' feature for 'x' amount of time? Another big no-no is disconnecting the battery with any of the 2 windows down, so make sure they're BOTH indexed up (doors closed, but not locked), before disconnecting the battery. I'll definitely remember that. Hope there's no need to reindex the auto up/down, or the seat memory, etc. Wanted to buy an AGM myself, but there are NONE in 96R size, so will reluctantly get a new OEM wet-cell 96R battery. Hopefully when this one craps out there will be an AGM. Thank you.

 

[cmxPPL219]

Hey gang, I'm going to replace my battery very soon. Was wondering if I only take about 5 minutes to do the exchange, would anything be reset? I have one of those 9V cables with a 12V receptacle at the other end, but not sure it'd be good for anything on modern cars. Maybe our cars have the afforementioned 'keep alive' feature for 'x' amount of time? Another big no-no is disconnecting the battery with any of the 2 windows down, so make sure they're BOTH indexed up (doors closed, but not locked), before disconnecting the battery. I'll definitely remember that. Hope there's no need to reindex the auto up/down, or the seat memory, etc. Wanted to buy an AGM myself, but there are NONE in 96R size, so will reluctantly get a new OEM wet-cell 96R battery. Hopefully when this one craps out there will be an AGM. Thank you.

It's possible - 5 mins is enough time to erase the parameters I mentioned above, including the KAM and VRAM. (Volatile Random Access Memory)
It shouldn't be a big deal though - you can try to follow what I outlined in my above post (I just edited it to include some info I forgot)
These OEM ford batteries from the factory are pretty marginal from what I've seen.

Heat and vibration really kills batteries - It's just in the winter, when we need it most in terms of the CCA ability, they give up the ghost. But it's the heat and vibration that got to them over time.
This is another reason I can see the batteries in the V8 GTs go out - especially in hot weather climates, the V8 engine bay gets REAL hot. It's essentially two 4 cylinder engines in there.

Good luck!

 

[ScottsGT]

I swapped mine out right at 5 years of owning the car. I was noticing some slow cranks. Last straw was a slow crank and then a guy telling me at a red light my tail light wasn’t working. Google search told me it was a low voltage start situation.
Of all places, Dealership had the best price on a stock type replacement battery.

 

[Elp_jc]

Hey Scott, may I ask you how much of an issue was to remove the battery from the deep box? I'm going to replace mine probably Tuesday, but noticed the OEM didn't come with a strap, although it has the slits for one. The new AutoCraft Advanced Auto battery doesn't even have that, so it'll be interesting how to put it in place. But the worst thing will be removing it when it eventually craps out. Not sure if some of the universal battery handles would fit that far back and inward. Hopefully you can give us some tips on how easy (or hard) is to remove the battery in our cars. Thanks.

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