How long can these cars sit without being started before the battery goes flat?

[lazarus870]

Moved from the city to the suburbs and drive my Toyota to work and the Mustang on the weekends, but in late October the original factory battery started getting sluggish and failed completely in November.

I'm of the belief that modern cars don't really like to sit without being run for very long since there's more draw on the battery even off.

Now I have a brand new battery from Ford...how long can I let this thing sit before the battery goes flat?

I live in the Pacific NW and my tires are getting a little bald now, and since it's raining so hard every single day and flooding I don't want to take the car out. Otherwise I try and take it out at least an hour once a week.

I live in a condo and do not have access to an outlet (underground parking) so I can't trickle charge it otherwise i'd love to do that.

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[DolomiteGT]

Do yourself a favor and get a CTek Battery Tender and find a power outlet you can run off of. You may get a month out letting it sit but the battery degrades.

I learned the hard way many years ago with a G8 GT that I let sit for too long. Over time, that Aussie battery started hold less and less of a charge until it left me stranded in a shopping store parking lot. That was a $200 lesson.

I just installed the Ctek charging port in the cowel on my 19 last weekend. If the Stang sits longer than 3 days it goes on the charger.

 

[ice445]

I top off the charge on mine every two weeks or so. After the car isn't started for two weeks fordpass disables all the monitoring stuff which helps with the battery life.

 

[rwarden90]

Also curious as I let mine sit for about a week at a time before swaping cars, haven't had issues yet but the thought has crossed my mind.

 

[lazarus870]

Do yourself a favor and get a CTek Battery Tender and find a power outlet you can run off of. You may get a month out letting it sit but the battery degrades.

I learned the hard way many years ago with a G8 GT that I let sit for too long. Over time, that Aussie battery started hold less and less of a charge until it left me stranded in a shopping store parking lot. That was a $200 lesson.

I just installed the Ctek charging port in the cowel on my 19 last weekend. If the Stang sits longer than 3 days it goes on the charger.

I wish I could. Sadly my parking spot is in the middle and the one beside me closest to the outlet is occupied. And the outlet is near the stairway so if I ran a wire there and somebody tripped over it I could get sued and it wouldn't be good. I've thought about this lol.

 

[frank s]

Do yourself a favor and get a CTek Battery Tender and find a power outlet you can run off of. You may get a month out letting it sit but the battery degrades.

I learned the hard way many years ago with a G8 GT that I let sit for too long. Over time, that Aussie battery started hold less and less of a charge until it left me stranded in a shopping store parking lot. That was a $200 lesson.

I just installed the Ctek charging port in the cowel on my 19 last weekend. If the Stang sits longer than 3 days it goes on the charger.

I'd be interested in seeing what the Ctek charging port looks like, installed on the cowl of your '19. Could I trouble you to make photos available?

Tipping point on my '19 EB seems to have been three weeks or a bit more, on the original battery. I've replaced that with a more "powerful" XS Power D4700, which hasn't been in use long enough to say what it is good for in a not-driven environment.

 

[DolomiteGT]

I'd be interested in seeing what the Ctek charging port looks like, installed on the cowl of your '19. Could I trouble you to make photos available?

Tipping point on my '19 EB seems to have been three weeks or a bit more, on the original battery. I've replaced that with a more "powerful" XS Power D4700, which hasn't been in use long enough to say what it is good for in a not-driven environment.

Sure. Here are a few pics. I highly recommend that you mount it as low as you can. Mine doesn't sit 100% flush because the back of the unit nudges up against the inside of the cowl. It's close, just wish I had went about an 1/4" lower.

 

[Elp_jc]

The battery on my Bullitt severely discharges in 1 week. It probably still cranks the engine, but it'd get permanently sulfated if you don't charge it at least weekly. Don't know if all the options on the Bullitt have something to do with that, but it's the first car I have to leave connected to the charger all the time. Typically, I charge all my batteries weekly. In most cars the tester shows yellow-green or yellow. On the Mustang, it shows red. And no, there're no issues with the alternator, or anything else (car is only a few months old). It's just excessive parasitic drain. Hope this helps.

 

[20ducks]

I get 5 days and it is weak at that length. I have a trickle charger which gets connected once a week or 10 days.

 

[WD Pro]

Here is the other CTEK option :

@DolomiteGT - If you are leaving your charger resting on the car you can get rubber bumper covers for them. For what they are they are expensive, but they do fit well and provide some bump (and slip) resistance

WD

 

[Vlad Soare]

The battery on my Bullitt severely discharges in 1 week. It probably still cranks the engine, but it'd get permanently sulfated if you don't charge it at least weekly. Don't know if all the options on the Bullitt have something to do with that, but it's the first car I have to leave connected to the charger all the time. Typically, I charge all my batteries weekly. In most cars the tester shows yellow-green or yellow. On the Mustang, it shows red. And no, there're no issues with the alternator, or anything else (car is only a few months old). It's just excessive parasitic drain. Hope this helps.

Though all modern cars slowly drain their batteries while parked for a long time, one week from full to red seems awfully (and unacceptably, I'd say) short to me. Either you've got an electrical gremlin, or, more likely, your battery is in a bad state of health.

 

[ice445]

Here's a question, what happens if the battery dies and you can't open the door to open the hood? Are you just screwed?

 

[WD Pro]

Here's a question, what happens if the battery dies and you can't open the door to open the hood? Are you just screwed?

Pling the door handle cover off and then use the emergency key

WD

 

[ice445]

Pling the door handle cover off and then use the emergency key

WD

But the coupe has frameless windows, if there's no power to let them down, how do you open the door without breaking the glass?

 

[WD Pro]

But the coupe has frameless windows, if there's no power to let them down, how do you open the door without breaking the glass?

Yeah I get that but that's the procedure that Ford give us.

In reality I suspect it wont be an issue based on :

I can only speak from my experience with BMW's frame less doors and when I froze those up in winter. Until I got wise to it, the first thing you got was a bang as the glass flexed inwards and popped out from under the frame - it sounded horrible but didn't cause it a problem.

I know that mum and dad (BMW) and my other half (mini) have also had the same issue again with no ill effect. My misses didn't even realise, shut the door and drove with the window on the outside of the frame wondering why it was noisy ...

I wouldn't want to do it often or purposely and I would also be worried about marking the paint flicking the handle cover off - that's why I stuck the little CTEK thing on and I've been quite strict in charging it weekly (even though it's new)

WD

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