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

WD Pro

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I just got my GT350 ln December. Towards end of month, I hooked up a trickle charger, and it's been sitting since. Just received a message on my FordPass,
"that the car hasn't been started in 2 weeks, and went into sleep mode, and all remote connectivity has been disabled. Start the car to resume normal remote operations".
So I guess, even with a trickle charger hooked up, when the car is not started for 2 weeks, it goes into sleep mode.
Just check your charger is actually charging / on maintenance mode (rather than it showing an error) :like:

There are circumstances where a 'smart' charger can be tricked, possibly triggering an error and terminating any further charging. If this isn't noticed you could leave the car thinking all is well, when in reality it's just the same as it not being on charge in the first place.

I'm not saying that's whats happend in your case, neither am I saying that the car wont go into sleep mode even with a perfect battery - it's just kind of a heads up / belt and braces bit of advice :like:

This thread has me scared to death to hook up a trickle charger to my car! So many differing opinions on what to do...
Don't worry about it, I think everyone agrees that whichever way you do it, it's better to have it hooked up to a charger than to do nothing / let it go flat :like:

WD :like:
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Balr14

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My Porsche could drain a battery in a few days if you left it unlocked. So, in the winter, I locked it, put the driver side window down and hooked up a CTek tender to the power port in the console. I planned to follow the same procedure with my Mustang, but I didn't need to, last winter. I put the window down, just in case, but I never had to charge the battery and it sat for 3 months.

Out of curiosity, I would occasionally check voltage and it never got below 12.3v.
 

RPDBlueMoon

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This thread has me scared to death to hook up a trickle charger to my car! So many differing opinions on what to do...
Lol yeah same here

I have gone through almost 3 weeks and it started just fine. After reading this I feel like I need to put on the tender everyday
 

RPDBlueMoon

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I just got my GT350 ln December. Towards end of month, I hooked up a trickle charger, and it's been sitting since. Just received a message on my FordPass,
"that the car hasn't been started in 2 weeks, and went into sleep mode, and all remote connectivity has been disabled. Start the car to resume normal remote operations".
So I guess, even with a trickle charger hooked up, when the car is not started for 2 weeks, it goes into sleep mode.
Is it possible to manually put the battery in 'sleep mode?'
 

RPDBlueMoon

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The OP has a four year old battery. I can only get about five years out of a battery. After four years , the battery just does not maintain a charge very long. If I don't drive my vehicles every month with a four to five year old battery I have to put a charger on the battery. I have been able to get up to seven years out of a battery, but that is rare. I left my 2020 Ecoboost sit for two and half months and the Ecoboost fired right up and the battery had plenty of energy. The Ecoboost was built in August so it was a fairly new battery.
Sounds about right, the battery in my other car is ~5 years old and it needs to be replaced
 

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FreePenguin

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Battery tender jr
25 bucks

no worries
 

Balr14

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Batteries actually hold a charge better in cold weather. I stored my RC batteries in the refrigerator.
 

Elp_jc

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Out of curiosity, I would occasionally check voltage and it never got below 12.3v.
That's low man. At that voltage, battery would develop permanent sulfation. Anything below 12.5 is not good for the battery.
 

shogun32

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mine sat for 6 or 7 weeks. It was a lazy start but it did fire. About 38F ambient.
 

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Kabayo

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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.
This last winter, I left my 23 GT at Travis AFB for 29 days while I went space-a to Korea. Got back and it started right up.
 

MyStang

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Pull battery every year and put on the shelf for 6 month's, Picked up car today starts up no problem.
 

Torched10

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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.
I try and drive mine each week on highway for an hour
Use paddle shifter and keep rpms around 4k..
Also use a very powerful charger here's link if you can't drive it every weekend
https://www.harborfreight.com/21040...lEklUZuh0WiIcq6DeFCdrLc69ZYU0CF4aAohIEALw_wcB

It'll full charge battery in less than an hour
When you first use it make sure the setting your using diesnt boil
l battery
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