Power saver/ low battery weirdness

[Zrussian13]

So after letting my car sit for the four day weekend I got in and headed to work Monday morning. Everything seemed normal except the smell of gas was stronger than normal. (I run a lot of boostane so I didn't think anything of it) Went to grab a water bottle out if my car while working and noticed my passanger door wouldn't unlock at the handle. Figured something had failed and figured I'd look into it later. Watched a world cup game at work and headed back to my car to charge my phone before the next game started. I pushed the start button, then turned it off. This is usually enough to charge my phone for 15 mins or so before the car shuts off but this time my car turned off with in a minute.

Thought it was odd at first but then remembered back to some posts here about power saver crap when the battery is getting weak and checked the voltage and sure enough, only 12v at the battery. Started the car (weak start) and let it run for a bit but it dropped to 11.9/12v right after turning it off. Guess it's time to replace the battery.

Left work early to handle this and the car still smelled extra gassy and a bit sluggish all the way to autozone. Battery was under warranty and they swapped it out no problem. I put it in and all my woes were gone. I Knew it should solve the accessory and door issue but to my surprise the smell of gas was back to its normal level and the car felt strong again.

I know the mustang shuts down some of the extras to save the battery life when it detects a battery going bad but I never would have figure it would effect drivability. Has anyone experienced this? I'm clueless as to why it would have smelled like that and pulled like shit with a battery barely starting to go bad. I'm lucky autozone took my word for it and didn't test the battery because I'm sure it wouldn't have tested "bad enough" for them to replace it yet. They would have told me it needed charged and sent me on my way. I've been there before with them! Any thoughts?

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[CrackedHorn]

All I know is when my battery was getting low and needed to be replaced, I would get intermittent CEL/idiot lights on the dash. I don't recall it running poorly, though.

When my FOB battery was low the doors wouldn't lock/unlock as easily.

 

[ihasnostang]

i was able to trickle charge my battery back to health and i used it all this season even after finding it below 7v during winter storage. i drove it once where it was probably running only off of the alternator and i didnt notice any driveability issues, only active exhaust malfunctions and the radio screen turning off.

 

[Zrussian13]

That's why it seemed so weird to me. Now my car is boosted so it's really obvious when it's down on power compared to an NA car but the car was definitely noticeably sluggish heading there and ripped as soon as I replaced it. And I can't blame knock or false knock. I'm running a KR tune with the sensors desensitized on 100ish octane.

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