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Weak battery, charge or replace?

Len

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I’ve owned my Mustang for only a few months, so please bear with me.

Woke up this chilly am to a mostly-dead battery on my ‘19 Ecoboost Premium. Have not driven car in a week or so. Am charging the battery with my trusty Die Hard charger as we speak, but I got to thinking...

Is this normal for a garage-kept car with 22k on the odo? Do I need to hook up a tender as part of the price of ownership or did I get a lousy battery when I bought the car? Should I replace the battery or just use a tender?

Thanks for the input!
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Elp_jc

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If you plan to stick with the crappy OEM (flooded cell) battery, try to get it replaced. BUT buy a smart charger, and leave it connected when car is in the garage. The battery is marginal even for the 2.3EB, and downright inadequate for the V8 IMO. I replaced it with a DieHard AGM on my dime, since I didn't want a crappy flooded cell battery in there. And now car is always connected a smart charger at home. But yes, could have gotten the battery replaced for free under warranty, since my car sat several months at dealership, and they knew it was toast. But didn't want another wet cell. Good luck.
 

smoke_wagon_6g

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...a mostly-dead battery...

Is this normal?
How do you know it's mostly dead? This is a serious question.

No, it's not normal. Your car is practically new.

You are still under warranty.

That said:
If you know how connect an ammeter inline do so. Your car should only draw a maximum of 50mA when off.

If it's truly a bad battery they'll replace it. You can often get free load testing done. But really you should be able to go at least a month between drives without needing a battery tender.
 

Firsttexan

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I got 2 yrs out of my crap chinese made factory battery. Leave it on a slow trickle charge overnight. You are are looking for 13.5+volts.

If that doesn't condition it and bring it up to a full charge.

Change it.
 
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rxryanm

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How do you know it's mostly dead? This is a serious question.

No, it's not normal. Your car is practically new.

You are still under warranty.

That said:
If you know how connect an ammeter inline do so. Your car should only draw a maximum of 50mA when off.

If it's truly a bad battery they'll replace it. You can often get free load testing done. But really you should be able to go at least a month between drives without needing a battery tender.
You responded to an over a year-old thread to a person that hasn't been here in almost a year. I don't think your question is going to be answered and OP's probably already was.
 

Firsttexan

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You responded to an over a year-old thread to a person that hasn't been here in almost a year. I don't think your question is going to be answered and OP's probably already was.
No big deal. Not much going on anyway.
 

smoke_wagon_6g

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You responded to an over a year-old thread to a person that hasn't been here in almost a year. I don't think your question is going to be answered and OP's probably already was.
But then you responded to a post that responded to an old post. That's ironic. See you must have been looking for something to do.

Responding to an old post can be better than starting a new one. There's plenty of battery threads already. And you learned something, like the drain when off should be no more than 50 milliamps. That's straight out of the service manual.

How's your battery holding up?
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