Battery warning

[joe166]

Just a heads up. Just because your battery has been flawless and never failed you is no reason to totally ignore it. I got the dreaded "Click-Click-Click" this morning when I turned my key. I had been using a rental car for a week because I had a couple of boring trips to make and didn't want to put a couple of thousand turnpike miles on my car but I used the car no more than 8 or 9 days ago and there were no signs of battery problems and I had a new battery from a couple of years ago courtesy of FOMOCO under warranty so I pretty much ignored my battery until today.

I went to hook up my trusty battery charger and when I removed my high performance trunk mat and the panel covering the spare tire and battery, everything looked fine. Upon removing the red rubber cover for the positive terminal I found a mound of corrosion that looked like one of those things in a limestone cave. Total corrosion that took me over an hour to clean up with battery cleaner and a screwdriver and lots of paper towels to absorb the crud and keep it off the floor of the compartment.

I urge you to take a look and catch this before it gets so bad that it takes a long time to clean up. If it was just a little, you could spray battery cleaner and acid inhibitor and just wipe it off, but mine was too far gone and required several applications and hard scraping and almost chiseling. It is now totally clean and the battery charger seems to be working, but I am not really sure that the battery was actually discharged, it might just have not been getting contact due to the stuff growing on it.

No harm in the long run, but kind of messy.

[CVCashmere]

Re: Battery warning

Joe:

Amen, brother. Lay it on the congregation! And while you are at it, mention that they should check the fluid level of your "maintenance-free" battery.

Thanks

[joe166]

Re: Battery warning

Joe:

Amen, brother. Lay it on the congregation! And while you are at it, mention that they should check the fluid level of your "maintenance-free" battery.

Thanks

While I agree in principle, that is just not going to happen. In my car, in order to do that you have to remove the battery. When they put the replacement battery in the car they moved it toward the back of the car and the cover won't lift up without removing it from the tray and moving it forward to clear the back of the trunk.

But I can at least clean the posts regularly.

Edit: I checked it out. It can be checked without moving the battery. You just need to remove the brace holding the battery down with an 8mm socket and loosen two bolts. Still a pain, but doable.

[LeoFenderBender]

Re: Battery warning

Considering the many devices on a RetroBird, all of which require electricity, a good battery is essential.

[golfcar]

Re: Battery warning

I have an 02 Bird and (knock on wood) the battery has been flawless. Now I started shopping around and found the aftermarkets either do not know about the vented battery or they parts catalogue doesn't list the application. I now buy my parts all OEM from Silverstatefordparts.com The batter is 104.86 plus shipping.

[JAB02LHS]

Re: Battery warning

The batter is 104.86 plus shipping.

Most dealers are 100/110.00 no shipping, batteries are heavy to ship. JMHO

Quote:
Originally Posted by javohio
Local Ford dealer qouted me $110.00 w/exchange for a battery for my 03 Bird.
John:
I replaced the battery in my '05 last November at a cost of $102.95 installed at the dealer. Part number was 875 C-BXT 66*650. List was $109.95 but the sale price was $99.95 plus $3 for disposing of the old one.
Bronzebird

[FUN X 3]

Re: Battery warning

Thanks, I'll look into this the next time I refuel the personalized trunk mat.

[MATBird]

Re: Battery warning

I have an 02 Bird and (knock on wood) the battery has been flawless. Now I started shopping around and found the aftermarkets either do not know about the vented battery or they parts catalogue doesn't list the application. I now buy my parts all OEM from Silverstatefordparts.com The batter is 104.86 plus shipping.

Also FORDS "genuineservice.com" has a $20.00 coupon for "Motorcraft tested tough Max Batteries" - 100month warranty batteries. At participating dealers, so you may want to look at the site and then ask your dealer.

[joe166]

Re: Battery warning

Joe:

Amen, brother. Lay it on the congregation! And while you are at it, mention that they should check the fluid level of your "maintenance-free" battery.

Thanks

All right, I give up! How do you check that fluid level? I assumed you had done this yourself but I went so far as to remove the brace holding the battery down and tried to pry up the cover of the top and it seems to be a sealed unit.

Did you find a way to open it or is this just general advice without any personal experience?

[Chuck]

Re: Battery warning

Joe, thanks for pointing this out, I can't remember the last time I checked. Will today though - heading to NAPA for an oil filter for the truck, may pick up a can of acid inhibitor. On my daily drivers I just grease the hell out of the connectors and posts - don't wanna do that on the bird though. Yikes, just thought of this, I'll have to newspaper off the entire well area and 1/2 the trunk so when I spray the acid inhibitor on the battery I don't get it on anything.

[joe166]

Re: Battery warning

I don't think the battery cleaner and acid inhibitor will do any damage, but just put an old towel around the battery and it will catch almost all the excess. What it doesn't catch you can wipe off with that same towel or paper towels.

All it does is neutralize acid, so it should be inert if there is no acid around. The one I used turns some color or other if there is acid present.

[theflash]

Re: Battery warning

All right, I give up! How do you check that fluid level? I assumed you had done this yourself but I went so far as to remove the brace holding the battery down and tried to pry up the cover of the top and it seems to be a sealed unit.

Did you find a way to open it or is this just general advice without any personal experience?

No you can't check the acid, it is a sealed battery.
You should have a battery tested with a profession model tester once a year or when you think you are having battery problems.

No battery will last for ever, thay only cost $100 so get a new once in a while.

[joe166]

Re: Battery warning

No you can't check the acid, it is a sealed battery.
You should have a battery tested with a profession model tester once a year or when you think you are having battery problems.

No battery will last for ever, thay only cost $100 so get a new once in a while.

Thank you, I didn't think so, but I thought I would ask.

[Gwfl]

Re: Battery warning

As a result of these posts I checked my battery again and everything was good. I did notice, for the first time, that the battery seems to have a small round (size of a dime) sight glass off to one side. I didn't see anything in the manual about this...it seemed to be indicating green.

While in there I also checked the tire pressure of my spare. Is there a set pressure for that type of tire. It was about 15 psi and I inflated it to 32#.

Gary

[5bird7]

Re: Battery warning

recommended spare tire pressue is moldedinto the side of the tire. It should be 60# for our tbird OEM spares.