Charging a Battery

WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2009 Mercury Grand Marquis and 2009 Ford Crown Victoria. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.

Batteries discharge while the vehicle is on the dealer lot or parked by the customer for an extended period of time due to normal parasitic key-off loads. Also, vehicles still in dealer inventory or in long-term storage may be driven short distances with heavy electrical loads. Over a period of time (30 days or more), this could result in vehicles having shallow or deeply discharged batteries.

Deeply discharged - A battery that is drained over a prolonged period of time, such as an unsold vehicle or a vehicle in storage, to the point the battery is dead.
Shallow discharge - A battery that is drained by leaving an accessory on for several hours or a few days and has a very low charge.

The vehicle's charging system is designed to supply the electrical power needed to maintain the battery near full charge during normal vehicle use. The charging system is not capable of bringing a deeply discharged battery back near full charge in a short amount of time such as allowing the vehicle to idle for 15 minutes to "recharge the battery." Discharged batteries should be charged using an external charger.

NOTE: Battery chargers have improved greatly with the addition of the new generation pulse chargers. These chargers pulse current into the battery, breaking down the sulfation layer on the battery plates and generally reduce charging times to less than an hour.

NOTE: Cold batteries will not readily accept a charge. Therefore, batteries should be allowed to warm to approximately 5°C (41°F) before charging. This may require 4 to 8 hours at room temperature.

The following chart summarizes 2 recommended methods of charging.

Type of Battery Discharge	Pulse Charger	Standard Charger
Deeply discharged	Follow directions supplied with the pulse charger	2 to 8 hours and may take up to an hour to accept initial charge
Shallow discharge	45 minutes to an hour charge	2 hours (40A) on manual setting or medium automatic setting