2002 Lincoln Continental eating its battery at rest...

[VTEC_Inside]

I know a couple of you guys are fairly versed in all things Ford, so I have a question.

A friend of my grandpas has a 2002 Continental that they leave parked for winter while they are down in Florida. Usually its only sitting for a month or so before its driven again, but that's been enough for the battery to go dead.

This is happened a couple times now so the battery is likely walking wounded at this point, but I was wondering if there is anything they can do to prevent this from happening in the future. I suppose a battery shut off switch would work, but I was thinking more of some sort of way to disable all the crap that the car likes to do automatically.

Crap, I get in the thing this morning and its adjusting the seat and crap for me as I try hopelessly to crank it.

Nice sounding V8 in that car btw...

[giant_mtb]

Disconnect the battery before letting it sit...?

[Rupert]

They could put a switch on the negative cable. Or they could put it on a minder thing. I did that with the MG all winter, and it was fine.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Put an ampmeter inline with the negative battery cable and check the amount of parasitic drain. It should read less than 40 milliamps or so. It is a Continental, so it might normally have a bit more, but it's probably much, much higher if the battery is draining.
With the ampmeter hooked up, start pulling fuses until the amperage drops. Then you'll know what circuit is draining it.

[JWC]

The last time I was at the dealership, as a customer, the SM was on the phone telling someone that their Mustang going dead after sitting four or five days was normal...because of the electronics.   We had a similar situation when I worked there and Ford said the same thing.  As I pointed out to the SM then, and recently, they sit on the lot for weeks at a time and don't go dead...why would a customer's car?

If they have any phone battery chargers plugged in, make sure they remove them.  Most of those are very cheaply made and cause problems.  A few times I've had customers complain about a slight buzzing noise over the stereo and it turned out to be phone chargers...even without the phone hooked up.

When we go on the cruise in December, I'm taking a battery booster with us.  I don't won't to come back from a five day cruise and have to search for a jump start...or wait for Ford customer service.

[VTEC_Inside]

Well the car is gone until Sunday now (I think).

If I get bored enough I suppose I could start to officially troubleshoot the thing. The battery is still under warranty so I think I'm going to go swap that regardless.

Heck, my RSX sat for THREE months, on the original (now 7yr old battery) and fired up as if I'd driven it the day before. I'd be worried about having to start this Lincoln after a week, that ain't right.

[Byteme]

I know a couple of you guys are fairly versed in all things Ford, so I have a question.

A friend of my grandpas has a 2002 Continental that they leave parked for winter while they are down in Florida. Usually its only sitting for a month or so before its driven again, but that's been enough for the battery to go dead.

This is happened a couple times now so the battery is likely walking wounded at this point, but I was wondering if there is anything they can do to prevent this from happening in the future. I suppose a battery shut off switch would work, but I was thinking more of some sort of way to disable all the crap that the car likes to do automatically.

Crap, I get in the thing this morning and its adjusting the seat and crap for me as I try hopelessly to crank it.

Nice sounding V8 in that car btw...

Twenty or thirty bucks for a trickle charger will fix that problem.  I'd do that to avoid a battery disconnets switch because that causes all the memories to need to be reset ( I dislike resetting all the radio stations).

As for electronic toy chargers, I flattened the battery in the Mazda6 in 5 days by forgetting to unplug the charger for the TomTom GPS.  Even with the GPS turned off the charger drained the battery to nil.

[NomisR]

+1 on the trickle charger, I have one hooked up on the Lotus including a battery disconnect switch since the battery goes dead if I don't drive it for a week. 

[Eye of the Tiger]

+1 on the trickle charger, I have one hooked up on the Lotus including a battery disconnect switch since the battery goes dead if I don't drive it for a week. 

This is not normal. You need to let the smoke out of your wires, then try again.

[shp4man]

That car has a lot of electronics, with many modules that draw a tiny bit of current. Even if the car gets started once a month, it might not be long enough to recharge the battery.

[NomisR]

Maybe gramps upgraded to a high performance light weight battery for weight reduction...

[S204STi]

Had something similar happen recently to a friend's Yukon and it was due to a problem with the HVAC control module. Pretty common with those.

Not that it helps you... but I guess I'd say it's totally abnormal unless the battery itself is just toast.  Florida heat can't be good for a battery's longevity.  Go with Nick's info when you decide to dive into troubleshooting it.  It helps if you can get an in-line switch on the negative battery post temporarily.  That can allow you to power the car up, shut it down, and then switch over to your ammeter without interrupting the sleep cycle on the vehicle's modules.