The battery in my '07 is dead to the point where it will not charge or start the vehicle without a jump. The vehicle has 44K miles and is exactly 2 years old. About a year ago I did leave the lights on and completely drained the battery and I am guilty of sitting in the parking lot at ski resorts with the sat radio on waiting for the lifts to open but this still seems to be a premature death for a battery. My ford dealer described it a "par for the course" with the amount of electronics that are on these vehicles. I'm wondering if it speaks more to the quality of the OEM Motorcraft Battery. Has anyone else had a battery that lasted this "long". If you bought a replacement any recommendations on an alternative battery brand

 

Seems short, but not insane. Get a good name brand battery. Costco has good prices. Optima is really nice if you want to spend the money.

 

My 2002 Expedition still has the factory original battery in it and she still starts right up every morning. Never had an issue. My girlfriend's Chrysler minivan battery went belly-up after only 2 years. I took it to work to have it tested and the battery had at least 2 bad cells in it. I replaced it with an Interstate.

 

All modern automobiles have several micro processors in their electrical system that will draw small amounts of electrical current when the vehicle key is off. Normal current draw is between 20-30 milliamps (workshop manual specification is up to 50 milliamps 0.050 amps).

Check out ALLDATAdiy.com if you are not within that spec for parasitic draw testing.

 

Thanks for the replies. I dug up the Nov '08 battery test in Consumer Reports and the highest rated batteries in the Expedition Class (Group 65) were also the least expensive, Kirkland (Costco) 12866 ($75) and the EverStart (Walmart) Maxx 65 ($76). Went with the EverStart an am back in business. The OEM Motorcraft battery was $110 through the local Ford dealer.
K.J.

 

I installed a device known as Priority Start on my '02 Explorer and another on my '07 Expedition because the battery on either could be dead in a couple of weeks of just sitting. As noted this is SOP.

My daughter has the Explorer parked outdoors at college and Priority Start gets her going even after many days on non use. My Expedition went into that mode last weekend for some reason, maybe the rear glass was open (?), I never found out.

Let us know how the EverStart works out. Is it a sealed or cap-type battery?

-- Chuck