Long term without starting car

[steve289]

what is the longest anyone has left their Mondeo without starting it at all?

As it is holiday time, we are considering leaving our car at the airport for around 20 days, but dont want to come back to a flat battery.

Early 2010 MB Mondeo, diesel & on the original battery, which is not showing any signs of dying soon (touch wood!), no starting issues etc.

Thanks.

[mighty-mon]

Originally Posted by steve289

what is the longest anyone has left their Mondeo without starting it at all?

As it is holiday time, we are considering leaving our car at the airport for around 20 days, but dont want to come back to a flat battery.

Early 2010 MB Mondeo, diesel & on the original battery, which is not showing any signs of dying soon (touch wood!), no starting issues etc.

Thanks.

I would go out and buy a battery trickle charger......... as that way it definitely wont go flat and the better ones can even refresh the calcium style battery which may just prolong the life of the original one. This is what I have done in the past when we went vacation.

[Binny]

Originally Posted by mighty-mon

I would go out and buy a battery trickle charger......... as that way it definitely wont go flat and the better ones can even refresh the calcium style battery which may just prolong the life of the original one. This is what I have done in the past when we went vacation.

Hmmm nowhere to plug it into at the airport.

But you might be better off leaving it at home with a trickle charger on it Steve? Depends on where you are and if you can get a bus, train or something to get to the airport I suppose.

[stuart]

Relax, should be no problems in moderate weather and a healthy battery.
In June-July 2011 left my MA TDCi sedan parked in the weather at my work in Melbourne for six weeks (part of the company lease conditions) and no one else used it - was still in the same park place I left it when I returned from my business trip. Car started up straight away when I tried it.

Similarly when we last returned in 2013 to Australia for four weeks leave over Christmas from my current location in Germany I was concerned leaving my MC wagon in the weather outside my home in the cold German winter. I asked around including the local Ford dealer for any suggestions of special action. The only suggestion was to maybe purchase a weatherproof car cover (which I ignored)! Returned to find the car covered by a blanket of snow but it started without problem.

[dirty hands]

pop off the positive terminal at the airport

no chance of a drain

should be fine when you return from the journey

[TRAU BLAU]

Disconnect both terminals on battery.Make a little top/cover out of insulation tape & cover terminals & cloth over the lot.No worries!

[GasoLane]

You're going for three weeks, not three years.

Just lock it up and don't lose the keys.

[cobrin]

For everything else there's Master Card

[AlanD]

Originally Posted by steve289

what is the longest anyone has left their Mondeo without starting it at all?

As it is holiday time, we are considering leaving our car at the airport for around 20 days, but dont want to come back to a flat battery.

Early 2010 MB Mondeo, diesel & on the original battery, which is not showing any signs of dying soon (touch wood!), no starting issues etc.

Thanks.

That battery is now nearly 5 years old and might be older if the "early 2010 " refers to the first registration date.

We plan on a battery change every four years at the worst because of potential problems with the MA model's apparent tendency to activate the immobiliser if the battery voltage falls below some threshold. I don't know if the MB is similarly affected. But in the MA case some people who have had this happen have needed a dealer to set things to rights.

The MA user manual is quite clear about not disconnecting the battery. What does the MB model user manual say?

That said, we have left ours for five weeks with the battery connected and the car started first time when we returned. But that was with a battery that was less than 2 years old.

If the car is going to be left in the open, then a solar trickle charger plugged into the cigarette lighter socket should do the job - at least on the MA vehicle which leaves this outlet "alive" when the car is left standing. Be best to check if this is true of the MB vehicles.

You get to make a decision and live with it I guess.

Cheers

[DRU842]

Left our MA XR5 for 6 weeks, on the original battery, in our garage with no special precautions, just locked it as we usually do. Fired straight up on return.

[steve289]

Thanks to everyone here for their input.

I have not left the car without starting for any longer than 10 days, so just wanted to be sure that there would be no significant drain on the battery after 3 weeks. May be a little paranoia there, but getting off a plane at close to midnight then facing a car with a flat battery is not the ideal end to a holiday.

BTW, car was first registered Sept 2010, and built around April 2010
Could not find anything in the user manual about battery & disconnecting it...

Looks like we will be parking at the airport

[stuart]

Actually I do recall having an 'unscheduled' battery failure in my MA but the car was still under new warranty. I had parked in my own driveway in Melbourne only the night before (glad it wasn't somewhere in the bush). I couldn't even use the remote to open the door so had to go back to hardware and use the key.
Rang Ford service and they arranged for a tow truck to pick up the car and take to to the garage for reset of the ECU +++. Battery was completely gone!
Sh$t happens . . . .

[steve289]

Well, the good news is that the car started fine after almost 3 weeks in the airport long term carpark. Did not even give a hint of trouble when starting up.
Tire pressure was down about 4 psi all around, and that was the only issue.

The bad news is that we are back from our Fiji holiday, and return to work on Monday!!
(Actually, returning to work is not that bad!)