Hybrid 12V Battery Charging

[NedF]

Back on the main topic:

When driving 6 days a week, my 12 volt battery was hanging out in the 12.1 to 12.3 range and the truck's guess was consistently 60% to 65% charged.

I let it sit 1 week.

Voltage was now 11.7 - 11.8 and truck's guess was 42% SOC.

Went for a one hour drive.
Truck's guess at SOC rose from 42% to 51% after being held at 15.3V during the one hour drive.

The ONLY time my 12v battery hit a truck PID reported 99% was after a 5 day in a row cross-country road trip.

WHEN FORD SAYS "DRIVE IT MORE TO CHARGE IT" they must mean 8 hours a day, every day. That's what worked for me!!!!

The way I see it we have poor quality, under spec batteries being poorly managed by the BCM with higher than usual demand while parked and off which leads to a higher failure rate! Hopefully the rumours of a fix coming in the new year is true. My original battery is holding on in the 12.1V to 12.3V on average and I have not had to jump start it yet!

Sponsored

 

[TheSEARCH]

Interesting note.

I had to charge my battery as I had no longer dome lights and message from app saying remote features off. . I charged it yesterday for 6 hours. I open App AFTER 6 hour charge still says drive car more. Even though battery now fully charged,. Still no dome lights either. I drive Mav for about 15 minutes and all back to normal. So even after I charged battery up to as much as it would take still had to drive. I wonder why. It should have been able to read battery and see that it was as fine as it would get after 6 hour charge ,. Battery voltage was at about 12.6 volts. But still needed that drive.

2023 Hybrid xlt picked up August 2023.

 

[HeyBales]

Interesting note.

I had to charge my battery as I had no longer dome lights and message from app saying remote features off. . I charged it yesterday for 6 hours. I open App AFTER 6 hour charge still says drive car more. Even though battery now fully charged,. Still no dome lights either. I drive Mav for about 15 minutes and all back to normal. So even after I charged battery up to as much as it would take still had to drive. I wonder why. It should have been able to read battery and see that it was as fine as it would get after 6 hour charge ,. Battery voltage was at about 12.6 volts. But still needed that drive.

2023 Hybrid xlt picked up August 2023.

Old app message not updated yet with new info from truck.

Truck hasn't sent new info yet because it doesn't really know yet.
The drive helped some - but after any charging the reading of volts is inaccurate without a rest period, and the SOC% is really off.
Driving merely caused a new update to go out when shutoff.

Because of this from the manual.

CHANGING THE 12V BATTERY - HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE (HEV)
After battery replacement, or in some cases after charging the battery with an external charger, the battery management system requires eight hours of vehicle sleep time to relearn the battery state of charge. During this time, your vehicle must remain fully locked with the ignition switched off.
Note: Prior to relearning the battery state of charge, the battery management system may temporarily disable some electrical systems.

 

[NedF]

So, at almost the one-year mark I replaced the 12V battery on my own dime. I did take it to Ford to check and after charging it up they told me it was fine. As soon as I parked in the garage after driving it home it went back into deep sleep.

Here are two graphs, one is 1/2 the old battery chugging along beardly alive and the second 1/2 the new AGM. the other graph is the original battery one month after delivery (almost exactly a year ago). The old battery a year ago almost mirrors the new AGM although the average voltage is slightly lower as is the SoC. I guess time will tell if the new AGM holds up better...

 

[NedF]

Only 5 days of data in April (new AGM installed on the 31'st of March) but a much better trend for now!

 

[Ozarkbeard]

So, at almost the one-year mark I replaced the 12V battery on my own dime. I did take it to Ford to check and after charging it up they told me it was fine. As soon as I parked in the garage after driving it home it went back into deep sleep.

Here are two graphs, one is 1/2 the old battery chugging along beardly alive and the second 1/2 the new AGM. the other graph is the original battery one month after delivery (almost exactly a year ago). The old battery a year ago almost mirrors the new AGM although the average voltage is slightly lower as is the SoC. I guess time will tell if the new AGM holds up better...

Assuming you fully charged your new battery; did you also do a BMS reset and leave it parked & locked for at least 8 hrs?

 

[Prickly Pear]

Old app message not updated yet with new info from truck.

Truck hasn't sent new info yet because it doesn't really know yet.
The drive helped some - but after any charging the reading of volts is inaccurate without a rest period, and the SOC% is really off.
Driving merely caused a new update to go out when shutoff.

Because of this from the manual.

CHANGING THE 12V BATTERY - HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE (HEV)
After battery replacement, or in some cases after charging the battery with an external charger, the battery management system requires eight hours of vehicle sleep time to relearn the battery state of charge. During this time, your vehicle must remain fully locked with the ignition switched off.
Note: Prior to relearning the battery state of charge, the battery management system may temporarily disable some electrical systems.

I just disconnected my battery tender after 24 hours. When I started charging the SOC was reported at 53%. The lights on the charger indicated full charge. I left it sit for a few hours, and now my Car Scanner software reading the OBD2 output says I am at 64%SOC. Does the BMS need to relearn the battery charge before the correct charge is reported through the port?

 

[NedF]

I just disconnected my battery tender after 24 hours. When I started charging the SOC was reported at 53%. The lights on the charger indicated full charge. I left it sit for a few hours, and now my Car Scanner software reading the OBD2 output says I am at 64%SOC. Does the BMS need to relearn the battery charge before the correct charge is reported through the port?

Did you attach the battery tender under the hood at the jump posts or on the battery posts under the back seat?

 

[Prickly Pear]

Under the hood. Is that less than optimal? I did a search on the site and under hood seems like it is used by lots of folks.

 

[HeyBales]

I just disconnected my battery tender after 24 hours. When I started charging the SOC was reported at 53%. The lights on the charger indicated full charge. I left it sit for a few hours, and now my Car Scanner software reading the OBD2 output says I am at 64%SOC. Does the BMS need to relearn the battery charge before the correct charge is reported through the port?

It did in my case.

I can't recall correctly, but it seems like it was a tad above 85% the next morning - like it had some drain merely testing, and perhaps the battery not able to hold a higher charge anyway.

Since I've never had a Fordpass app notice of deep sleep, but that PID for discharge while in sleep mode does have Ah's, I'm betting it's purposely enabled during testing, which is indeed what the manual says, some things may be disabled.

I'll be curious what yours rises to. Hopefully not cold in morning. Mine wasn't.

 

[NedF]

Under the hood. Is that less than optimal?

That is where I charge from as well and it is on the side where the BMS will see the activity so resetting it should not necessary.

 

[NedF]

Well, a lot has happened in the past 12 days... The main thing for this topic is I ended up having to suddenly leave my truck unattended for 8 days. During that time, it continued to communicate with the app. When I got home, I almost immediately put it on a maintenance charger. As a reminder I put in a new AGM at the end of March. Here is the data it saved.

I am not allowed to drive at the moment, and whether I ever can drive again is currently in flux at the moment. Right now, it's mostly a waiting game. At some point I may have to start convincing my wife the truck is her best choice of the two vehicles...

 

[HeyBales]

Wow - not really a terrible drop at all for 8 days, but then again you started much higher.
My poor hanging out at 11.8 V would have ended much worse.
But it also drops faster being FLA.


Also hope a good surprise can end up with your situation and put you in a much more positive place.

 

[NedF]

So I was sitting eating lunch and my Ford app popped up the all to familiar “Remote features disabled…” message. I am thinking huh, it’s on a charger. Then I realize it is 2 weeks to the minute since I last drove and parked my truck. Seems it does not care if the battery is fine if the truck is not used for 2 weeks. I don’t remember reading about this anywhere? Also interesting as the charger was working at the time. I will probably open the garage and run it a bit…

 

[BlueSpec1]

So I was sitting eating lunch and my Ford app popped up the all to familiar “Remote features disabled…” message. I am thinking huh, it’s on a charger. Then I realize it is 2 weeks to the minute since I last drove and parked my truck. Seems it does not care if the battery is fine if the truck is not used for 2 weeks. I don’t remember reading about this anywhere? Also interesting as the charger was working at the time. I will probably open the garage and run it a bit…

Apparently it's a Ford/FordPass feature: 14 days w/o manually starting.
Support>FordPass>Troubleshooting>Why does my Ford vehicle enter Deep Sleep mode?
https://www.ford.com/support/how-to...y-does-my-ford-vehicle-enter-deep-sleep-mode/

Vehicle inactivity for 14 consecutive days
The battery voltage drops below 9.5 volts
Extremely cold/hot weather conditions

Sponsored