So they say it's my battery, again. But is it?

[Matso]

You've read all the posts before," remote features disabled to preserve battery. Go for a longer ride" it tells you. Or deep sleep mode take your pick. Not to be confused with a no-start condition because that has not happened, yet. I'm on my third battery and the problem has reoccurred. So I take it to the dealer as I want the PCM module update anyway. After about 4 hours they call and say sure enough, your battery is bad. Worse yet, all the T4 series 99R for the 22 hybrid are on backorder with no ETA (more on that shortly). Simply not available and I'm not offered any options other than if you get stranded, tow it in and get a rental until the battery becomes available. That doesn't sound too good. So I call around to several national parts chains and they confirm it. The BXT-99RT4-A is currently not available for order. Well damn! News alert, NAPA in my area anyway has a replacement battery called the Legend (part # BAT 7599R for $199 minus $18 core) that is a fit. But I'm not quite ready for that plunge.
So I decided to perform my own test: disconnect the negative terminal, test the voltage and let it set overnight. The next day test the battery again under no load and compare. The results were intriguing, 12.4 v the night before, and 12.4 v 16 hours later. Hmm. The battery is holding a charge just fine. I reconnect the negative cable and just 4 hours later the read is 11.88v. I'm not an electrical engineer or anything but it seems to me something is drawing it down. Some module somewhere is suffering from insomnia? I don't know. I'm under warranty so the dealer doesn't want to take that much time to drill down to the primary cause. They don't get paid for that. They just want to replace the battery but that option is off the table.
So it looks like I'm going to have to start pulling fuses one by one on my own in the hope I find the culprit. Any ideas on where to start? This sounds like a real turkey shoot but I have to start somewhere. Thank you MTC members for any help, and maybe this information can assist someone else in a similar situation.

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[huunvubu]

You've read all the posts before," remote features disabled to preserve battery. Go for a longer ride" it tells you. Or deep sleep mode take your pick. Not to be confused with a no-start condition because that has not happened, yet. I'm on my third battery and the problem has reoccurred. So I take it to the dealer as I want the PCM module update anyway. After about 4 hours they call and say sure enough, your battery is bad. Worse yet, all the T4 series 99R for the 22 hybrid are on backorder with no ETA (more on that shortly). Simply not available and I'm not offered any options other than if you get stranded, tow it in and get a rental until the battery becomes available. That doesn't sound too good. So I call around to several national parts chains and they confirm it. The BXT-99RT4-A is currently not available for order. Well damn! News alert, NAPA in my area anyway has a replacement battery called the Legend (part # BAT 7599R for $199 minus $18 core) that is a fit. But I'm not quite ready for that plunge.
So I decided to perform my own test: disconnect the negative terminal, test the voltage and let it set overnight. The next day test the battery again under no load and compare. The results were intriguing, 12.4 v the night before, and 12.4 v 16 hours later. Hmm. The battery is holding a charge just fine. I reconnect the negative cable and just 4 hours later the read is 11.88v. I'm not an electrical engineer or anything but it seems to me something is drawing it down. Some module somewhere is suffering from insomnia? I don't know. I'm under warranty so the dealer doesn't want to take that much time to drill down to the primary cause. They don't get paid for that. They just want to replace the battery but that option is off the table.
So it looks like I'm going to have to start pulling fuses one by one on my own in the hope I find the culprit. Any ideas on where to start? This sounds like a real turkey shoot but I have to start somewhere. Thank you MTC members for any help, and maybe this information can assist someone else in a similar situation.

Wall of Text Hurts Eyes

 

[Jeff D.]

Would be great if you could find out what the "normal" total draw is when shut off to compare. It's obviously some amount, and would be "some smaller amount" from a few different systems.

Knowing which one is to high would be difficult to figure out. You'd almost need an amp meter between one of the battery posts and the cable to see what amount of current each system uses when you pull the fuses. And then know if it's excessive or not.

Good luck.

 

[PlantMan]

Open-circuit voltage is no clue to operation under nominal load. I'd wire my amp meter in series with the battery to see what the quiescent current draw is.

 

[acapaldi]

I'm using the following adapter and the following app to generate charts like the one attached:

You can track 12V battery % charge and amperage over time, charging and discharging. For me it appears my problem is the truck just doesn't charge the battery up. That chart is 26 minutes of highway driving. That netted me 3% charge, and charge amps bounce between 0-1A halfway in. Now why it's doing this, I have no idea.

 

[BradnChristine]

My deep sleep notices are completely random in their occurrence for the 9 months I've owned my truck. Sometimes within 15 minutes of driving 30+ miles, sometimes it doesn't appear after a week of sitting. No sense to what it is doing. But never, ever does it not start.

I stopped being concerned and I just keep a jump starter in the truck, just in case. I do have a usb /voltage indicator in the 12 volt dash socket and have seen voltage in the 11s...but always pops to 15.0 when I hit the pushbutton start.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

You've read all the posts before," remote features disabled to preserve battery. Go for a longer ride" it tells you. Or deep sleep mode take your pick. Not to be confused with a no-start condition because that has not happened, yet. I'm on my third battery and the problem has reoccurred. So I take it to the dealer as I want the PCM module update anyway. After about 4 hours they call and say sure enough, your battery is bad. Worse yet, all the T4 series 99R for the 22 hybrid are on backorder with no ETA (more on that shortly). Simply not available and I'm not offered any options other than if you get stranded, tow it in and get a rental until the battery becomes available. That doesn't sound too good. So I call around to several national parts chains and they confirm it. The BXT-99RT4-A is currently not available for order. Well damn! News alert, NAPA in my area anyway has a replacement battery called the Legend (part # BAT 7599R for $199 minus $18 core) that is a fit. But I'm not quite ready for that plunge.
So I decided to perform my own test: disconnect the negative terminal, test the voltage and let it set overnight. The next day test the battery again under no load and compare. The results were intriguing, 12.4 v the night before, and 12.4 v 16 hours later. Hmm. The battery is holding a charge just fine. I reconnect the negative cable and just 4 hours later the read is 11.88v. I'm not an electrical engineer or anything but it seems to me something is drawing it down. Some module somewhere is suffering from insomnia? I don't know. I'm under warranty so the dealer doesn't want to take that much time to drill down to the primary cause. They don't get paid for that. They just want to replace the battery but that option is off the table.
So it looks like I'm going to have to start pulling fuses one by one on my own in the hope I find the culprit. Any ideas on where to start? This sounds like a real turkey shoot but I have to start somewhere. Thank you MTC members for any help, and maybe this information can assist someone else in a similar situation.

After reading all this and with Ford battery not being available and your reluctance to jump to another brand i believe your option is for your Hybrid Maverick to LIVE on a smart maintainer with enough amperage to provide current for the phantom draw plus enough additional current to charge the battery. Do not connect negative directly to battery post as per manual as that can mess up BMS. Ideally you would have a new replacement battery while you charged and ran repair mode on your problem battery. I would think a 5amp smart charger should work.

 

[Matso]

Thanks everybody, all good suggestions and observations. I'm going to run with some of these as well as get a usb voltage indicator. I'll update if and when I come up with something significant.

 

[skinnyboy]

I'm using the following adapter and the following app to generate charts like the one attached:

You can track 12V battery % charge and amperage over time, charging and discharging. For me it appears my problem is the truck just doesn't charge the battery up. That chart is 26 minutes of highway driving. That netted me 3% charge, and charge amps bounce between 0-1A halfway in. Now why it's doing this, I have no idea.

It would be interesting to see what the draw is on the battery when the truck is shut off and left, if the setup you have will work with the truck off. Seems like the balance between charge and discharge is pretty fine, and not good for certain driving conditions. A new battery may only mask the issue for a while as it's dying a slow death like the original.

Cheers.

 

[rallyshark]

Not to sound paranoid, but I'd bet money Ford knows exactly what the problem is. The question is why won't they fix it? I wonder if it's the telematics, and the data they gather is worth more than the batteries they keep having to replace. I don't know if that telematics unit is tied into the truck's key fob proximity sensing, but that isn't helping either.

A good test would be to pull fuse 11, and see if that affects the battery drain. I haven't had the problem on mine yet, but if I do, I'll pull fuse 11 for science I take my keys out of my pocket when I get home and they never move, until I'm about to drive. I did notice a lot less clicking etc. from the truck when I started doing that. I also don't use the app. Either way, Ford could have designed the truck to have a larger battery easily. There's plenty of room. The drain on the battery while the truck is parked and charge rate could be likely be made better by Ford with software updates.

I'm a technician by trade. If I see a problem, I figure out what it takes to fix it and move on. Ford really puzzles me sometimes. I imagine much of it is bean counters getting in the way of common sense too.

 

[Samcat13]

Not to sound paranoid, but I'd bet money Ford knows exactly what the problem is. The question is why won't they fix it? I wonder if it's the telematics, and the data they gather is worth more than the batteries they keep having to replace. I don't know if that telematics unit is tied into the truck's key fob proximity sensing, but that isn't helping either.

A good test would be to pull fuse 11, and see if that affects the battery drain. I haven't had the problem on mine yet, but if I do, I'll pull fuse 11 for science I take my keys out of my pocket when I get home and they never move, until I'm about to drive. I did notice a lot less clicking etc. from the truck when I started doing that. I also don't use the app. Either way, Ford could have designed the truck to have a larger battery easily. There's plenty of room. The drain on the battery while the truck is parked and charge rate could be likely be made better by Ford with software updates.

I'm a technician by trade. If I see a problem, I figure out what it takes to fix it and move on. Ford really puzzles me sometimes. I imagine much of it is bean counters getting in the way of common sense too.

What is fuse 11 for?

 

[rallyshark]

That's the fuse for the "telematics" unit. Pulling it won't affect the truck in any way, but it will disable communication with Ford and the Fordpass app. I started to pull it the day I got the truck, but never got around to it. It has always been in the back of my mind though, should battery issues arise at some point(and because I'm paranoid, lol).

 

[23grayXLT84]

Not to sound paranoid, but I'd bet money Ford knows exactly what the problem is. The question is why won't they fix it? I wonder if it's the telematics, and the data they gather is worth more than the batteries they keep having to replace. I don't know if that telematics unit is tied into the truck's key fob proximity sensing, but that isn't helping either.

A good test would be to pull fuse 11, and see if that affects the battery drain. I haven't had the problem on mine yet, but if I do, I'll pull fuse 11 for science I take my keys out of my pocket when I get home and they never move, until I'm about to drive. I did notice a lot less clicking etc. from the truck when I started doing that. I also don't use the app. Either way, Ford could have designed the truck to have a larger battery easily. There's plenty of room. The drain on the battery while the truck is parked and charge rate could be likely be made better by Ford with software updates.

I'm a technician by trade. If I see a problem, I figure out what it takes to fix it and move on. Ford really puzzles me sometimes. I imagine much of it is bean counters getting in the way of common sense too.

100% they know but it's cheaper to replace 1-2 batteries under the 3/36 warranty, just enough to get by. Imagine if it's some main wiring harness that would require stripping most of the vehicle down. Batteries on backorder should be a red flag.

Good test by the OP. Bee. Waiting for someone to report voltage with battery disconnected.

 

[Matso]

Hard to say. They just focused on testing the battery and that was that. Anyway, it sounds like you have a Lariat with proximity function. Mine is an XLT so the key fob shouldn't be involved in the equation in my case.
As far as fuse 11, that is listed as one of six PCMs. I'm not sure I want to mess with that. If it means anything, they did perform the 23E07 PCM update. Maybe I should give it a few more miles and see if it improves. But spending $200 for an aftermarket battery is off the table.

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