Battery saver mode don't know what to believe anymore

[OneAlienBoi]

So my truck went into battery saver mode while I was out of town for about 10 days. It starts just fine, but things like the gauges are black when you open the door, they only turn on when you put the key in. I don't do a lot of long drives, mostly short drives of a few miles at a time, I don't know if that's sufficient enough to charge the battery back up.

I took it into the dealership because it needed an oil change anyways, and mentioned how it was going into battery saver mode. The techs told me they check the battery as part of their routine and it said it was fine, and that the things I'm experiencing are part of a software recall rather than a issue with the battery itself. It kinda feels like I'm getting contradicting information here.

Sponsored

 

[Deleted member 5597]

I can drive my Mav in the morning and get the battery saving mode later in the afternoon. Crazy, isn’t it?

 

[Rob911]

I have been getting these types of messages since day one with my 2022 mustang. The battery tested fine. Two years later I still get the occasional message (random, sometimes right after it has been driven and also when it has not been driven for a couple of days) but the car always fires right up and have never experience a slow start. Same thing with my one year old Hybrid Maverick, battery tested fine and it always fires right up. I just ignore them now.

 

[HeyBales]

They aren't going to honestly mention the battery is pretty low quality also, exasperated by the bad charging routine.
Well, perhaps a dealer might throw some blame on a poor battery.

Glad to hear the battery saver mode worked correctly!
At least that part of the programming seems to work well.

With current charging routine - short trips probably isn't enough, because at some point during a drive the amps going back to the battery to charge drop off to more a maintenance charge level until it reaches what it thinks is max level, then it really goes to trickle level that even the BCM or BECM reports as 1 or 0 amps, or maybe it's fluctuating between.

Since it's lower charging it needs more time, and short trips just don't provide it.
Sadly neither do long trips either.
Had several recent 45 min mostly highway trips lately - mainly was at the 1 or 0 amp level, which never got the SOC above 60%.
14.8 & 15 V though, just not sent to the battery for recharge. Pretty sad.

 

[vandeda2024]

I hope Ford's fix ... well, fixes this. In winter time when it gets too cold for me to tolerate riding my bike to work (15F and below), I can make a lot of short trips into work and home (only 2 miles each way). My current car, a Prius v, is still on the battery it came with 6.5 years ago. At least from what I've what, it seems there's 2 contributing factors. 1) cheap bettery, 2) the system maintains a maximum SOC of only 80%. The solution people have employed is a quality AGM that doesn't get harmed by the low SOC.

 

[Meeka]

I can drive my Mav in the morning and get the battery saving mode later in the afternoon. Crazy, isn’t it?

Since I’ve joined MTC, I always thought that this bat save mode was a hybrid thing, until my Eco started doing it. It was built in July 2024, has an AGM battery dammit! WTF!

 

[HeyBales]

Since I’ve joined MTC, I always thought that this bat save mode was a hybrid thing, until my Eco started doing it. It was built in July 2024, has an AGM battery dammit! WTF!

If your auto-start/stop function ever stopped working on it's own, if your lights or charging port ever turned off earlier than normal, if the open door lights ever stayed on shorter upon entry/exist - you were getting battery save mode.

What's the date on the battery though? (might be written on neg post top)
Doesn't matter if truck was built in July.
AGM batteries can still be built low quality/cheap.
Or sat in an environment for extended time not conducive to a long-life.

 

[MvrkECWI]

Another day, another battery saver thread. Has anyone used Special Service Message 53087 to have their dealer test and replace their battery? I'm going in next week. Hate to face another winter without remote start and no software fix until next year.

 

[cyberdog]

Replacing with another identical EFC OEM Battery will likely have the symptoms return after a few months. The real issue is the OEM battery doesn't have sufficient reserve at 80% charge to handle the telematics transmission when you turn off the truck. If you connect a battery monitor, shortly after key-off there's a significant momentary drain as the telematics unit does it thing, and phones home to Ford to provide the location, tire inflation, oil change %, and other diagnostic information. It's the voltage drop during that transmission cycle which triggers the battery conservation mode, turning off remote services, at least on my Maverick. Biggest gripe was, that also turns off the keyless entry sensor on the passenger front door, requiring digging out the remote to unlock it, usually with my hands full.

The other issue is the OEM battery looses charge just sitting on a bench, disconnected from everything. In the course of 30 days my original battery went from 100% charge to under 50% charge sitting in the shed on a wooden bench. (That shouldn't happen).

Haven't had a single battery saver trigger since swapping my OEM for a larger H5 AGM battery. The larger battery has twice the reserve of the original T4. The Hybrid doesn't need the cranking amps, but does need a bit more reserve capacity to not drop during what I refer to as the 'phone home' events. - Modern vehicles have considerable more parasitic draw, even when idle, than vehicles of old.

That said, there is a coming update to the TCU module to reduce it's electrical drain or draw, likely sometime in early 2025. That might allow the OEM T4 to satisfy it's needs.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

So my truck went into battery saver mode while I was out of town for about 10 days. It starts just fine, but things like the gauges are black when you open the door, they only turn on when you put the key in. I don't do a lot of long drives, mostly short drives of a few miles at a time, I don't know if that's sufficient enough to charge the battery back up.

I took it into the dealership because it needed an oil change anyways, and mentioned how it was going into battery saver mode. The techs told me they check the battery as part of their routine and it said it was fine, and that the things I'm experiencing are part of a software recall rather than a issue with the battery itself. It kinda feels like I'm getting contradicting information here.

Hi there! Will you send us a message with your VIN and your local Ford dealer? We'd like to investigate this battery concern on our end. Thanks!

 

[madeiros01]

Another day, another battery saver thread. Has anyone used Special Service Message 53087 to have their dealer test and replace their battery? I'm going in next week. Hate to face another winter without remote start and no software fix until next year.

I just had my 24 Maverick XLT (build date Nov23) into the local dealer for this very Special Service Message(53087). They charged the battery, then ran their diagnostics… it came back ‘REPLACE’, so I now have a new battery (date code 8/24). Still looking forward to a permanent software solution.

 

[rknrbt]

Replacing with another identical EFC OEM Battery will likely have the symptoms return after a few months. The real issue is the OEM battery doesn't have sufficient reserve at 80% charge to handle the telematics transmission when you turn off the truck. If you connect a battery monitor, shortly after key-off there's a significant momentary drain as the telematics unit does it thing, and phones home to Ford to provide the location, tire inflation, oil change %, and other diagnostic information. It's the voltage drop during that transmission cycle which triggers the battery conservation mode, turning off remote services, at least on my Maverick. Biggest gripe was, that also turns off the keyless entry sensor on the passenger front door, requiring digging out the remote to unlock it, usually with my hands full.

The other issue is the OEM battery looses charge just sitting on a bench, disconnected from everything. In the course of 30 days my original battery went from 100% charge to under 50% charge sitting in the shed on a wooden bench. (That shouldn't happen).

Haven't had a single battery saver trigger since swapping my OEM for a larger H5 AGM battery. The larger battery has twice the reserve of the original T4. The Hybrid doesn't need the cranking amps, but does need a bit more reserve capacity to not drop during what I refer to as the 'phone home' events. - Modern vehicles have considerable more parasitic draw, even when idle, than vehicles of old.

That said, there is a coming update to the TCU module to reduce it's electrical drain or draw, likely sometime in early 2025. That might allow the OEM T4 to satisfy it's needs.

It only took 23 days after the dealer replaced my battery with a new one for the low battery mode to kick in. Tired of having to periodically charge a new battery on a new truck. Ridiculous!

 

[HeyBales]

Good to have some description of the process, which I'm sure appears in other theads. (or perhaps this one!)
It would be interesting to know what they are testing exactly to decide good/bad - CCA load test perhaps?

https://fordauthority.com/2024/11/2022-2024-ford-maverick-hybrids-may-have-12v-battery-issue/

disconnect the negative 12-volt battery terminal for five minutes,
then fully charge the battery,
and using either the Rotunda GRX-3590 or DCA-8000 tester,
determine if a replacement is needed.

The DCA-8000 claims this:
https://www.midtronics.com/diagnostic-chargers/dca-8000/

Most decisions are generated in two minutes or less. The charge process is monitored and discontinued immediately if at any point in the diagnostic process a battery is determined to be unrecoverable due to physical faults, etc.
Special circumstances (cold or deeply discharged batteries, etc.) may require additional time for diagnostics.

STEP ONE – CONDUCTANCE
Action: Measures a battery’s ability to crank the engine.
Time required: 5 seconds

STEP TWO – CONDUCTANCE PROFILING™
Action: Measures a battery’s ability to supply power over time
Time required: 55 seconds

STEP THREE – DYNAMIC CHARGE ACCEPTANCE
Action: Measures a battery’s ability to accept charge current
Time required: 60 seconds Total time elapsed: 2 minutes

STEP FOUR – FURTHER DIAGNOSTICS
Action: Load test, recovery charge and monitoring
Time required: 3 minutes


Hmmm - wondering how bad is the custom profile Ford must have created for those limit values.
Interesting the F-150 TSB on similar sounding issue.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2024/MC-10249755-0001.pdf

 

[ce2nite]

Replacing with another identical EFC OEM Battery will likely have the symptoms return after a few months. The real issue is the OEM battery doesn't have sufficient reserve at 80% charge to handle the telematics transmission when you turn off the truck. If you connect a battery monitor, shortly after key-off there's a significant momentary drain as the telematics unit does it thing, and phones home to Ford to provide the location, tire inflation, oil change %, and other diagnostic information. It's the voltage drop during that transmission cycle which triggers the battery conservation mode, turning off remote services, at least on my Maverick. Biggest gripe was, that also turns off the keyless entry sensor on the passenger front door, requiring digging out the remote to unlock it, usually with my hands full.

The other issue is the OEM battery looses charge just sitting on a bench, disconnected from everything. In the course of 30 days my original battery went from 100% charge to under 50% charge sitting in the shed on a wooden bench. (That shouldn't happen).

Haven't had a single battery saver trigger since swapping my OEM for a larger H5 AGM battery. The larger battery has twice the reserve of the original T4. The Hybrid doesn't need the cranking amps, but does need a bit more reserve capacity to not drop during what I refer to as the 'phone home' events. - Modern vehicles have considerable more parasitic draw, even when idle, than vehicles of old.

That said, there is a coming update to the TCU module to reduce it's electrical drain or draw, likely sometime in early 2025. That might allow the OEM T4 to satisfy it's needs.

Do we just grab an H5 AGM battery? No mods needed for the install?

 

[HeyBales]

Do we just grab an H5 AGM battery? No mods needed for the install?

No - mods are required for H5.
H4 is drop-in size.

Scan below Similar threads for How I got out.
Contains several posts with the required battery sizes listed.

Sponsored