Battery Dead! Infotainment screen would not turn off!

[nm2023]

Greetings,
I Share my recent experience with my 2023 Maverick XLT AWD hoping to see if anyone else has had a similar issue.
Tried to use the car Monday morning (9/25) after a weekend of inactivity and it was unresponsive (everything dark)! I Measured the voltage across the battery: ~6V! I put a trickle charger on the battery and called the dealer. Dealer wanted me to get the car to them and leave overnight.

After a few minutes, decided to jump start the car using a compact tractor. Started just fine. Measured the voltage across the battery while car running, 13+ volts so I guess charging system working fine.

My interactions with the Service department left me with little confidence. They claimed they were contractors and in order to get paid, they have to follow Ford's procedure. They were unwilling to look at the car to give a quick diagnosis and wanted me to leave the car overnight. I needed the car and told them I would put battery on the charger and bring it in if it happens again. Had the car on the charger for 2+ hours and noticed that the infotainment display was on but the car was off! hmm; l reset the sync system a few times and still the screen would not turn off when the car was off and locked! I Unplugged the charger and still the screen stayed lit. I suspected that to be the cause of the drained battery. Called service dept again with this info; they repeated that they were too busy and I would have to leave the car overnight so they could look at it the next day!

So I started going through the sync/infotainment's menus. I had the car in full privacy mode, no wifi, no data uploads or downloads. As soon as I turned on the wifi and enabled the data uploads and downloads, the infotainment system started to act sanely - it shut off when the car was turned off! Checked my home router and noticed that the car received and transmitted a bunch of data. Left the charger on for 8+ hrs. The car has been behaving sanely since.

Ford website indicated that my car's SYNC was now up to date! (I wish I had checked it while I had the car in full privacy mode).

It seems like the car detected that it was out of date and took action (drained the battery) to force me to update!!

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[GPSMan]

It (infotainment) can stay on without ignition keys if you press a button. Maybe you had/have a stuck button?

 

[Burch20]

This happens occasionally. If you hold the power button and fast forward for a couple seconds it will reset the screen. It will start functioning as normal after that. This also fixes frozen screens.

 

[DryFlyGuy]

I have had this problem as well. I find that if I unlock and lock the truck again, the screen will power off. I have not updated my Sync 3. Perhaps I need to look into that. Resetting the screen did not stop the problem for me. Ford, are you out there? We could use some help.

 

[nm2023]

It (infotainment) can stay on without ignition keys if you press a button. Maybe you had/have a stuck button?

Good to know this; but I don't think that was the my situation. After enabling wifi...etc IT acted sanely. No physical buttons touched, only soft buttons on screen.

 

[nm2023]

This happens occasionally. If you hold the power button and fast forward for a couple seconds it will reset the screen. It will start functioning as normal after that. This also fixes frozen screens.

Thanks, I had done that to reset the system a few times. It did not help clear the condition.

 

[DryFlyGuy]

So…do we actually have an answer? My truck is still doing it once in a while. It has been more than a week since I have noticed it. I did have my truck go into “sleep mode” when we were away for 2 weeks earlier this year. We are often gone for a couple months or more. We have the truck in a condominium garage with no way to trickle charge it. I hope the battery works when we return.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

So…do we actually have an answer? My truck is still doing it once in a while. It has been more than a week since I have noticed it. I did have my truck go into “sleep mode” when we were away for 2 weeks earlier this year. We are often gone for a couple months or more. We have the truck in a condominium garage with no way to trickle charge it. I hope the battery works when we return.

Get s lipo4 power supply and feed a trickle charger with it. Also double lock the truck as that seems to reduce 12v battery drain.

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