New Battery Every 2 Years?

[HeyBales]

Yes my wife only drives 3 miles to work and battery only gets 85 %. When unplugged battery gets 100%. Battery maintenance comes up once a week because she didn't drive far enough

I could see the fail-safe charging level be very different between the hybrid and your EB.

EB with battery in the engine bay - potential overcharging not a problem. Well, not for humans - kill the battery sooner, not great.

Hybrid with battery in the cabin - potential overcharging really not a good thing.

Considering on the hybrid the SLA was allowed to only get to 85% before discharge would occur, and above 80% was only float level charge below 1A anyway - if the system had no sensor reading, and it can exactly control the Amps charging - I'm betting it'll be a bad level.
I mean - it's already bad, I mean worse level!

But - I'm going to test!
I'm hoping the PID's for some of the battery info are not only from that sensor.

But at the least, I can get a reading from the DCDC convertor low voltage circuit which includes the battery charge.
I know where that pretty quickly ends up, so it won't be too hard to tell what happens in the first 5 minutes.

Sponsored

 

[Thoron99]

Well - that's why it went into Deep Sleep Mode - because it hadn't been started for 10 days.

Doesn't mean it was a battery reading that was low, it just doesn't know how much longer it won't be started, so to be on the safe side, disable the modem for remote functions.

Besides - you starting it up and not able to run it long enough to charge up the battery any appreciable amount, will now actually cause another 60-75 min of time with all systems eventually going back to sleep after it stops, but causing more draw during that time. And increasing the chances of something not going to sleep.
There is no benefit to the battery doing that, only potential downsides.

Well this is my first car with remote start, thought that might have helped? Anyway the Maverick started fine other than the interior lights being off.

 

[HeyBales]

Well this is my first car with remote start, thought that might have helped? Anyway the Maverick started fine other than the interior lights being off.

The amount of 12V charging in the 5-15 min run, is easily less than the amount of draw during the following 60-75 min as systems eventually go back to sleep.
And that run if the ICE actually turned on, may have kicked on a test of the fuel tank pressure to happen later, which causes more draw yet.

So lights off on 25/26MY happens after so many days non-start, I don't recall that being a thing on prior MY's, so that battery saver function was likely enabled due to lower battery voltage at that point below 12.1.
Not surprising on hybrids.
At least it doesn't take much juice to start.

 

[mwelby]

Hello Fellow Ford Drivers,

I have a 2022 Maverick XLT AWD Gasoline engine. I replaced the battery in 2024 and just got another new one in 2026. I've read on the forums about the issue with the system chronically under-charging the battery. My brand new battery has a resting voltage of about 12.15 V. I've tried the Forscan fix of adjusting the charge from 80% to 95% and it hasn't made a difference. Anyone else found something that actually works, short of putting a battery maintainer on it every so often to get it up to full charge?

If using the maintainer is the only option available to us while Ford continues to ignore the issue, how often is it recommended to top it off?

Interestingly enough, when I replaced the battery this last time I asked if there was anything I could do or if I should just expect to replace it again in two years and he shook his head and told me I should expect to do this again in 2028.

. If it’s less than three years, I believe it’s covered under the three-year 36000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. I had one replaced on my escape years ago that was just under the three-year mark and the warranty covered it.

 

[HeyBales]

. If it’s less than three years, I believe it’s covered under the three-year 36000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. I had one replaced on my escape years ago that was just under the three-year mark and the warranty covered it.

I would math that no matter when in 22 it was gotten, it's past 3 years.

 

[mwelby]

I would math that no matter when in 22 it was gotten, it's past 3 years.

Oops, didn’t catch the year!

 

[HeyBales]

Well Glenn, I tried doing a reply all on the mobile device since the video was here and the data file was here. And MTC did a page refresh and everything was lost. It did not do its normal draft save. Super annoying.

Now I don't have time to redo it.

 

[KO Stradivarius]

Are you buying AGM or flooded cell batteries?

The charging behavior of mavericks is what it is. Ford has no interestin changing it.

There are 2 semi permanent fixes. The first is to get the 4 pin trailer clip to keep the truck thinking trailer lights are attached, which makes the system pump out full voltage the whole time, or to use a lithium iron phosphate battery that can happily sit at 80% charge for years without issue, which is what boat guys do now.

Just for kicks, I got one of these trailer hitch lights to plug into the 4-pin connector in order to perform the "trick" you mentioned it Fix #1.

This disabled the parking assist lines on my backup camera. Makes sense since the lines do not really apply if you have a trailer back there.

I eventually did some Googling and figured this out, unplugged it and the lines immediately returned.

 

[HeyBales]

I could see the fail-safe charging level be very different between the hybrid and your EB.

EB with battery in the engine bay - potential overcharging not a problem. Well, not for humans - kill the battery sooner, not great.

Hybrid with battery in the cabin - potential overcharging really not a good thing.

Considering on the hybrid the SLA was allowed to only get to 85% before discharge would occur, and above 80% was only float level charge below 1A anyway - if the system had no sensor reading, and it can exactly control the Amps charging - I'm betting it'll be a bad level.
I mean - it's already bad, I mean worse level!

But - I'm going to test!
I'm hoping the PID's for some of the battery info are not only from that sensor.

But at the least, I can get a reading from the DCDC convertor low voltage circuit which includes the battery charge.
I know where that pretty quickly ends up, so it won't be too hard to tell what happens in the first 5 minutes.

Ok - I tested that night. Glad this came up - I think proved a theory I had in mind.

Unplugged Battery Sensor from negative battery terminal.
Key to Acc to get Forscan log file going. Prior shutdown 4 hrs prior SOC 52%.
No normal dashboard lights - hmmm.
Power adapter had normal 11.7-11.8 showing.
Forscan could not get the normal system reading in Acc mode, had to go to On, and went on to Start. Warning about Charging System Service Soon. Yeah.
SOC 48%, which it probably calculated from the Accessory mode 12V system voltage since no battery reading of amps or volts possible. 4% SOC drop is what I've been seeing for 4 hrs. 97 F out.
Charging voltage at 13.35 - much lower than normal upper 14.x V. Still showing prior shutdown negative 6.88 A and didn't change - so no reading.
DCDC Converter Low 12V system current at abouts 16 A initially.
Needed to turn fan on and to 5 - DCDC to 18.5 A (higher when fan went higher).
How much current was going to 12VB charging for that maybe 4 min?
(there was some amount of charging, and this is normally the higher end before it drops quickly)

So now to figure how much spread is there between the DCDC Amp output current, and what is sent to 12VB in the same setting, initial and no fan, and then fan.

BS plugged back in. Took less than 2 min.
Key to Acc to get Forscan log going. Recall SOC was 48% last on 11.8 V cold.
Normal dashboard lights - nice.
Wow miracle charging!
12.1 Volts and 72% SOC!!!

Oh wait - invalid voltage reading - because it had just been charging. So that is an inflated value in regards to a resting battery voltage to decide it's health.
But the BMS didn't know it had just charged - that 12.1 V was seen as an initial voltage reading - and 72% SOC was calculated from that.
Which is obviously a bogus SOC also.

I think this confirms a theory I'd been testing.
The BMS Relearn does NOT calculate a SOC - it does as the manual says and online sites discuss - calculates AH of battery by doing a known drain, it appears to do a resistance test to determine health of battery, it knows age if you don't keep doing resets to the BMS tracking values. Those things determine the Ah tracking for adjusting SOC as it's charging with truck on and discharging with truck off/on, when you can't get a resting battery voltage, and Coulomb counting is only method. And the SOC% and those other values cause a change in the charging current given.
I've started the system with 11.8 V for a while now, and had SOC% values from 42-48%.
So it's can't be a direct simple table lookup as we normally do - what does change in there for what I've seen - temperature. Which the BS has on it too. And there are calculations for change in Voltage reading depending on temperature.
I've also started after a short park, with 12.1 V and minor temp drop, and the SOC has dropped 1-2%, it does not take on a SOC matching the higher voltage, because it knows invalid reading.

The SOC% I'm betting is based on an initial Voltage reading, not too close to having been charged, and temperature. After that while driving, I know based on counting Ah's and temp.

Anyway - rest of the story, what was the charge rate for battery sensor in?
(of course thinking it's 72% SOC, the BMS is doing less V/A charging with 80% being float charge)
Charging Voltage normalish 14.3 (normally would be a bit higher).
DCDC at 32A, with 12VB being given 23A initially - 9 A spread.
Less than a minute later before fan turn on - DCDC at 28A, battery 19A - 9 A spread.
Fan to 5, DCDC at 29, battery to 18 - 11 A spread.

I will say that normally the amps aren't this high for this long, on my almost year old battery with normal 48% SOC it's degraded to with high resistance. Is this ruining the bad cells - probably.

So back to test results with no BS plugged in.
That means initial high charge was 7 A.
And for the short test time with fan coming on - stayed at 7 A.
Would it have stayed at 7 A since the BMS didn't know SOC%?
I find it hard to believe - but maybe.

By the end of the abouts 15 min trip after this video - 77% SOC calculated. And normal float level charge under 1A.

Next morning - 43% SOC and 11.8 V. Already 84 F out.
This morning - 44% SOC and 11.7 V. Also 84 F out.
So one thing I've noticed - BMS seems willing to keep a higher charge for longer. Not sure why.
Maybe another BMS relearn happened one of those nights, and less resistance tested, so higher charge allowed. Sadly I don't have my own battery tester results recently to compare to if I tested again.
I'm now reaching 50% by end of my 10-15 min drives, sometimes over. See how that ends since I saw 11.7 V this morning.

So would having no Battery Sensor plugged in for the hybrid, and maybe getting 7A charging for longer, maybe always, be a good thing?
Well - that is WAY too high a current as battery is nearing true full charge.
I would not recommend it - overcharge the battery easily.
I guess find out if the cap vent tube works well.
Make sure your sniffer is good at detecting strange smells!

Video of test (be glad I didn't feel like singing, that's all I can say!), and attached log file, and next morning correction.

Sponsored