Yeah, I wish it were that easy. It feels more like, all I've gotta do is finish my nickel and I'll go straight.
I guess you've never worked on a car where you had to change the oil and the drain plug was above a cross member. Splashes everywhere.
That's become all too common -- making 12v car batteries harder to replace. My 2013 Escape has that problem. The battery is buried under some other stuff that requires removal first. I was gonna do it myself until I saw all that was involved. Ended up just paying for installation.
I could have dropped a football into my Volare and it would have easily fallen to the ground between the slant 6 and the fender.
Agreed.
Surely it's not this easy, but my dealer told me my Focus EV was draining the 12V battery because the modem was getting a lousy signal (not surprising in my garage) and consequently spent the entire night continually trying to contact a cell tower. I don't know if that is fact or supposition, but after the firmware update that problem went away.
That doesn't seem to add up to me. Cell phones do that all the time (constantly searching for cell and wifi signals. All day long, with small batteries. A 12v car battery has magnitudes the capacity of a cell phone battery. I can't imagine that would drain like 80% of a car battery.
A cell phone with a low signal will absolutely use more battery power.
I love that you and Bucky are getting along. I also love red as a former Wisconsinite.
Oh of course. What I'm saying though is that we're still just talking milliamps. It drains a small cell phone battery marginally faster, yes. But there's a helluva lot more power in a car battery. The same amount of milliamps draining from that should barely make a difference.
Same date as mine, unfortunately it's been sitting in KC the last 10 days. Don't know what's taking so long to get to Metro Detroit area.
So, interestingly, I tried to search the internet for documentation/articles/info on this issue, and pretty much came up nil with the exception of this forum and articles from mid-january concerning the additional quality checks. ?I'm starting this as a separate thread intentionally. I've heard others having similar problems (such as the Deep Sleep thread https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...drained-dead-update-mach-e-jump-started.3457/) and others. Mine may be the same or the Deep Sleep could have been due to even colder temperatures.
Saturday night
On day the evening of Day 4 in My Travels with Marlin (https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/my-travels-with-marlin-gb-fe-delivered.3298/post-108609) I introduced the dead LVB incident.
I didn't drive Marlin Saturday but was in the car several times to check and set features throughout the day. Marlin was plugged in to charge some of the time. I had taken him off charge to access features that required the car to be started. He had been unplugged for several hours when I went out about 10:00 pm to check one last thing and to make sure he was plugged in overnight. He started having a complete melt down. He started running through various system checks and failing all of them. He auto-rebooted. He started making lots of thunking noises. To be honest, I was scared.
I started taking pictures and video to document what was going on and reached out to some friends with various aspects of Mach E expertise. I finally just disconnected the negative lead to the battery and went to sleep tired and frustrated.
The videos are in a playlist called Marlin Shutdown 13 Feb 2021:
First up: The Meltdown. Temperature 25°F
Marlin started running through repeated system checks, all failed:
Videos 1 & 2
I attempted to plug in the EVSE but there was no response
Video 3
At the same time, there was a limited set of lights staying on:
I heard a popping sound that made me think it was the brakes when I heard it from the right rear:
Videos 5 & 6
Those few lights that were on were dimming fast:
Video 7
I finally tracked down the thunking sounds. They turned out to be popping of the speakers, heard in the doors and right rear subwoofer location:
Videos 9 & 10
In the Frunk area, I removed the rear luggage compartment cover to access the battery and it was only reading just under 7.5vdc.
Video 11
Removing the rear luggage compartment cover gives you access to the negative battery cable and an ability to reach under to put a probe on the positive battery lead. However, there is no safe way to jump the battery at this point as the positive lead is under a metal crossbar (under that red cap).
Not wanting to further drain the battery, I disconnected the negative terminal and the popping sounds ended. I left it that way overnight (temperature in the 20s). Before turning in, I found that the driver side door open and latch would not engage when trying to close it. Of course, the driver side door was open as I worked on Marlin.
After I disconnected the 12v:
Driver side door open and latch would not engage when trying to close it.
Video 12
I had to leave the car open all night with door ajar.
Passenger side front door was locked and could only be opened from inside using manual pull. I don't know of any way to open it from the outside but didn't spend a lot of time testing.
Back doors and lift gate were closed. Unlike the front doors, I learned there is no manual pull on back doors. I don't know of any way to open these from the inside or outside but didn't spend a lot of time testing.
Tired and frustrated, I went in. Sent the videos to some folks for discussion and went to sleep.
Sunday morning
5 Hours later I woke up. Posts from my friends had various suggestions to try. While I wanted to put a lot of time into these, I had numerous church responsibilities so I squeezed in only the essential. Good news is I now had light. It was also now a balmy 27°F.
I labored to remove the left luggage compartment cover. Removing these two covers is a real pain! I know Ford didn't anticipate many people needing to get jumps, but a large access panel or pair of smaller access panels in the left-hand luggage compartment cover to access the 12v positive jump terminal and negative ground point would make a lot of sense. Those large panels are not easy to remove in cold, dark conditions.
While I think I didn't damage the left one Sunday morning, while removing the rear luggage compartment Saturday night I broke off one of the permanently-molded clips, lost one of the slip-on clips and cracked the middle of the cover. This was despite having removed the rear cover off a Mach E once before. Access points like those at the headlights would make accessing the jump points much easier (see picture).
I took a video of what it looks like with these panels removed
Video 13
I checked the LVB. It was now up to 11.5v after resting. With wishful thinking well in hand, I reconnected the battery in hopes there was enough power. Not a chance. the systems energized better but the meltdown of system check failures struck again, so I disconnected the negative battery cable again. This did make the driver side door work. When I let the door close by accident I learned the driver's door now latched (locking me out until I reconnected the 12v). I made sure not to latch the hood as I didn't want to rely on those two leads in the front bumper actually opening the frunk space.
I put a trickle charger on the battery, connecting to the positive jump lead and the negative post on the battery.
Video 14
I considered jumping Marlin but remember my mention of the Saturday freezing rain? Getting into our other two vehicles would take a while as they were frozen shut.
So, I "went" to church (via Zoom of course). After a few hours the battery was over 12v, so I reconnected the negative cable to the battery post and Marlin started up like nothing had ever been wrong. I drove around the block -- no problems at all.
With Marlin running fine, I resumed my plan and drove to Rocket Frog for my beer and chocolate pickup. 80 miles R/T and everything was fine.
This is where this story bifurcates. You can go back to My travels with Marlin -- day (https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/my-travels-with-marlin-gb-fe-delivered.3298/post-108730) or continue the saga of the LVB here as it unfolds.
We've gotten about 6" of snow over the past week, and it hasn't been above freezing for over a week.Same date as mine, unfortunately it's been sitting in KC the last 10 days. Don't know what's taking so long to get to Metro Detroit area.
And yes, I have been following these threads closely as I live in a cold weather area. My F250 this morning. ?. Going to try and proactively reach out to my dealership and see if they can get any info prior to signing the "bottom line" when mine gets in.
Also, I should have my nice new 24 x 42 heated garage done so wondering if that might help at night
"you're driving it wrong"
