12V Battery Dead 2x in 6 Days and Ridiculous Battery Placement

[fredfaylona_mme]

So my MME's 12V died on Saturday, 1/15 and then again today. I live in PA and external temp is low but never negative. The commonality between the two incidents is that I made a quick ~10 min drive at around 7am when external temp is between 8-18F. Car won't start at 1-2 PM on both days. Roadside assistance was able to jumpstart the battery on 1/15 but not today. Having the car towed to the nearest dealer to figure out what's going on.

I suspect it's just the massive drain to start the car early morning and the short drive didn't recharge the 12V batt. I plug in the car all the time when I'm at home on a 120v outlet. Car is parked outside on my single car driveway.

My biggest gripe is really WHY 2 trim pieces needed to be removed to jumpstart the car?!

I just ordered the NOCO genius 2 - any thoughts on how to condition the battery safely overnight and/or whenever car is parked and plugged in?

PROBLEM TIMELINE:
1/15/22 - Car won't start early afternoon - car was parked and plugged in for about 6 hours after being driven for about 10 minutes early in the morning. 12V battery appears dead. Called in Roadside Assistance and car was jumped.
1/21/22 - Car won't start again - car was parked and plugged in for about 6 hours after being driven for about 10 minutes early in the morning. 12V battery appears dead again. Called in Roadside Assistance and this time car couldn't be jumped at all. Scheduled towing to a dealer the following day but car mysteriously started later in the night after being plugged in for 8 hours after the failed jumpstart.
1/24/22 - Car was dropped off a dealer for diagnostics and software update per Notice 21P22.
1/26/22 - Car was picked up, software updated (can't confirm this but range per Guess-O-Meter did improve!) and 12V battery is adjudged healthy.
1/30/22 - Car won't start again, this time early in the morning. It also appears the Walk-Away locking feature is not working 100% as before after the software update, as I noticed for the third time now since picking up the car. @Ford Motor Company I think you'll need an update to the update!

UPDATE: Just found a widget that can read car stats (see attached) and it looks like the 12V should have enough charge. I did a remote start and the battery voltage even improved to 15V! So I decided to check if the car would start and what do you know - it did! At this time it's been plugged in for about 7.5 hours now. What gives????

Here's the link to the iOS widget if you guys want to try it - I found this on another forum:
https://tonesto7.github.io/fordpass-scriptable/

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[Nklem]

Something is wrong, I have had two Mach E’s in Maine for 15k miles and zero 12v issues down to -9F. You must have a defective battery. Hopefully the dealer finds your issue…… the car charges your 12V when needed from the HV battery.

 

[chrisGT]

I suspect it's just the massive drain to start the car early morning and the short drive didn't recharge the 12V batt.

The 12v battery is used to turn on the computers. I don't think starting at cold draws any more power than starting at warm weather.
But the cold can be a reason for the 12v battery condition deteriorating. Too many issues with those little batteries.. Ford should take things more seriously.

 

[fredfaylona_mme]

Something is wrong, I have had two Mach E’s in Maine for 15k miles and zero 12v issues down to -9F. You must have a defective battery. Hopefully the dealer finds your issue…… the car charges your 12V when needed from the HV battery.

That's why after today's event i decided to have the car towed to the dealer 2 miles away and let them figure things out, maybe even replace the battery.

At any rate, this 2nd issue (first was paint peeling 3 weeks into ownership) reinforces my plan to return the car to Ford on the 48th month under the Ford Options plan. By then, newer tech would be available - maybe even my reservation on the Cybertruck =}

 

[fredfaylona_mme]

The 12v battery is used to turn on the computers. I don't think starting at cold draws any more power than starting at warm weather.
But the cold can be a reason for the 12v battery condition deteriorating. Too many issues with those little batteries.. Ford should take things more seriously.

agree! and for the love of God why make it hard to jumpstart the car???

 

[veronicablack]

IIRC, I remember reading from someone here that if you're charging on 120v instead of 240v the 12v battery doesn't charge itself. Don't quote me on this because I'm just vaguely remembering it from a post, but I remember this person saying that if you charge on a 120v line you should make sure you take the car for a decent drive here and there to ensure the 12v battery gets a charge.


edit: although I just gave a look through the manual and don't see any mention of this so... :?:

 

[fredfaylona_mme]

IIRC, I remember reading from someone here that if you're charging on 120v instead of 240v the 12v battery doesn't charge itself. Don't quote me on this because I'm just vaguely remembering it from a post, but I remember this person saying that if you charge on a 120v line you should make sure you take the car for a decent drive here and there to ensure the 12v battery gets a charge.

yeah I did read that somewhere. IMHO it makes sense so until i get my 240v charger is installed (next month) I'd probably leave it on idle or just run my morning errands. But this is ridiculous tho.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Build date? And have you gotten powertrain software updates applied at the dealer?

 

[veronicablack]

yeah I did read that somewhere. IMHO it makes sense so until i get my 240v charger is installed (next month) I'd probably leave it on idle or just run my morning errands. But this is ridiculous tho.

Not sure if you saw my edit but I looked through the manual and it makes zero mention of the HVB not charging the LVB on a 120v charge. So I might be wrong. Don't want to spread misinformation. The manual makes it out to be that the HVB will take care of the LVB whenever the LVB needs a charge. It doesn't qualify it with any conditions other than the LVB needing a charge. So... ?

 

[fredfaylona_mme]

Build date? And have you gotten powertrain software updates applied at the dealer?

June 2021. I don't believe I have and right now it is scheduled for the 2 recalls and the software update on 2/11 - I'm assuming this is the update you're referring to. But I'll ask those to be applied when they look at the car this coming Tuesday. Thanks for that reminder!

 

[Say Watt]

DevSecOps had a great modification for 12 volt battery access points.


https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/guide-better-jump-point-access-battery-access.10976/


And louibluey brought up the possible use of a 50Ah AC Delco battery.


https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...evy-spark-cadillac-battery.12747/#post-311646

 

[Motomax]

There’s really no “massive” starting draw (its not spinning a starter) it’s more or less a continuous draw one the computers are resumed.
min not sure what type of battery they but unless it’s a deep cycle battery I would ask for a replacement. Killing a regular AGM battery reduces Your capacity every time.

 

[Mawby]

IIRC, I remember reading from someone here that if you're charging on 120v instead of 240v the 12v battery doesn't charge itself. Don't quote me on this because I'm just vaguely remembering it from a post, but I remember this person saying that if you charge on a 120v line you should make sure you take the car for a decent drive here and there to ensure the 12v battery gets a charge.


edit: although I just gave a look through the manual and don't see any mention of this so... :?:

The LVB gets charged from the HVB whenever it is plugged or or not and the HVB is greater then 20% and temperature is greater then 5 degrees F. The issue was a bug where if plugged in, the LVB was skipped in charging. That was fixed early last year.

 

[strangeengine]

New thread posted tonight:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...with-ignition-key-off-12v-battery-drain.13629

 

[KevinS]

Similar problem here (well, getting notices from FordPass; my car is in for service) and I know it's locked in a parking lot awaiting the windshield recall.

There should be no legitimate reason that a car sitting for 2 days should have its 12V battery drained. Unless the battery fix was never applied (but I assume I'd see that in FDRS.)

I will forward this to my dealer and maybe they can get it worked out before I get the car back.

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