Is 12V battery covered until warranty? What's a healthy voltage?

[JohnFoxeSheets]

In short, people that run dashcams should understand they are causing accelerated aging of the 12V battery and it will probably go bad in only a couple years. And Ford may rightfully deny warranty coverage on the battery if you have an always-on dashcam wired in.

Note to self: move dash cam power to switched if LVB ever fails ?

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[JimmyMachE]

Note to self: move dash cam power to switched if LVB ever fails ?

That's too late.

The parking mode will brick the 12v battery in 8-11 months.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

That's too late.

The parking mode will brick the 12v battery in 8-11 months.

Hmmm, my (so far) LVB is fine and I’ve had the dash cam for a year…

 

[Teslaeata]

Thanks for the suggestions!! And you reminded me that I had one of these Bluetooth OBDII readers sitting around.

Here are a couple of sample readings:

When not actively charging/not plugged in and vehicle off, I get this set of readings.

When plugged in and actively charging I get this:

I suspect the first image showing 12.4v is more relevant. Is 12.4 concerning? When I search Google for healthy battery voltage it says I should be getting 12.6v from a healthy battery…

Can you add 12V battery Voltage and 12V SoC to dashboard of App instead of reading OBD & ECU voltage?

 

[Teslaeata]

That's too late.

The parking mode will brick the 12v battery in 8-11 months.

It shouldn’t because……..

 

[JimmyMachE]

This only prevents the 12v battery from discharging in 1 night.

Unlike Li-On cells, the 12v battery rapidly degrades due to frequent cycling, the lead-acid chemistry cannot sustain daily discharging/charging cycle. If you run the dashcam in parking mode, anything over 10 months is a borrowed time for the aux battery. Just search for articles on lead-acid battery chemistry.

 

[Panzer948]

The Mach-E battery is much smaller than a regular car battery, so if you have a dascham running off it, it means it will be drained faster, spend more time at a lower state of charge, and will have to be recharged more often. These factors and extra "cycles" are what cause the battery to wear out faster. So running a dashcam off the Mach-E battery will probably cut the lifespan of the battery in half.

In short, people that run dashcams should understand they are causing accelerated aging of the 12V battery and it will probably go bad in only a couple years. And Ford may rightfully deny warranty coverage on the battery if you have an always-on dashcam wired in.

Ok. I appreciate the explanation as this is the first time I have heard about the different battery design of the Mach E. So that does explain why there is a legitimate concern, although now my question is to Ford... Why did they design it that way with that kind of limitation....

I have bought two back to back Ford's (my first Ford purchases) and have been very impressed with the Bronco battery and all the loads it handles when not running. Not only does it have a dash cam but plenty of factory and aftermarket lights as well as electrical step up bars, all of which put drain on the battery while off. Heck it even tells me in the same Ford App (but for Bronco) that it is putting it in deep sleep to protect the battery. Thus I only assumed Ford would do something similar in the Mach E. Thus, I do think Ford could have done better knowing how Tesla uses a built in dashcam system (with parking mode) for their EVs. They should assume that many new EV owners would want to do the same. So for as much money as I spent on this car, they didn't have to "Nickel and Dime" the 12v battery...

Let's face it, EVs are sometimes a target for idiots that should know better, so having a dashcam with parking mode is a little bit better idea than your average Toyota Camry. Heck, the reason why I put one in the Bronco is because I use it with the top and doors off as much as I can. So dash cam parking mode is important for that reason too.

Yes I know I can buy some $400 battery pack for parking mode but that is now old technology since most higher end dash cams have voltage protection. Guess I will need to turn my voltage cut off from 12 to 13 volts so it can hopefully record long enough to be a cart narc...

 

[UsernameChecksOut]

OK, so I checked the 12V battery SOC on my OBDII bluetooth dongle. And it showed 43% when I got in the car this afternoon. While driving for a few kilometers it got back up to 54%, which I suppose is good.

But I'm wondering if I'm just not driving enough or keeping it on charger enough to bring the SOC up to a higher level.

Alternatively I have some vampire drain going on (I don't have a dash cam or any plugged in devices). Worst case, my battery really is unhealthy and isn't holding a charge.

I've plugged into my Level-2 charger at home and see if while the car is actively charging I can bring the 12V SOC higher. I'll then observe what happens to it overnight.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Ok. I appreciate the explanation as this is the first time I have heard about the different battery design of the Mach E. So that does explain why there is a legitimate concern, although now my question is to Ford... Why did they design it that way with that kind of limitation....

I have bought two back to back Ford's (my first Ford purchases) and have been very impressed with the Bronco battery and all the loads it handles when not running. Not only does it have a dash cam but plenty of factory and aftermarket lights as well as electrical step up bars, all of which put drain on the battery while off. Heck it even tells me in the same Ford App (but for Bronco) that it is putting it in deep sleep to protect the battery. Thus I only assumed Ford would do something similar in the Mach E. Thus, I do think Ford could have done better knowing how Tesla uses a built in dashcam system (with parking mode) for their EVs. They should assume that many new EV owners would want to do the same. So for as much money as I spent on this car, they didn't have to "Nickel and Dime" the 12v battery...

Let's face it, EVs are sometimes a target for idiots that should know better, so having a dashcam with parking mode is a little bit better idea than your average Toyota Camry. Heck, the reason why I put one in the Bronco is because I use it with the top and doors off as much as I can. So dash cam parking mode is important for that reason too.

Yes I know I can buy some $400 battery pack for parking mode but that is now old technology since most higher end dash cams have voltage protection. Guess I will need to turn my voltage cut off from 12 to 13 volts so it can hopefully record long enough to be a cart narc...

The battery in the Bronco is about 60 Ah vs 35 Ah in the Mach-E. So it's almost twice as big. The BMS in the Mach-E is the same as other Fords (including the Bronco), other than adding recharge capability. Mach-E will go into deep sleep mode as well if the battery gets low, you just get more messages from it trying to recharge, etc.

Set your dash camera to shut off at 12.5 volts or higher. Unfortunately a lot of dash cameras don't have a lot of fine control of the voltage setting. If 12.5V isn't an option, go with the next highest setting.

A cutoff of 12.0V will drain the battery down to 20%. Too low.

OK, so I checked the 12V battery SOC on my OBDII bluetooth dongle. And it showed 43% when I got in the car this afternoon. While driving for a few kilometers it got back up to 54%, which I suppose is good.

But I'm wondering if I'm just not driving enough or keeping it on charger enough to bring the SOC up to a higher level.

Alternatively I have some vampire drain going on (I don't have a dash cam or any plugged in devices). Worst case, my battery really is unhealthy and isn't holding a charge.

I've plugged into my Level-2 charger at home and see if while the car is actively charging I can bring the 12V SOC higher. I'll then observe what happens to it overnight.

43% is very low, it should be in the 70-90% range normally. You need a full recharge. Suggest putting it on a 4+ amp battery charger overnight.

Car will need to charge continuously for 3+ hours to make a dent.

 

[Panzer948]

The battery in the Bronco is about 60 Ah vs 35 Ah in the Mach-E. So it's almost twice as big. The BMS in the Mach-E is the same as other Fords (including the Bronco), other than adding recharge capability. Mach-E will go into deep sleep mode as well if the battery gets low, you just get more messages from it trying to recharge, etc.

Set your dash camera to shut off at 12.5 volts or higher. Unfortunately a lot of dash cameras don't have a lot of fine control of the voltage setting. If 12.5V isn't an option, go with the next highest setting.

A cutoff of 12.0V will drain the battery down to 20%. Too low.



43% is very low, it should be in the 70-90% range normally. You need a full recharge. Suggest putting it on a 4+ amp battery charger overnight.

Car will need to charge continuously for 3+ hours to make a dent.

Thanks for the info. I just went into my Thinkware Q1000 settings and changed low voltage cutoff from 12.1 to 12.5. I also have another option to not allow it to run more than 6 hours regardless of voltage. Before, that was set to 2 days. I will see if that eliminates the low voltage messages. TBH, I have only seen those messages a couple of times so I am thinking this was a minor occurrence. Hopefully that solves the issue as I can live with a day or less since I am mostly worried about monitoring while at a store etc.

 

[EGS]

There are some truths tonthe above statement and onthers not so much. In the whole thread. Mach Lee excluded he is spot on.
being an AGM what i have seen w mine and many others. Is often times these batteries prior to delivery sit on lots or in transit drop down to a low SOC. AGM batteries begin to suphate very quickly at low soc for extended periods of time. Much quicker than a std lead acid battery.
this significantly reduces the battery health even at time of delivery and thru out owners use.
a small doscharge of a batt via a cam etc. Depending on it Ma draw isnt going to decrease life of battery depending on how far the depth of discharge is. % wise ea time and repeatedly.
that being said the battery in these cars AH is pretty wimpy , id love to increase to a larger AH battery , but the limitation isnt even battery tray size but the cable length to the posts.
you can go w a lithium batt than has more reserve (they are rated a little differently) but havent seen a lot that acomm the size to fit.

 

[JimmyMachE]

Yes I know I can buy some $400 battery pack for parking mode but that is now old technology since most higher end dash cams have voltage protection.

Quite the opposite. Voltage protection is a cheap trick by dashcam suppliers to sell more. The only real Aux battery protection is an expensive Li-Ion battery pack.

 

[Panzer948]

Quite the opposite. Voltage protection is a cheap trick by dashcam suppliers to sell more. The only real Aux battery protection is an expensive Li-Ion battery pack.

Well I disagree. It depends on what you want and your driving habits. Until recently only the flagship models had voltage protection. I know this because it's the reason I bought both the topend models (at the time) from Thinkware and Blackvue. Adding that expensive battery only further complicates an already complicated install that is right at the limit for most DIYs and easily doubles the price. I did all the research in advance of installing both dashcams (plus a third one 8 years ago before they offered voltage protection). Per one of the top dash cam sellers (Black Box My Car) the aux battery protection option is best for people leaving their vehicle unattended for days at a time that still want parking monitoring. If that is you then great. However most daily drive their cars so a voltage protection option is a sound option as long as you dont have a Mach E now (the theme of this thread). As I was stating earlier, this setup works great in my Bronco where it appears to be running a couple of days before hitting the voltage cutoff threshold. I am fine with that since I normally drive it daily.

BTW because i have flagship models of both Thinkware (Q1000) and Blackvuew (DR970X) with both supposedly having the best cloud features (i.e., remote monitoring capability which was an important feature I wanted), I can safely provide my opinoon of how well remote monitoring actually works and which one does it better (if anyone is interested).

 

[UsernameChecksOut]

Well, here are my observations with my Bluetooth dongle…

It seems my SOC ranges between 53% and 66% throughout multiple days of driving roughly 30-40km per day. The main thing that is concerning is that I shutdown the car at night with 66 and by the morning a 10+% drain seems drastic to me. I don’t have any accessories attached and lights are all off. Bluetooth OBD dongle is also removed.

This morning I drove a longer distance and had my car running effectively for two hours. I would have expected to exit my car with a higher charge but I only ended with 68 (from 53 at the start of the day).

Wondering if I should do that battery control reset process to help the system recalibrate?

I have a service appointment next week for other issues so I’ll also have them look at this.

 

[Mach-Lee]

This morning I drove a longer distance and had my car running effectively for two hours. I would have expected to exit my car with a higher charge but I only ended with 68 (from 53 at the start of the day).

It should definitely be above 80% after two hours of driving. Wondering if you’re getting wake up drains throwing off the BMS. Do you use any 3rd party apps that access vehicle data like Recurrent? Or park at night with the key fobs or phone closer than 25’ to the car? Welcome lighting on?

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