Failed OTA? Get a New Battery!

[67 Stang Convertible]

Hey Guys,

Just thought I'd post this since there are a bunch of 21's getting ready to make their 3 year anniversary. Outside of the first 6 months or so (July 2021 car purchased), when Ford did not have the OTA down very well; I have received regular OTAs generally about 1-2 months after the EA guys on the forum. Last year I had an OTA that just kept failing and it required me to have the dealer do a hard-wire update. Of course when I asked the Service Guys "why it failed", all I got were shoulder shrugs. Since that time, as most of us have, I've received multiple OTAs over the last year, not having a single failure.....Until last week.

About 10 days or so ago 24-PU0102-CHG-SUFX showed up for download. Over a 4-5 day period I tried to download it many times. Every time, there was a failure as "conditions were not met". When I read the possible conditions, nothing stood out to me as a problem. The car was acting normal, no issues. I keep that battery indicator in my cigarette lighter inside the center glove box and it read 14.1 (as it had since I put it in)......So what the HECK???

So, I figure back to the dealer to have them do the OTA. They keep the car for 2 days and (really poor communication on their end....I'll get to later) then pick her up on Saturday morning. To my shock, I start to drive away and see the OTA was not installed. So, I go back in and talk to the "weekend service mgr" and he looks at my ticket and says the battery was low (and under warranty) so they gave me a new battery. I was unsure if that would be enough to get the OTA downloaded since my battery voltage according to my "cigarette lighter" never indicated anything nefarious was afoot.

I took the car home, after making an 8am Monday appt to have the OTA downloaded, and parked. Then just for kicks and giggles, I attempted to download the OTA again. Well, LORDY LORDY it worked. So the battery was the culprit!!!

Now the Service Dept. wierdness: Dropped the car off on Thursday am, never heard from service manager. I called Friday morning and he tells me, "they checked the battery it was fine, they should be done in about an hour". So, I assume he means with the download!!! Hence my confusion picking up the car on Saturday!?!?

Long Story for a short Public Service Message: Our batteries have a 3 year warranty, and a lot of stress running these electronics. If your getting OTA failures or just want to have your battery checked do it.....You may get a new battery, worth I'm sure $200 or so!!!!

Sponsored

 

[Shayne]

14.1V means the 12V is charging not the 12V SOC or health. I have owned mine for over 3 years now and the cars lack of 12V maintenance and the number of time the 12V died on me I am currently on my second. The 12V should not need to be changed so early in their lives but due to abuse and the lack of properly maintaining them they may need to be. Looks like we may get 3 years out of them on the pin

 

[CarGuy11]

You don't need a new battery unless the car warns you about 12V battery. This is all you need to do.

 

[shark]

My last major update that was failing was 6.6. I was able to get that one to install by hooking up my AGM charger for a total of about 48 hrs to recondition the battery, then it installed. Later when I took the vehicle in to service for the HVJB recall, the dealer tested the battery as bad and replaced it. I’ve had a couple small FX updates since, like the CHG update, but apparently they havent yet deemed my car worthy of any PowerUp > 6.6

 

[Monke]

This might be correct. After I got a new battery, I have not noticed a failed OTA update. The old battery only lasted for less than a year. Another Ford in our possession started to show weak battery just over a year. I still don't have time to go get a new one for that car.

 

[jamelski]

I took the car home, after making an 8am Monday appt to have the OTA downloaded, and parked. Then just for kicks and giggles, I attempted to download the OTA again. Well, LORDY LORDY it worked. So the battery was the culprit!!!

fyi once the car downloads the update and fails over whatever issue. It does not downloaded it again. It just tries to install it again. It may have been your battery or it may have been when you tried to do the update. Your best bet is to do it after driving for like an hour or after it’s been charging for 2 to 3 hours, my updates are always set to 3 AM. I charge at midnight, and I’ve never had a failure. Your battery has to be charged. ? after 2-3 hours LBV battery is over 95%

60 percent of the time it works every time?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Failing 12V batteries can be the cause of failed OTAs, but everyone doesn’t need a new battery just because their OTAs fail. In a lot of cases you can just charge up the battery. But if it becomes a chronic issue and you drive the car long enough, the 12V may need replacement.

Ford doesn’t notify us of failing 12V batteries like the other EV brands do.

 

[zvez]

just as a reminder you can check the state of charge of your 12v by logging onto the ford.com site upper right corner click on person icon, then click on "......account" mine is "chris' account" as an example, it will show the state of charge. Just out of general interest I check this daily. I've never seen it below 80% and generally is 80-95%. As an aside when I was working with my BEV team for an issue they said 80% or better is where they like to see it for the purposes of OTAs. This is on a 23.5 gtpe.

I've seen posts with people stating their state of charge is in the45% range.

 

[CWSpook]

I've never been able to get the SOC indication on my Ford.com page. It shows the actual tire pressures, the estimated range, and the total odometer mileage, and none of the boxes shown above appear below the tires, range, and OD reading.

 

[Homestead]

I've never been able to get the SOC indication on my Ford.com page. It shows the actual tire pressures, the estimated range, and the total odometer mileage, and none of the boxes shown above appear below the tires, range, and OD reading.

Try this https://www.ford.com/myaccount/account-dashboard

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

You don't need a new battery unless the car warns you about 12V battery. This is all you need to do.

Well, that may be true, but I have a new battery that I won't have to worry about for another 2-3 years ? ? ?

 

[HuntingPudel]

I've never been able to get the SOC indication on my Ford.com page. It shows the actual tire pressures, the estimated range, and the total odometer mileage, and none of the boxes shown above appear below the tires, range, and OD reading.

You are looking vehicle page. Illogically, Ford put the LVB SoC on the Account page. ?‍?

Mine says “Tires Good.” They are only good because I got new tires and wheels recently. My OEM tires were shot at 16K miles. ??

 

[azerik]

Whoa. So after checking my account page my SOC is 50%. That's after the car was running for 4+ hours this weekend and charging. I'da never realized that was the page to get the LVB SOC, SMH, LOL, BRB, BBQ going to leave it running in the garage for 4 hours or so.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Whoa. So after checking my account page my SOC is 50%. That's after the car was running for 4+ hours this weekend and charging. I'da never realized that was the page to get the LVB SOC, SMH, LOL, BRB, BBQ going to leave it running in the garage for 4 hours or so.

So weird. Mine says 89% and I drove on Saturday for about 15 minutes, then my 20-25 minute drive this morning to work. ?‍?

 

[zvez]

I've never been able to get the SOC indication on my Ford.com page. It shows the actual tire pressures, the estimated range, and the total odometer mileage, and none of the boxes shown above appear below the tires, range, and OD reading.

you're going to the "vehicle dashboard" not the ".......account" page, it will appear as in my case "chris' account".

Sponsored