“Electrical System Drain”

BayPoodle

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I think my 23 MME must have gotten an update while I was out last night, because on the way home the alert noises were different. This morning when I went out it had preconditioned as scheduled (plugged in, set to 80). When I turned it on it gave me an error message “Electrical System Drain service required”. I needed to take my son to school so I cleared the message and drive there and back as usual. Nothing at all seemed amiss. Has anyone else experienced this? I’ll call the dealer later today but am wondering what the forum brain trust has to say, I often get better information here.

Ford Mustang Mach-E “Electrical System Drain” IMG_9931
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zvez

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if your system is working normally, the 12 v should top up while you're driving. Typically, if you've gotten an update tho, you'd get a notification on sync4 and in fordpass.

Just as a precaution log on to the ford.com website. Once logged on go up to upper right corner of screen again and click on the person icon, a dropdown menu will appear, click on "........account" NOT VEHICLE DASHBOARD! Mine is listed as "chris' account" this will show you the current state of charge of your12 volt. Ideallyl it's 80% or better.

Below is what you should see. this is your 12v battery state of charge

Ford Mustang Mach-E “Electrical System Drain” state of charg
 
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BayPoodle

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Yes. I thought it was strange that I didn’t get a notification, but the noises are definitely different. Anyway, I followed your excellent instructions and my 12v is at 88%. It also says that my vehicle is in “excellent health.” So maybe it’s just one of those things? I have to go out later; we’ll see what happens. I love love love this car but I do wish it caused me a little less worry. Thank you for your help!
 

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I had this error pop up when I had a dashcam that was drawing too much power. Changing some settings in the dashcam fixed it for me. But there were no long-lasting issues as when I drove my car afterwards, it would charge up the 12v. Only happened with a full overnight draw unplugged.
 
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Ran a few errands; no error message. Hopefully I won’t ever see it again. I have no auxiliary electronics in the car. My audio volume is no frustratingly stuck at zero, but that’s a problem that often seems to heal itself.
 


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Ran a few errands; no error message. Hopefully I won’t ever see it again. I have no auxiliary electronics in the car. My audio volume is no frustratingly stuck at zero, but that’s a problem that often seems to heal itself.
Reboot Sync (hold next track and volume down arrows on your steering wheel until the center screen goes black) and your volume issue should be fixed. Not sure about your electrical error. There have been a number of ghost errors that just get put up on the IPC for no reason and hitting the OK button clears them and they never come back. Just keep an eye out for it. ?‍♂?
 
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Reboot Sync (hold next track and volume down arrows on your steering wheel until the center screen goes black) and your volume issue should be fixed. Not sure about your electrical error. There have been a number of ghost errors that just get put up on the IPC for no reason and hitting the OK button clears them and they never come back. Just keep an eye out for it. ?‍♂?
Thank you!
 

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That's just a little H3 AGM 12V battery stuffed under the hood. It's probably a decent quality battery, but it wouldn't exactly have a lot of headroom to handle a parasitic draw.
And as crammed full of modules and connectivity features and OTA and........

I wouldn't be shocked if there are occasions that the battery management system triggers that alert for an otherwise perfectly healthy AGM, albeit temporarily below some desired voltage threshold.

One thing nice about the car is it IS a battery charger on wheels! So it's relatively easy to just start it up and let it transfer some of those electrons in the BIG battery over to the little battery. :)
 

zvez

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Ran a few errands; no error message. Hopefully I won’t ever see it again. I have no auxiliary electronics in the car. My audio volume is no frustratingly stuck at zero, but that’s a problem that often seems to heal itself.
tho I don't have concrete evidence, I think they changed the 12v charging parameters as the drain doesn't seem to be an issue as it was on the earlier cars.
FYI, a lot of things can cause drain on battery in addition to add on electronics. Various things mentioned, key fob left too close to the car when in the garage, using accessory mode. It's a good idea to avoid using accessory mode as this will drain the battery, better to power up the car.

88% is a great state of charge. Ford likes the SOC of the 12v to be at least 80% for OTAs (some take more time than others)
 
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BayPoodle

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Various things mentioned, key fob left too close to the car when in the garage,
I’m curious about this one. As I understand it, my car will stop unlocking when it’s near a key if both it and the key stay in the same place for a while. I do hang my keys right inside the garage door, but because of the above did not think there would be an issue, and until now (6 months) it hasn’t been.
 

zvez

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I’m curious about this one. As I understand it, my car will stop unlocking when it’s near a key if both it and the key stay in the same place for a while. I do hang my keys right inside the garage door, but because of the above did not think there would be an issue, and until now (6 months) it hasn’t been.
purely anecdotal regarding the key fob. I note some people actually put it in a faraday bag in the house. I started putting it across the room that connects to the garage to get it just that little bit further away
 
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BayPoodle

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Reboot Sync (hold next track and volume down arrows on your steering wheel until the center screen goes black) and your volume issue should be fixed. Not sure about your electrical error. There have been a number of ghost errors that just get put up on the IPC for no reason and hitting the OK button clears them and they never come back. Just keep an eye out for it. ?‍♂?
Sigh. That fix did not work for the volume and the error message was back when I started the car this afternoon. Both times were when it was scheduled to precondition, maybe that has something to do with it.
 

HuntingPudel

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Ugh, you might have a non-software gremlin there. ??
 

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I got that error three times in less than a week. Then it stopped and it has not appeared again over the past ~8 weeks. The dealer said they see nothing wrong, nothing they could fix, but if it happens again I should bring it in. Probably so they can tell me the same thing all over again and send me away.
 
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BayPoodle

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Update: when I came home last night the 12v was at 97%. At 4am it was at 36. So I got up and drove around, bringing it back to 98. When I got home I cleared the preconditioning and did not plug it back in. It’s now, almost 2 hours later, still at 98. ??‍♀ I have to drive out of state today but I imagine all this means it’s back to the dealership. ☹
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