Well it finally happened: car 12v battery is dead

[nmope]

Ford wants $189, plus 18 core recycle, and they’d have to order it. What a joke.

Anybody know the Walmart equivalent that fits?

This is a pretty fair price for someone else to do it for you.

Sponsored

 

[SonicBlue]

This is a pretty fair price for someone else to do it for you.

On no LOL… that is just the price for the battery.

 

[SonicBlue]

Got it fixed. Dealership was able to source a new battery today. I used my 31k Ford points, bringing my price down to $70.

I’m not going to say swapping the batteries was easy, but it is doable with a wrench and ratchet set.

I removed the big plastic piece that runs between the frunk tub and windshield. But then I also had to pry up some of the plastic on the side around the windshield fluid reservoir. That piece is hard to remove, so I just lifted it enough to get at the bolt that holds the black stabilizer bar in place. That bit was HARD to remove. After I got it removed, I was able to push the bar enough out of the way.

Removing the little spacer bracket in the battery tray was easy. Then you slide the battery up toward the windshield enough to disconnect the positive and negative cables and lift the thing out.

New battery went in fine, but I wasn’t able to snap the side plastic back down perfectly. And I’m just gonna leave the top plastic piece off. What’s even the point now? Such a dumbass design. Unless you figured the battery would never need to be replaced…

So anyway, once I got the battery swapped, car fired right up.

I will be taking the old battery to the service center for them to verify it failed. From there, I’m going to continue pressing Ford to make this right. These batteries should not be failing so soon. This car does not have an alternator, which means it is dependent on software to use the charger/HVB to keep the LVB sufficiently charged. And that software is flat out not working well enough. Either that, or Ford sourced a battery that is insufficient for this car.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The covers should go back on just fine if you line up the clips first. You might have to go around and firmly push them back in, especially the ones along the top of the fender.

Darren posted that in Jan 2021 before the Mach-E came out. All I can say is boy, he was wrong...

 

[HuntingPudel]

Is BMS the same as BCM mentioned in his post?

"BCM" is the Body Control Module. Probably a typo and he meant to type "BMS" (Battery Management System). So many acronyms. ?‍?

 

[SonicBlue]

The covers should go back on just fine if you line up the clips first. You might have to go around and firmly push them back in, especially the ones along the top of the fender.

It didn’t. It never seems to, for me. One of the little clips always seems to break, or not reattach. I hate plastic panels. I’ll post a short video if can.

 

[Triggerhappy007]

I’m sure it’s the LVB. It’s just insane for it to fail so quickly despite regular charging and zero warning.

My first EV was a 2015 Focus EV and the battery died in 18 months. My 2nd EV was a 2019 Leaf and the battery died at exactly 12 months. Battery still going on my 22 Mach-E after 22 months. Tested the SoH with two different battery testers and it's still at 100%. Not sure how accurate that is since the car gave me 2 low battery warnings in the last 6 months.

 

[SonicBlue]

It didn’t. It never seems to, for me. One of the little clips always seems to break, or not reattach. I hate plastic panels. I’ll post a short video if can.

Ok, I fixed it and figured out what was wrong. The plastic clip had detracted from the plastic panel and was still in the hole. I removed the plastic clip from the hole, reattached it to the bottom of the plastic panel, and it all then pushed back together just fine.

Here is a picture of the clip that detached.

 

[SonicBlue]

And here, you can see that THREE of the plastic clips detached from the big plastic panel at the top. Now I need to see if they are still in the holes, or buried somewhere under the frunk tub.

I’ll say it again: Stupid design.

Update: found two in the holes. The other one is no doubt buried somewhere under the tub. Hopefully it won’t rattle around.

 

[Snakebitten]

My first EV was a 2015 Focus EV and the battery died in 18 months. My 2nd EV was a 2019 Leaf and the battery died at exactly 12 months. Battery still going on my 22 Mach-E after 22 months. Tested the SoH with two different battery testers and it's still at 100%. Not sure how accurate that is since the car gave me 2 low battery warnings in the last 6 months.

12V battery woes litter the forums for so many make/models these days.
It's really become the norm.

My 2012 F150, that I still own, when scanned in Forscan, finds 7 modules

My 2022 F150 when scanned, finds FORTY TWO ?

Think about that. 7 modules yesterdecade, 42 today.

The 12V battery used to have a much simpler life. It used to actually sleeeeeep when you locked the door and went into the house. Now these batteries sleep with one eye opened 24/7/365

 

[Mach-Lee]

And here, you can see that THREE of the plastic clips detached from the big plastic panel at the top. Now I need to see if they are still in the holes, or buried somewhere under the frunk tub.

I’ll say it again: Stupid design.

Update: found two in the holes. The other one is no doubt buried somewhere under the tub. Hopefully it won’t rattle around.

Yes, when you pull off the panels you have to make sure you don't leave clips behind. I've taken these covers off dozens of times on various Mach-E's. Getting your hand as close as possible to the clip when pulling up helps ensure they all come out. As soon as I take a cover off, I flip it over and immediately look if I got all the clips. And I have a bag of extra clips in case I lose one.

Ford does use an excessive amount of clips, I probably would have designed the top cover with only 4-5 but I think they are worried about rattles or something.

 

[MCarl33]

Never had this issue in over 50k miles.

Charged my car to 90% two nights ago. No issues. Drove my car to work this morning. Ended at 76%. Never received a LVB warning of any sort

Went out to lunch and it is DEAD. I was able to open the door by tapping my code into the door sill, even though the numbers didn’t light up. No screens lit up. Couldn’t even depress the brake pedal. While inside the car, I removed anything I needed and popped the frunk before closing the door again.

Obviously calling roadside service and towing to dealership but why other suggestions appreciated. I am under an extended Ford service plan.

Good advise to have 12v battery tested right before it’s 3 years.old. Was monitoring my 2021 mme using Car Scanner app. Noticed SOC would never go above 78%. Never received low voltage warnings. Had battery tested. Battery failed test. Dealer replaced battery which was covered by 3year 36K warranty.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Ok, I fixed it and figured out what was wrong. The plastic clip had detracted from the plastic panel and was still in the hole. I removed the plastic clip from the hole, reattached it to the bottom of the plastic panel, and it all then pushed back together just fine.

Here is a picture of the clip that detached.

Back when I constantly had the beauty covers off, I never broke or lost a clip. Now that I almost never pull them off, I break a clip almost every time I pull a panel. I keep a 4-pack in my glove box at all times and it sat there going stale until this year. Now I have a third 4-pack in there. ?‍?

 

[Schmedlack]

Back when I constantly had the beauty covers off, I never broke or lost a clip. Now that I almost never pull them off, I break a clip almost every time I pull a panel. I keep a 4-pack in my glove box at all times and it sat there going stale until this year. Now I have a third 4-pack in there. ?‍?

After I swapping out the battery in our '21, I was considering "stringing" all of the clips together with monofilament fishing line. Then if one pops out, it will not be lost. (I ran out of time - so maybe later).

 

[MoonRiver]

The covers should go back on just fine if you line up the clips first. You might have to go around and firmly push them back in, especially the ones along the top of the fender.

Darren posted that in Jan 2021 before the Mach-E came out. All I can say is boy, he was wrong...

I have been leaving both covers out of the frunk so that I can see the coolant level in two reservoirs beneath the covers. The level per Ford requires checking periodically. I don't see any reason why I have to put them back in place then remove them again later just to check the coolant level. I mean the cover in front the firewall and the one by the front quarter panel in passenger side.

Every time they are removed they are in the risk of loosing or breaking those clips, or even worst, breaking the covers.

Unless I miss something.

Sponsored