Lucky 12V Battery Story

[smoke20]

2023 GTPE w/23K miles (11/22 build date). I had my dealer pick up my car this AM for the purpose of arbitrarily replacing the 12V battery. Pick up and return is complimentary. SA texted me “the battery is at 93%, is there a reason you want it replaced?” I gave a nerdy response and finished with “please proceed with the replacement.” SA texted back “I will get it done.”

About 2 hours later SA called to tell me they were replacing my battery under warranty because “it failed on their ‘big’ tester.”

A lucky roll of the dice today….I had no clue where my battery was in terms of health other than the calendar and this forum.

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[MyLittlePony2021]

2023 GTPE w/23K miles (11/22 build date). I had my dealer pick up my car this AM for the purpose of arbitrarily replacing the 12V battery. Pick up and return is complimentary. SA texted me “the battery is at 93%, is there a reason you want it replaced?” I gave a nerdy response and finished with “please proceed with the replacement.” SA texted back “I will get it done.”

About 2 hours later SA called to tell me they were replacing my battery under warranty because “it failed on their ‘big’ tester.”

A lucky roll of the dice today….I had no clue where my battery was in terms of health other than the calendar and this forum.

How is the big tester different than how they tested it the first time? Because of this forum, I too replaced the battery on my MME. Bought it 4 years ago in April 2021. I drive in Engage mode and I feel like that helped with the longevity of the 12v battery. They told me the original battery was still good, but I didn’t want to take any chances. Spending $130 for a new battery and $30 labor at the dealership (including pickup and drop off) was totally worth the peace of mind.

 

[smoke20]

I suspect they initially checked the charge and found it to be holding 93% and thus likely good….not really a test. Just a hunch.

Right on, preemptive action is all about peace of mind….inevitably that battery would have crapped out at the worst possible time.

 

[MyLittlePony2021]

I suspect they initially checked the charge and found it to be holding 93% and thus likely good….not really a test. Just a hunch.

Right on, preemptive action is all about peace of mind….inevitably that battery would have crapped out at the worst possible time.

Exactly! Ford needs to fix this issue and provide some kind of dashboard warning that the 12v battery needs to be replaced before it actually dies. The horror stories we’ve heard!

 

[E90alex]

Exactly! Ford needs to fix this issue and provide some kind of dashboard warning that the 12v battery needs to be replaced before it actually dies. The horror stories we’ve heard!

There simply is no way to properly test the battery in the car. It can only measure battery voltage which can read normal even if the battery is bad, as demonstrated by the original post.

This is not just a Ford problem or an EV problem. We have decades of 12V lead acid use in cars and batteries fail unexpectedly in ICE cars too with no great solution to prevent it. If there was, someone would have come up with it by now.

The “big tester” the dealer used is probably a load tester, which is the only way to truly test a 12V lead acid battery and it has to be removed form the car first to do so.

 

[Sikkun]

This is not just a Ford problem or an EV problem. We have decades of 12V lead acid use in cars and batteries fail unexpectedly in ICE cars too with no great solution to prevent it. If there was, someone would have come up with it by now.

Literally every dead car battery I have had in my life tested “good” when I went to go a new one.

The few times I trusted that “good” result I woke up the next day to a dead battery again.

The Mach E’s access to the 12v makes it more annoying….but car batteries dying when “good” has been constant my entire life.

 

[Mach-Lee]

2023 GTPE w/23K miles (11/22 build date). I had my dealer pick up my car this AM for the purpose of arbitrarily replacing the 12V battery. Pick up and return is complimentary. SA texted me “the battery is at 93%, is there a reason you want it replaced?” I gave a nerdy response and finished with “please proceed with the replacement.” SA texted back “I will get it done.”

About 2 hours later SA called to tell me they were replacing my battery under warranty because “it failed on their ‘big’ tester.”

A lucky roll of the dice today….I had no clue where my battery was in terms of health other than the calendar and this forum.

He saw the 12V SOC reading (from connected vehicle cloud data) on PTS when he put in your VIN. He was confused why you wanted to replace your battery since it wasn't dead. But then they actually used their battery tester on it (connects to the battery terminals) it failed so you got a warranty replacement out of it.

The actual capacity was not measured at any time, it just failed on the CCA test.

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