12 VOLTS BATTERY DIED WITHOUT WARNING!!

[4wheeldog]

I am a new (6 weeks, 2500 mile) owner of a 24 premium. I read these LVB failures and I am trying to work up a strategy for my situation.
What I have done with my IC vehicles for the last decade or so is test the battery with a $25 battery tester when I change the oil. When it drops to 75% of whatever it peaked at when new, I replace. Obviously that won’t work here. So I guess I will do the testing when I rotate (Or have rotated) the tires. I hope there is some observable drop in the CCA (Which is what the tester I use measures) before sudden failure. Since my wife uses the same vehicles I do I worry about her being stranded. I will definitely keep the three year period in mind since so many seem to experience sudden failure very near that point.
I do think battery lifecycle’s in general are getting shorter. I used to get 5-7 years. The last battery I replaced in my old Outback was fading at 36 months, happily within Costco’s warranty period. Same with the one I just replaced yesterday in my 2000 4Runner.

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[Jerrytball]

I am a new (6 weeks, 2500 mile) owner of a 24 premium. I read these LVB failures and I am trying to work up a strategy for my situation.
What I have done with my IC vehicles for the last decade or so is test the battery with a $25 battery tester when I change the oil. When it drops to 75% of whatever it peaked at when new, I replace. Obviously that won’t work here. So I guess I will do the testing when I rotate (Or have rotated) the tires. I hope there is some observable drop in the CCA (Which is what the tester I use measures) before sudden failure. Since my wife uses the same vehicles I do I worry about her being stranded. I will definitely keep the three year period in mind since so many seem to experience sudden failure very near that point.
I do think battery lifecycle’s in general are getting shorter. I used to get 5-7 years. The last battery I replaced in my old Outback was fading at 36 months, happily within Costco’s warranty period. Same with the one I just replaced yesterday in my 2000 4Runner.

I’ve never had a failure like I was saying I love the car, but it’s just always been that thing in the back of my mind, just like the getting locked out of your vehicle and you can’t jump it to open the front you can’t get into the car, thus routing the string from the door handle to the outside of the car as an option and I kept that till I let the car go. It gave me peace of mind that I could at least get in the car and I could pop the front trunk, but I’ve got the top Dan battery tester. I didn’t realize it first the cold cranking nap was only 380 on this car because the battery failed the first time I did the test and then I realized I had the wrong cold cranking amps dialed in. But my battery has been fine but it was just always in the back of my mind. I just never had that total. I could go jump in the car anytime and go thus one reason I did buy a second car gas powered and now I’ve just gone to total Gas again I use my charging station to charge my solar generator still in anybody wants to drop me $10 can drop the car off here lol

 

[Snakebitten]

You kind of come across as scolding this guy for not doing something that nobody should have to do.

Scolding?
Me?

I gotta send a screenshot to my kids showing them their dad CAN scold! But I gotta warn ya. They are gonna bust out laughing. ?

I do regret if it came off that way. Must remember to use more emoticons. Which one is for bragging? Cuz that's more what I was doing.

 

[ipca204]

I have 49 months on my LVB and it is still going strong. I check it regularly to avoid an unexpected failure. I am expecting failure sometime soon but no signs of that yet.

lol at 48 months and you have NOT replaced it yet, reading everything you have here on the forum??? DOn't come crying to us when it dies....just replace the damn thing already..

 

[Doobster6]

Interestingly, my battery did give me warning before it's eminent demise. The car was fully operational but kept failing an OTA (like 20X). So, took it into the dealer and they said it was 12V, even though the car was functioning normally. They replaced the battery under warranty (just shy of 3 years) and the OTA went through 1st attempt post battery swap.

But, going forward since it appears the 2021's won't be getting any OTAs, I guess my "early warning system" won't work......

*Not to Hijack the thread, but when was the last time any model year received an OTA. Just thinking it's been a minute since I read a Forum post about new OTAs. Are the '22's still getting 1.3?

My 2024 Premium 4-xt was leased at the end of July. I got my last OTA on Oct 16; update 10.0.0, according to my app.

 

[ipca204]

You kind of come across as scolding this guy for not doing something that nobody should have to do.

he is kinda right though. Yes, we SHOULD NOT have to do it, but if after reading everything on the ofrum about it and you DON'T take precautions...that's kinda on you..Not saying it's fair or right, just that's the way it is..

 

[Jerrytball]

Scolding?
Me?

I gotta send a screenshot to my kids showing them their dad CAN scold! But I gotta warn ya. They are gonna bust out laughing. ?

I do regret if it came off that way. Must remember to use more emoticons. Which one is for bragging? Cuz that's more what I was doing.

Thus snake bitten? oh, and I’ll be selling my nylon string set up and painters tape on eBay?

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

My 2024 Premium 4-xt was leased at the end of July. I got my last OTA on Oct 16; update 10.0.0, according to my app.

Enjoy it while it lasts....In 2027 (your 3 year mark) it will all come to an end!!! How long on your lease?

 

[Alan]

Yesterday I found my Mach-e FE in my garage dead as a door nail, except that the driver’s door would open with a double press. Last month at 30K miles and 3.5 years (past warranty) I asked the dealer doing the scheduled inappropriately and tire rotation to change the LVB, too. Got the car back with a $20 charge and told the 12V was perfectly fine and doesn’t need replacing!

I got the OEM battery at the dealer for $132.50 (their “on-line” price) and replaced it myself following the video in this forum that avoids removing the frunk tub. I left it charging (car left on) overnight, and will do the monitor reset this morning.

Not really any issues besides the dealer turning down a chance to make some money changing it themselves when I first asked them too. It died at a convenient enough time and place. It was easy enough for me to change it myself.

In two more months I will probably payoff the pseudo-lease residual and keep the car. I am quite surprised that the First Edition really did maintain a higher resale and is the only spec that has a resale value as high as the lease residual. I only got the FE because the original person who ordered it a year prior backed out a week before delivery and the dealer offered it to me so I wouldn’t have to wait half a year or more for my recent order of a RWD premium to come in. Had I stuck with the one I ordered, I expect its residual would have been $2.5K less, but the fair market value more than $5K less.

 

[SonicBlue]

This past Friday at 7 am I had to run an errand for about 20 minutes. Came back and parked my MME GT in my garage. At 8:30 am had to go out again, pressed the “start” button but both screen were dead, the brake pedal locked, and the mode dial unresponsive. Plugged in the charger and a loud repeating thumping sound popped up. Went to the bumper to get the”jumping” cables from the port and plugged those to a 12v battery but still no power. Called Ford Road Service which sent two different trucks, and each try to jump start with their batteries to no avail. The car got towed to the dealer, who told me that their efforts to jumpstart it failed as well.
The short of it is that my 12v battery was dead as a doornail and the dealer replaced it with a new one. Luckily for me they replaced it without charge for the battery and tow. The car was 12 days and 5,000 miles away from the end of the three year warranty thus I really lucked out.
Guys and Gals as you get close to 3 years replace the battery, don’t wait. 12v battery death comes without any warning. Even with me paying for it, if I knew what I know now I would have gladly preemptively replaced the battery rather than risking it dying on me in the middle of the night in sub freezing temperatures in the middle of nowhere.
You can bet that I have on my calendar to replace the new battery October of 2027!

DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU!!

Silver lining: at least yours died under warranty. Mine imploded at 38 months. And @Ford Motor Company helpfully told me to go pound sand. Apparently Ford thinks it’s perfectly appropriate that the Mach E LVB, which it buried under plastic cladding and boasted would last the life of the car, is instead routinely dying right around three years.

This, and their refusal to do right by the 2021 owners on OTA updating BlueCruise, makes me really angry. I done with Ford at this point. At whatever point I ultimately replace my vehicle, I’m going to take a hard look at the competition.

 

[SonicBlue]

he is kinda right though. Yes, we SHOULD NOT have to do it, but if after reading everything on the ofrum about it and you DON'T take precautions...that's kinda on you..Not saying it's fair or right, just that's the way it is..

I take your point, but I don’t think it’s ever “kinda on you” for not taking precautions you shouldn’t have to take. I know this is not what you intend, but that viewpoint dodges culpability for Ford.

 

[Donna216]

Out of curiosity, have you ever had it tested?

 

[Maui]

Seems crazy that all of this anxiety could be avoided if they would just have a "key" and expose the battery terminals.

 

[ipca204]

I take your point, but I don’t think it’s ever “kinda on you” for not taking precautions you shouldn’t have to take. I know this is not what you intend, but that viewpoint dodges culpability for Ford.

totally agree this SHOULD be on Ford, but these are the cards we are dealt with this car!

 

[Jerrytball]

Seems crazy that all of this anxiety could be avoided if they would just have a "key" and expose the battery terminals.

I never thought about it, but if I kept or had kept my Mustang since the 1940 Ford Had a regular old handle lock on the trunk and was able to totally replace that with a remote control pop a lock. I’m sure you could put a key in that front trunk and then cut the holes out on a plastic like that to expose the two remote battery post

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