12 VOLTS BATTERY DIED WITHOUT WARNING!!

[HuntingPudel]

How might 9 months and 26 miles of sitting unloved on a lot before I bought it affect the life over 36 months? It’s at 18 months since new now.

Time seems to be as much if not more of a factor as usage. A battery that sat in an unused car for that long might well have been subject to more than normal degradation because the other systems were not powered up frequently enough to keep the 12V above a state of charge level where it would hurt itself. That said, the prevailing thought is to count the battery’s age (probably a month or so older than the car’s production date) and follow that for preemptive replacement. ??

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[SonicBlue]

Until now never heard of a 12V battery only lasting three years.
And until now never heard of a 12V battery not being easily accessible.
And until know, recent times, never heard of an auto parts store refusing to install a 12V battery.
(Bolt battery over six years when replaced: not bad, but cold weather now..... thought it a good plan ahead.)

MachEForum: Stop whining, life isn’t fair, you should love that your car is a pain in the ass sometimes.

 

[Tbird]

You took delivery of your Mach-E 49 months ago? November of 2020?

Built in Oct 2020. Delivery was in March 2021 to my dealership.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

And until now never heard of a 12V battery not being easily accessible.
And until know, recent

They are easily accessible. It’s just under a cover is all. Remove cover, remove a cross bar remove battery. It was a 10 minute job and it was just as easy as replacing the battery in our Jeep Wrangler.

And until know, recent times, never heard of an auto parts store refusing to install a 12V battery

I’ve never seen an auto parts store that will install a battery.

Until now never heard of a 12V battery only lasting three years.

Very few are failing at 3 years. People are preemptively replacing them is all. Don’t like the idea? Don’t replace yours until you have to then.

 

[PA Bob]

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?

I have a 2021 MME. We don't get anymore OTA's? Why would that be?

 

[SonicBlue]

They are easily accessible. It’s just under a cover is all. Remove cover, remove a cross bar remove battery. It was a 10 minute job and it was just as easy as replacing the battery in our Jeep Wrangler.

It ain’t that easy. It isn’t “just under a cover is all.” It’s under a cover consisting of three different plastic panels that have to be carefully popped off without breaking at least dozen plastic clips. That’s just to access the terminals. Then you have to remove a crossbar which is torqued down TIGHT. Then two additional screws buried deep down in the battery tray. Anybody can do it if they are reasonably handy and have a bit of patience, but it is significantly harder than any other battery I’ve had to replace. Let’s just be honest here.

Very few are failing at 3 years. People are preemptively replacing them is all. Don’t like the idea? Don’t replace yours until you have to then.

Plenty are failing within 30-40 months, and that is an extremely short life for a car battery. But the bigger problems are that because this is an EV: (1) they are failing with zero notice, and (2) when they do fail you sometimes can’t even open the damned door, necessitating even more work just to access the battery.

Look, none of this is the end of the world, but just like the nuisances of public charging, we need to be honest that this is a bit of a mess.

 

[Maquis]

Until now never heard of a 12V battery only lasting three years.
And until now never heard of a 12V battery not being easily accessible.
And until know, recent times, never heard of an auto parts store refusing to install a 12V battery.
(Bolt battery over six years when replaced: not bad, but cold weather now..... thought it a good plan ahead.)

Every person I know that bought a new Honda Odyssey since 2018 with an AGM battery has to replace them every 2 years. They carry jump packs in order to avoid getting stranded.

 

[4wheeldog]

Until now never heard of a 12V battery only lasting three years.
And until now never heard of a 12V battery not being easily accessible.
And until know, recent times, never heard of an auto parts store refusing to install a 12V battery.
(Bolt battery over six years when replaced: not bad, but cold weather now..... thought it a good plan ahead.)

Batteries not being accessible has been a thing for quite awhile. Back in the 90s, my work vehicle was a Chebbie Malibu. A coworker had a dead battery and jumpers, so I opened the hood to get him going. If I remember, I did finally locate the battery but it would have required tools to remove the covers. So we found someone else to give him some loaner electrons.

 

[cheerioboy26]

I have a 2021 MME. We don't get anymore OTA's? Why would that be?

After months without updates. 2021s are getting OTAs this week including BlueCruise 1.3.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Every person I know that bought a new Honda Odyssey since 2018 with an AGM battery has to replace them every 2 years. They carry jump packs in order to avoid getting stranded.

My ‘14 Fusion Energi’s 12V died in the first three months. I don’t trust Motorcraft AGM batteries because of that and the low life span of our MME 12V batteries. I am hoping a third party manufacturer (looking at you, Optima) starts making a replacement soon. ?‍?

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I have a 2021 MME. We don't get anymore OTA's? Why would that be?

Updates have started rolling out to 2021s beginning about two weeks ago with cars that were behind. The dealer’s mme I’m driving atm has received 2 in the past week for example.

BlueCruise 1.3 is rolling out to 2021s now as well. There’s a thread elsewhere on it. If your 21 is caught up in updates except for BC 1.3 it should receive that fairly soon. If it’s behind, it should start catching up,

 

[areacode413]

i was in a minor fender bender and my car went into shut down mode. Now the car is asleep and will not wake up. The dealer has had my car for over one month and still have no ideal how to fix it. This sucks. So you have any suggestion?

Pay to have it towed to another dealer?

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

It’s under a cover consisting of three different plastic panels that have to be carefully popped off without breaking at least dozen plastic clips. That’s just to access the terminals

Not really. One cover and a bar. Unless you’re replacing everything associated with the battery including the wiring to the jump points.

As for tight, the crossbar isn’t all that tight. Yes a bit of muscle is required but even an old guy can do it. And I’m not all that handy, just methodical. There are alternatives as well. The local tire chain here was willing to replace it with an OEM battery for the cost of the battery plus $30 or so.

Honestly though, people should have someone else do it if they’re not comfortable doing the replacement themselves or just simply don’t want to do it themselves.

The failure rate for this battery is high on this forum, just like everything else here, because people come here to complain. Given the complaints my pre lithium 12v Tesla owning neighbors have about their batteries, I don’t think this car is all that far off the norm.

What might be interesting to see though is if the Mach-e goes to a lithium 12v or even adopts the 16v architecture with model refresh.

 

[Sikkun]

I’ve never seen an auto parts store that will install a battery.

Autozone and the likes will generally freely install a battery.

But as vendors started to make them less accessible they will reject doing it. My wives Edge they have both done and refused. Which it isn’t really hard, but deff more annoying than my ICE mustang was.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Autozone and the likes will generally freely install a battery.

We live in different parts of the world. Parts stores here don’t do that here — ever. They are parts only. They will hand you the battery though. The local tire chain will as they have a full service department.

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