Battery Health Recs from Ford

macchiaz-o

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I still have to wake up the car to get it to cool and pre-condition the cabin. Once it falls asleep it doesn't do either of those things even if I use the @macchiaz-o trick. :(

My brother said he thought he heard his car cooling in the garage while not charging so maybe there is some hope? I asked him to check it today and report back. It's pretty hot out here these last couple of days so his car SHOULD need to cool when parked at home when he gets home.
I walked by a pair of Teslas in the work lot today during my lunch break (S and X). Both were quite loud with their cooling systems active. I'm sure my Mach-E was dead silent all day. ?
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Shayne

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I walked by a pair of Teslas in the work lot today during my lunch break (S and X). Both were quite loud with their cooling systems active. I'm sure my Mach-E was dead silent all day. ?
Of course Tesla's do. One reason I bought this vehicle was less maintenance, you just plug it in, walk away and it maintains itself. With a dead 12V, no functional charging schedule (module replaced now and working) and reports from you two along with my observations at -20F it has been the total opposite so far. I think these initial observations that the car is not smart enough to maintain our battery investment could be a gross oversight. If what appears obvious is the case maybe warranty issues will start to pop up and spark some attention. Like in Texas. Not wishing it on anyone just saying.

A statement that they are aware of the problem and are looking into it would be nice. Or it is no problem that there is no maintenance of the pack and all it does is go into a deep sleep. It is functioning as designed and is not a problem .......... ya right. I will get into a freezing car no problems and care less about cabin conditioning as long as my drivetrain is maintained.

Wonder what happens if you leave it powered on and lock it? Have you shut the cabin system off and gone into vehicle => settings => vehicle and toggled off vehicle power down timer (top one) and tried that for a bit? Wonder how much it would suck and what it would do in an hour at your current temps or would it just shut itself down after some time even if set not to? It maintains itself when on?

Hope you are staying on your service guy (once a week) and have reported the problem. I can not push what I am not experiencing. Pushing here for the coming winter. PM ford here and see what response you get.

It f3!ken blows my mind; the whining I read about phone batteries and other trivial BS when you two are dealing with this.
 

macchiaz-o

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Wonder what happens if you leave it powered on and lock it? Have you shut the cabin system off and gone into vehicle => settings => vehicle and toggled off vehicle power down timer (top one) and tried that for a bit?
I have not tried this... But I'd also rather not.

To be clear, the vehicle's been great overall, and I don't want to press my luck with this sort of experiment.

Hope you are staying on your service guy (once a week) and have reported the problem. I can not push what I am not experiencing. Pushing here for the coming winter. PM ford here and see what response you get.
Nope. I haven't reported this yet. The observations I've been reporting are just that, so far. The only annoying issue for me has been the occasional loss of drive modes, and even that hasn't been too bad.

It may turn out I'm making a poor decision. (I've wavered on this.) In fact I've often thought that if I were retired and had other vehicles, I'd very likely go ahead and report my observations to a dealer, even if it turned out to be a rabbit hole.

Further, I have to believe Ford already knows what the cooling design was, how it behaves in vehicles currently, and what changes, if any, are required.

If changes are needed, we'll find out here on the forum and then I'll make sure I act upon it.

Until then, I don't want to sink time and further anxiety into pressing the issue with my local service department. For now, they have nothing they can do to address these symptoms and I'll be without my only vehicle while they figure that out and potentially make things worse in their process.
 

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I have not tried this... But I'd also rather not.

To be clear, the vehicle's been great overall, and I don't want to press my luck with this sort of experiment.



Nope. I haven't reported this yet. The observations I've been reporting are just that, so far. The only annoying issue for me has been the occasional loss of drive modes, and even that hasn't been too bad.

It may turn out I'm making a poor decision. (I've wavered on this.) In fact I've often thought that if I were retired and had other vehicles, I'd very likely go ahead and report my observations to a dealer, even if it turned out to be a rabbit hole.

Further, I have to believe Ford already knows what the cooling design was, how it behaves in vehicles currently, and what changes, if any, are required.

If changes are needed, we'll find out here on the forum and then I'll make sure I act upon it.

Until then, I don't want to sink time and further anxiety into pressing the issue with my local service department. For now, they have nothing they can do to address these symptoms and I'll be without my only vehicle while they figure that out and potentially make things worse in their process.
Thanks for the info.

Not sure how leaving it idle for an hour would harm anything any more than what has been explained is going on but understand. What it will tell you is if it comes on and cools when awake. Me I will have no problem leaving it on idling and deactivating sleep mode in the power settings if it comes to that. @45C it is your investment and your call.
 

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Thanks for the info.

Not sure how leaving it idle for an hour would harm anything any more than what has been explained is going on but understand. What it will tell you is if it comes on and cools when awake. Me I will have no problem leaving it on idling and deactivating sleep mode in the power settings if it comes to that. @45C it is your investment and your call.
I don't believe the car will cool itself while parked off plug, hence the "Please plug me in" message.
I scoured the WSM for details and of course the description is appropriately vague......(per intellectual rights of course...).

Remote starting or leaving it on is an interesting thought.....might work. ?

I returned from lunch a short while ago with 80% charge and the limit in the car set to 50%.
Plugged in and it immediately started cooling the battery at normal volume. Walked by the car about 3-4 minutes later and it was at full pitch roar. So much so that people in the office could hear it. "There goes the electric car again!"

20 minutes later it's still running....but has settled down to normal volume again.

Last night when I got home it was cooler so the compressor didn't come on but the pumps ran. Or at least that is what it sounded like. I didn't pop off the beauty covers to verify fluid was flowing but I heard a low hum from the general area......
 


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When the car is cooling the battery, Ford Pass shows Preparing For Drive.

Here is what it sounds like....


Screenshot_20210828-171804_FordPass.jpg
 

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The software and even the car do a god awful piss poor job on telling you what is going on while charging.

Charging is a pretty darn critical part of owing an EV and something we do daily. Such a critical and constantly used function should not have under developed software or R&D.
 

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This is the final concern that I have with this purchase. It drives, it now finally charges, but does it maintain itself when parked? With all that sleeping and deep sleeping I can not tell. Appears you need to trick it and then it lets you know that you needed to. It therefore make me question why it does not come on with no intervention. As noted I would get Ford on the record of what is to happen and why. Why when you do this it does come on but when you do that it does not under that exact same conditions?

The sound they can fix with software degradation or damage to your pack maybe not.
 

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This is the final concern that I have with this purchase. It drives, it now finally charges, but does it maintain itself when parked? With all that sleeping and deep sleeping I can not tell. Appears you need to trick it and then it lets you know that you needed to. It therefore make me question why it does not come on with no intervention. As noted I would get Ford on the record of what is to happen and why. Why when you do this it does come on but when you do that it does not under that exact same conditions?

The sound they can fix with software degradation or damage to your pack maybe not.
Going to the dealership with this is a waste of time. There isn't any apparent malfunction so they will dismiss it.

Ford is on this forum. They know how to contact me and my car sends them updates monthly. I drive often enough that they would be wise to gather data from my usage.

The EV team in place prior to Team Edison was very engaging and good problem solvers. Most of them were contractors though. I think Ford is attempting to develop and maintain. The calibrations in house now. They are clearly struggling still.
 

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Do we have scan data showing that the battery is overheating when parked? I know it doesn't seem like it's doing enough/anything to maintain battery temp but do we know for sure? During periods of observation it seems to be slacking but maybe we're not watching at the right times. ???
 

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Do we have scan data showing that the battery is overheating when parked? I know it doesn't seem like it's doing enough/anything to maintain battery temp but do we know for sure? During periods of observation it seems to be slacking but maybe we're not watching at the right times. ???
Here is the state of mine in -20F it was so cold that we had to get a portable heater into the cab to thaw out the monitor to get it into tow mode. It was not smart enough to come on to maintain the 12V. Hmm is right?

Ford Mustang Mach-E Battery Health Recs from Ford IMG_2882.JPG
 

BMT1071

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Here is the state of mine in -20F it was so cold that we had to get a portable heater into the cab to thaw out the monitor to get it into tow mode. It was not smart enough to come on to maintain the 12V. Hmm is right?

Ford Mustang Mach-E Battery Health Recs from Ford IMG_2882.JPG
So that was obviously early in the year. We know there have been charging/battery parameter updates since then.
 

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So that was obviously early in the year. We know there have been charging/battery parameter updates since then.
I am not aware of any other than a 12V fix? Please elaborate. All I have seen is the app start to display it is sleep and/or deep sleeping (hibernating). As noted that is not a comforting message and my PC do not hibernate when plugged in to only 120V. There are settings for that.
 

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Do we have scan data showing that the battery is overheating when parked? I know it doesn't seem like it's doing enough/anything to maintain battery temp but do we know for sure? During periods of observation it seems to be slacking but maybe we're not watching at the right times. ???
Yep. I have the data. I have connected to the car while parked and battery temp was over the limit (battery temp was 108 while I believe it wants to be 104 or lower).

Car was plugged in.
So I lower the charge limit and change the schedule and it starts cooling.

It took it down pretty low. Mid 70s I think and then it shut off.
 

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Yep. I have the data. I have connected to the car while parked and battery temp was over the limit (battery temp was 108 while I believe it wants to be 104 or lower).

Car was plugged in.
So I lower the charge limit and change the schedule and it starts cooling.

It took it down pretty low. Mid 70s I think and then it shut off.
113 is when there is going to be a problem therefore 113/70 = 1.6 normally a safety factor of 1.5 (75) is reasonable. It has all the power it needs so that should not be a problem. Not coming on until 104 is a bit ridiculous. No engineer I know would use a limit like that.
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