Deep Sleep Mode - 12v battery drained dead [update: Mach-E jump started]

[kdryden99]

It all depends on your tolerance for thse types of issues. This is a brand new car on a brand new platform completely designed ground up. There are bound to be an issue or two. Ford will get to the bottom of these and quickly: The Mach-E is their premier EV and they don't want any unhappy customers.

Also consider the "internet": When people start having issues they go searching for solutions on the internet and find forums such as these and post questions. This has a way of concentrating the issues in a forum and making them look more prevalent than they really are (granted in the case of the Mach-E many of the people were here already excitedly waiting for their car; in addition to that there have been just a few deliveries..wait to the deluge starts LOL). You may ask "where are the happy people?" well they are out driving their cars...

I'll take it a step further, since many of the people on here are experienced with software, hardware, or just tech in general, and many are knowledgeable in their respective fields, it can sometimes make the issue appear to be worse than it is.

If all the drivetrain and charging issues are related to a defective 12V, its not the end of the world if anything its probably the easiest thing to fix vs everything else on this car. So at this point we just need to be patient and wait. It sucks for those who are experiencing this issue but we all have to wait. At least this forum will give us a chance to share our issues and resolve them faster.

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[tomterky]

Was the car plugged in by any chance? If it was it, could be that the 12v charged overnight hence the message disappearing. If it would reappear\s after a while of driving it could indicate a damaged 12v that is no longer holding its charge.

Car was plugged in all night and even when this issue occurred. I had it plugged in due to the temp in the garage only being 20 degrees. The car also told me to plug it in due to the cold temperatures. The car was driven the night before and the temps were -18 and only had 40 miles left when it was plugged in.

 

[The ICTVillain]

Car was plugged in all night and even when this issue occurred. I had it plugged in due to the temp in the garage only being 20 degrees. The car also told me to plug it in due to the cold temperatures. The car was driven the night before and the temps were -18 and only had 40 miles left when it was plugged in.

Was the car plugged into 120 volt or 240 volt? 120 may not be enough juice to warm a cold battery and accept a charge.

 

[kdryden99]

Car was plugged in all night and even when this issue occurred. I had it plugged in due to the temp in the garage only being 20 degrees. The car also told me to plug it in due to the cold temperatures. The car was driven the night before and the temps were -18 and only had 40 miles left when it was plugged in.

From the info given by many here, that battery is should be an AGM. Those are the best batteries to handle the parasitic discharge however if they break, (empty out completely over a long period of time) it'll hold little to no charge no matter what you do. I've gone through many 12V in the past due to a 1 farad capacitor that would drain the 12V because of a stupid LED voltage indicator on it that would go on and off constantly.

 

[saurez7777]

Most of the times it will be -5 to -22 C here in Ottawa, Canada. Ford has to get to the bottom of this issue.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Did you do a full charge or just enough to get the car started?

Just enough to get it started. I'll get a post up shortly.

 

[Illinibird]

How many in this one thread have had this issue? geeze. Between this, the Easy Pass problem, the display whine, the PAAK problem and whatever else, I'm really wondering if I should hold off a while.,, I have to be honest and this is all kind of scary and leaning lemonish.

I'm starting to feel the same way. I'm watching these issues closely. My car isn't produced yet and perhaps when it is, these issues will be ironed out? I hope so.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Interesting but sad, as I would not like to find this issue while out and about. I assume your doors were not locked and you didn't have to open the charge port?

I am convinced that the powertrain message is generic and used for many issues as it's only customer facing. The dealer when scanning the car and the realtime data sent info to Ford has all the real info. I think Ford didn't put much time into a database of customer facing messages, we are not getting a real diagnoses of the issue. We are just being notified something from a wide range of issues is present. I would like more detail but even with that detail I am still having to rely on the dealer or Ford.

Doors: complicated answer. I'll get up a post shortly.
Charge port has no lock and can always be opened.

 

[SoCalPony]

I thought for sure that the shipping delay for the "quality control" checks would at some point become public knowledge. Looks like I was wrong about that, since I haven't seen any discussion here about it, though I haven't been scouring the site. This battery thing is different in that it is affecting already delivered cars, and not being able to access your car given the cold weather we are having is pretty serious stuff. So maybe there is something to the idea discussed above that the shipping delay is connected to the batteries going bad if the cars weren't prepared correctly for the unplanned "sitting around" that took place.

In any case, it will be interesting to see what the owners are going to be told by Ford once the cars are repaired. If it's just "the 12-volt battery needed replacing", I think I would want a bit more information as to just why it went dead after a couple weeks. My guess would either be a bad batch of batteries, or more likely a software or firmware bug that accidentally drained the battery.

SCPony

 

[Marcel]

Most of the times it will be -5 to -22 C here in Ottawa, Canada. Ford has to get to the bottom of this issue.

Luckily Ford Dearborn Michigan does not have a nice subtropical climate so I presume they do know something about cold weather?

 

[agoldman]

I'm starting to feel the same way. I'm watching these issues closely. My car isn't produced yet and perhaps when it is, these issues will be ironed out? I hope so.

If you want to feel better about the ME, just go on the model Y forum for a few and you'll snap right out of it like I just did..

 

[Illinibird]

If you want to feel better about the ME, just go on the model Y forum for a few and you'll snap right out of it like I just did..

Thanks, I will.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Is any of this true? It doesn't seem like those statements reflect real world conditions based on the problems people are having right now with dead 12v batteries and getting locked out of their cars.

I genuinely feel bad for the folks that have had to go through these troubles.

Also, I wonder if anyone has tested popping the frunk externally from the contacts while the 12v battery is still "good"? You would hope it doesn't open, but how can you be sure unless someone tries for themselves?

I think these statements reflect what Ford thought was the situation and the situation they intend for the Mach E. There seems to be an issue in at least some of the earlier builds where there is an unexpected LVB drain.

 

[Larry]

This does make me wonder - for the self-sufficient types who carry a portable jump starter with them, how would we make that work in a scenario like this? Specifically, if you can't get to it in the trunk should the battery die, then is there even a point to owning one? (Other than being a good samaritan for someone else...)

Good point!! I was thinking of ordering one but you just talked me out of it.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Agree with you that those statements are not reflective of real world experiences past few weeks. Those are words of over optimistic company employee but I would have asked how much testing went into being that confident. Most people on this forum have had issues with their cars ... and if big issues with cars then issues with connectivity ...

I also wonder how come none of the tens of reviews we have seen or read experienced these ... were they given scrubbed cars? Sure then the reviews and kudos are reflective only of the driving dynamics. Not anything else. And why? Is it because Ford thought these issues would be fixed by production vehicles?

Remember that the reviewers were using pre-production prototypes. The current LVB drain issue may have resulted in a change between those prototypes and the early production units. The fact that only certain cars were pulled off to the KC Speedway for QC testing and later builds were not may indicated the problem was identified and newer builds aren't susceptible.

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