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

[methorian]

Heard my Mach-E charging when I got home today (hadn’t been driving it) so I quickly checked my FordPass app and saw this:

Makes me feel a bit better

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[tomterky]

Heard my Mach-E charging when I got home today (hadn’t been driving it) so I quickly checked my FordPass app and saw this:

Makes me feel a bit better

Mine looked like that too...then ZZZzzzzzz

 

[dbsb3233]

so let me ask you this, would it be possible to put a pigtail wire attached to those two points so that you wouldn't need to remove the panel next time it happened, ie the pigtail would be in the frunk? I'm talking about the kind used with a battery tender type setup. Like this?

I haven't seen it in person yet, only photos. And I'm no expert, so take this all with a grain of salt.
A few thoughts though...

As far as wire gauge, I'd probably just go by whatever 12V car charger or jumper battery you plan to use. Those things have their own charger cords and should be sized right for the amperage delivered. Never hurts to go thicker, of course.

As far as securing the hot (+) terminal in the car, there's no hole on the terminal, so you'd need to figure out a good, secure fitting for it that would stay in place if you plan to leave it connected all the time. Also, it's covered with a rubber sleeve for a reason - it's a hot terminal. So I'd be sure that the insulator sleeve fits back on, or you insulate it another way. (Same with the other end of your wire you leave hanging in the frunk.)

The (-) terminal looks like it just grounds to the chassis like any other car. I'm not sure whether you need a wire directly to that, or if you can just clamp onto the frunk hinge or other frame metal for a trickle charge. That might be sufficient. (?)

Here's something I have no idea about but should be researched: there's a high voltage disconnect. I don't know if that needs to be disconnected before doing a trickle charge. No idea, but research it first.

Here's a few more pics...

 

[kdryden99]

I know this issue is under investigation and we dont the exact cause. But assuming its defective or just flat 12V battery - the discussion about the rapid charging of 12V battery may lead to the 12V battery not holding charge completely - my question is if the battery is damaged due to rapid cycling and even if a new battery is placed, what should be the proper charging method for this 12V battery so that new one does not get damaged due to rapid charging and will hold its charge ? Just looking to see when a new battery is placed how do we /I prevent damage to the new battery. May be its a question to be posted in the battery section.

AGM's always have to be trickle charged, no more than 2amps. Otherwise you kill the battery

 

[kdryden99]

I would love to see what the parasitic draw on the average MachE is. 35AH is a bean counter choice for a cell. 75AH gives you over twice the available capacity for not that much more cost and are not that exotic.

A good charger would float the batteries and compensate for the temperature. Makes me wonder if this is just of case of lowest bid batteries failing under adverse conditions.

I think that it wasnt just cost but also weight and time. A 75ah battery will take a lot longer to charge than a 35ah so i am thinking since we are dealing with car that has no alternator and the battery has to be trickle charged they wanted the car 12v to always at 100% of 35ah rather than 50% of 75ah. The problem is in cold weather you might be at 50% capacity, 17.5ah and your car might be pulling anywhere from 1-10amps with all the electronics. Im sure the sound system is probably the biggest consumer of the battery when the car is on, but withe the car off, probably the wifi/bluetooth/lte modem or the security system is the highest which could explain why prepoduction cars didnt have this issue since probably most testers didnt have that modem enabled.

 

[Billyk24]

Yes--it appears the wire is thin enough

I have this running from the from jumper points on my Ford CMax Energi thru the front grille so I can trickle charge it every night.

 

[kdryden99]

From the part number it seems that the battery is a new size/group. It looks like group H3 since H4, H5 and H6 are sizes but ive never heard of H3 and 0 shows up on google. So this could be a design issue with the battery. Will wait and see what comes out of this.

 

[Guy]

Last fall, pre production Mustangs touring dealers in Quebec had this set-up. Maybe they already knew something.

 

[hybrid2bev]

Last fall, pre production Mustangs touring dealers in Quebec had this set-up. Maybe they already knew something.

I doubt that it’s anything nefarious. If people are going to be playing with the accessories all day and not running the car it’s going to drain the 12v battery.

 

[kdryden99]

I doubt that it’s anything nefarious. If people are going to be playing with the accessories all day and not running the car it’s going to drain the 12v battery.

Same reason why guys at car shows put the car on chargers.

 

[JamieGeek]

I doubt that it’s anything nefarious. If people are going to be playing with the accessories all day and not running the car it’s going to drain the 12v battery.

Especially if you start it in accessory only mode (press start button with foot off the brake). In acc mode it does not turn on the HVB or DC-DC converter.

Edit: It does, it just doesn't turn on the heater. Confirmed this by watching the voltage in the cig lighter socket. In accessory it jumps up to 15V which does mean DC-DC is on.

 

[Ponypower50]

When the first 2013 Ford Cmaxes came out they had battery issues. Ford resolved the issues by a reprogram. I bought a 2014 and never had a problem. So I bet their will be a TSB on this matter of dead batteries.

 

[kdryden99]

Especially if you start it in accessory only mode (press start button with foot off the brake). In acc mode it does not turn on the HVB or DC-DC converter.

Im starting to wonder in the delay/calibration isnt due to an issue with the dc inverter not charging the 12v properly and that maybe the problem was more widespread and we are seeing some cars that should have gotten the qc and didnt or the fix didnt work. Its hard to know if its hardware or software without having the car on hand but im sure Ford is aware right now since we are seeing more and more reports on the forum so I can imagine there are a few more reports not on this site.

 

[BlueMach]

Hopefully it’s a software issue that can be updated OTA.

Hopefully. After the "bring it to the dealer" software update of last week I've lost all confidence in their OTA capability for this car.

 

[Billyk24]

When the first 2013 Ford Cmaxes came out they had battery issues. Ford resolved the issues by a reprogram. I bought a 2014 and never had a problem. So I bet their will be a TSB on this matter of dead batteries.

I had a 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid that had this issue. Use of a trickle charger significantly helped.

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