Electrical system notification: Drain

[Zekester]

Received the following notification in Ford Pass, as well as on the dashboard display:

"There is an electrical drain on [your mustang], possibly caused by after-market drive(s). If that's not the case, please schedule service soon."

2023. There are no after-market devices installed in this car. The charginge module was recently replaced under warranty. My suspicion is that this means the 12VDC battery is going bad, or that the device that charges it is going bad. The 12VDC battery was replaced at the two year point and has been in the car less than a year. It was driven on multiple trips greater than 25 miles each in the last week prior to this notice, and had been plugged int o level two charger at all times while at home. It is currently charged to 90%, ands shows no other errors. I've scheduled it for service next week, but I am leary of driving it in the meantime, as i don;t want to get stranded by a 12VDC battery failure. Thoughts?

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[CTZ]

Do you have a dashcam or any other accessories plugged in all the time?

 

[Mach-Lee]

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-system-drain-service-required-message.36140/

Go through the checklist.

 

[csilvest]

I just got this warning also - '24 GT that I leased almost 11 months ago, although it probably sat on the lot longer (being a '24). I was suspecting the 12V battery also but now not sure since another user is reporting the same issue on pretty much the same day.

Also, the car will not charge since this warning was displayed. I've got 69% in the battery but obviously the car not charging is a showstopper. Will be investigating what to do today and will probably be calling the dealer.

For clarity, the warning is displayed both in Fordpass and in the car. I don't have any aftermarket devices installed.

 

[csilvest]

A follow up on my incident:

I tried disconnecting my Autel wall charger from all power, letting it sit for 10 minutes, then powering it up and trying again - same result.

Next, I pulled out the charger that came with the car, still under wraps having never been used. I plugged it in to the same 14-50 socket, plugged in the charging cable, and the car started charging. So that's good news in that the cause of the problem may be identified, but I'll keep an eye on it.

The malfunctioning charger is an Autel MaxiCharger that is about 4 1/2 years old - anyone have issues with one of these?

 

[hokiedoug]

Just got this message on my '22 ER and took it to dealer. There is a Service Bulletin on this that requires software update of up to 8 modules. At dealer now undergoing the updates and the longer it takes to resolve the more modules are being replaced and the bill keeps creeping up.

 

[Zekester]

Do you have a dashcam or any other accessories plugged in all the time?

As stated in the original post, there are no aftermarket devices installed in this car.

 

[sergiomo]

I got the same message when I connected the L2 charger but forgot to enable it. I remember seeing other people here reporting the same experience with an unpowered L2 charger.

For me, the message went away and never came back.

 

[ellgry]

Received the following notification in Ford Pass, as well as on the dashboard display:

"There is an electrical drain on [your mustang], possibly caused by after-market drive(s). If that's not the case, please schedule service soon."

2023. There are no after-market devices installed in this car. The charginge module was recently replaced under warranty. My suspicion is that this means the 12VDC battery is going bad, or that the device that charges it is going bad. The 12VDC battery was replaced at the two year point and has been in the car less than a year. It was driven on multiple trips greater than 25 miles each in the last week prior to this notice, and had been plugged int o level two charger at all times while at home. It is currently charged to 90%, ands shows no other errors. I've scheduled it for service next week, but I am leary of driving it in the meantime, as i don;t want to get stranded by a 12VDC battery failure. Thoughts?

Received the following notification in Ford Pass, as well as on the dashboard display:

"There is an electrical drain on [your mustang], possibly caused by after-market drive(s). If that's not the case, please schedule service soon."

2023. There are no after-market devices installed in this car. The charginge module was recently replaced under warranty. My suspicion is that this means the 12VDC battery is going bad, or that the device that charges it is going bad. The 12VDC battery was replaced at the two year point and has been in the car less than a year. It was driven on multiple trips greater than 25 miles each in the last week prior to this notice, and had been plugged int o level two charger at all times while at home. It is currently charged to 90%, ands shows no other errors. I've scheduled it for service next week, but I am leary of driving it in the meantime, as i don;t want to get stranded by a 12VDC battery failure. Thoughts?

I’ve also had this happen to be a couple of months ago. No aftermarket options. Took it to the dealership and no codes came up, they put it down to a glitch, and so far- it’s not repeated.

 

[Zekester]

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-system-drain-service-required-message.36140/

Go through the checklist.

Thanks, most useful. Went through the checklist with these results.

- There area no dashcams, radar detectors, or accessories are wired into the electrical system
- There is no apparent hidden dealer-installed tracking devices are installed (see below)
- Welcome lighting is disabled
- Headlights not staying on (faulty headlamp switches on '21-'22 models) - have not seen this issue, the cars is a 2023
-Completely quit the FordPass app on your phone(s) and disable it from running in the background (iOS: disable "Always" location permission), or disable Bluetooth DONE.
- I have never ever given your FordPass password to a 3rd party app
- Change your FordPass password anyway to be safe DONE
- No rapparent odent damage to wire harnesses has occurred
- There is no faulty EVSE that causes charge faults. Power cycled the one usually used to charge this car, and tried it on the other L2 charger installed at the house.

Last thing to try is this:

Perform a 12V reset (remove negative battery cable for 10 min) to reset any stuck modules

 

[Mach-Lee]

Thanks, most useful. Went through the checklist with these results.

- There area no dashcams, radar detectors, or accessories are wired into the electrical system
- There is no apparent hidden dealer-installed tracking devices are installed (see below)
- Welcome lighting is disabled
- Headlights not staying on (faulty headlamp switches on '21-'22 models) - have not seen this issue, the cars is a 2023
-Completely quit the FordPass app on your phone(s) and disable it from running in the background (iOS: disable "Always" location permission), or disable Bluetooth DONE.
- I have never ever given your FordPass password to a 3rd party app
- Change your FordPass password anyway to be safe DONE
- No rapparent odent damage to wire harnesses has occurred
- There is no faulty EVSE that causes charge faults. Power cycled the one usually used to charge this car, and tried it on the other L2 charger installed at the house.

Last thing to try is this:

Perform a 12V reset (remove negative battery cable for 10 min) to reset any stuck modules

Yes. Just a reminder the car needs to be turned off for at least 15 minutes before you remove the negative battery cable.

If you still get the message after the 12V reset, then I would schedule service. Have the battery tested, and they may need to update modules if they are causing it.

 

[stangbat]

My experience is probably lost in the thread linked to Post #3. I bought my 2024 new in Nov. 2024. I was getting this message every few days to weeks. It ended up being that there were several software updates the dealer had to apply. Once everything was updated I haven't seen the message again since December of 2024.

 

[Zekester]

After having tried all of Mach-Lee's suggestions in post #10 in this thread (thanks much, but the way!) I still had the issue and took the car in for service. It turns out there is a Technical Service Bulleting for this issue, which was promulgated by Ford on 16 January 2026. It calls for the software to be re-programmed on three modules: GWM, APIM and DSM. The dealer followed this protocol and the issue was resolved. This work was covered under the extended I purchased from Ford with the car, less the deductible.

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