Monitor your 12Volt battery

[Sweetwater]

Since Ford did not put a volt meter in for the 12 v battery this can be done easily for pease of mind.
This will plug into 12 v port under armrest. It will swivel to any position to make it easy to read.
You can leave it plugged in as the port shuts off with car. As I was woking on some installs on
screen I saw it drop to 12.3 v yesterday. Today I have 14.34 v my battery is working OK
It was bought at Amazon.

volt meter cigerette port

 

[Sweetwater]

My Mach has been sitting just over a week. I went out to check
my 12 v battery and it is 14.43 v. This tool has helped me not to
worry and provides a way to check that LVB issues.
Not much money for pease of mind.

 

[Jimrpa]

No. No. No. the entire premise of this thread is wrong! The vehicle should be monitoring the stupid 12V battery and, if the 12V battery is close to being too low to function properly, an urgent notice should be pushed out to FordPass and a prominent warning should be displayed on the IC.

I should NOT have to plug volt meters into the 12V outlet in the console and keep an eye on the voltage myself. That is just stupid/lazy design.

 

[macchiaz-o]

Some people are curious, or want some extra peace of mind.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-various-functions-situations-in-mach-e.3508/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/12v-power-outlet-use-cases.3699/post-114708

 

[Jimrpa]

Some people are curious, or want some extra peace of mind.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-various-functions-situations-in-mach-e.3508/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/12v-power-outlet-use-cases.3699/post-114708

No problem with “curious”, but an admonition that I have to “monitor” my 12V battery tells me that there is something wrong in the operational concept. I do not have to “monitor” the battery in my phone, there is a little icon if I’m curious about how much charge it has, and it will alert me if the battery gets low. The Mustang Mach E should be able to do the same thing with its 12V battery. It should tell me, proactively about things that are about to go wrong, when possible, not just sit there silently and become a brick ?

 

[SnBGC]

Since Ford did not put a volt meter in for the 12 v battery this can be done easily for pease of mind.
This will plug into 12 v port under armrest. It will swivel to any position to make it easy to read.
You can leave it plugged in as the port shuts off with car. As I was woking on some installs on
screen I saw it drop to 12.3 v yesterday. Today I have 14.34 v my battery is working OK
It was bought at Amazon.

volt meter cigerette port

Nice Tip. I've been using those things for years. My Super Duty trucks eat batteries every 24 months almost like clockwork.

Yeah, I know the Mach-E is supposed to monitor the battery health and FordPass is supposed to notify us and blah, blah, blah.

But we have seen plenty of folks with dead low voltage batteries in their Mach-E so the system obviously doesn't work. Then we have those of us who don't (or can't) use FordPass so that isn't a reliable crutch to lean on.

You solution is great for peace of mind. ?

 

[generaltso]

No problem with “curious”, but an admonition that I have to “monitor” my 12V battery tells me that there is something wrong in the operational concept.

Who said you have to?

 

[Jimrpa]

Who said you have to?

Check out the title of the thread ?

 

[generaltso]

Check out the title of the thread ?

I still don’t see it. Where does it say you have to?

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Check out the title of the thread ?

The post you quoted that spawned this little exchange said nothing about any requirement an owner monitor their 12 volt battery. @macchiaz-o simply posted a couple of links to threads that discussed this in greater detail. Nor does the title imply a monitoring requirement.

Nobody has suggested any of us personally have to do this. You can do so if you like, or you can ignore it. Besides, the vehicles possibly affected by the issue are, for the most part, known and an SSM has been issued.

 

[Sweetwater]

Some nice feedback. This is just a way to check. I saw a lot of
"should" but guess what it "Don't". I can not find any way Ford
provided to check this voltage. If your Mach would drop to
8 volts this meter may save you from deep sleep. I am just
trying to suggest an idea to help people.
Where is Ford's volt meter located ?

 

[Timelessblur]

No. No. No. the entire premise of this thread is wrong! The vehicle should be monitoring the stupid 12V battery and, if the 12V battery is close to being too low to function properly, an urgent notice should be pushed out to FordPass and a prominent warning should be displayed on the IC.

I should NOT have to plug volt meters into the 12V outlet in the console and keep an eye on the voltage myself. That is just stupid/lazy design.

no argument that we shouldn't have to do this but sadly it does provide piece of mine. Also I think I might get one of those just to keep an eye on my wife's battery as it honestly sucks to find out your battery is toast on when your car just stops starting. It a nice early warning that the cell is going bad and it sure as hell beats popping the hood to test.

 

[ajmartineau]

I have someone to do this for
me.

 

[dtbaker61]

Some nice feedback. This is just a way to check. I saw a lot of
"should" but guess what it "Don't". I can not find any way Ford
provided to check this voltage. If your Mach would drop to
8 volts this meter may save you from deep sleep. I am just
trying to suggest an idea to help people.
Where is Ford's volt meter located ?

Your MME is monitoring HV/LV battery voltages, currents, temperatures and a zillion other things all the time. Even when in 'deep sleep' the LVB is supposed to be checked, and some unknown intervals, and if voltage is below 'some value', it wakes up the onboard dc-dc and gets a charge from the HV.

all this data you can see via OBD2 reader ($20) and free phone app... but only when MME is on and you are within range of the OBD2 bluetooth at best.

what would be NICE, new, and different is if you could program your own alerts , from any of the available sensors, and have the car send an alert to your FordPass if any of your parameters are exceeded it were within wi-fi, BT, or cell service range.

 

[louibluey]

Since Ford did not put a volt meter in for the 12 v battery this can be done easily for pease of mind.
This will plug into 12 v port under armrest. It will swivel to any position to make it easy to read.
You can leave it plugged in as the port shuts off with car. As I was woking on some installs on
screen I saw it drop to 12.3 v yesterday. Today I have 14.34 v my battery is working OK
It was bought at Amazon.

volt meter cigerette port

14.3V is the voltage at the battery terminals when the DC-DC converter is charging the 12V battery from the HiVoltage traction battery. For example, turning on MME in accessory mode causes the DC-DC converter to come on at least once after turn on.