SOMETHING NEW

[Tampamike]

Yes, "System off to save battery" is caused by low 12V battery. 12 mi/day is pretty short and likely not enough on time to keep it at a high SoC.

12 miles a day is probably more than a lot of people drive every day. If that’s out of the car’s envelope, then ….

Sponsored

 

[thekat03]

12 miles a day is probably more than a lot of people drive every day. If that’s out of the car’s envelope, then ….

Oh right. I forget what it's like to live in the city. 12 miles is a run to the grocery store and back. Or a trip into the nearest city. Driving 12 miles a day max most days seems so strange.

 

[Mach1E]

Have been greeted with this notification twice in the last couple of days. Shows up when I try to start the car. Car starts fine and the screen opens after progress bar finishes. Anyone know what it means?

I think we are gonna see this more and more as our batteries are 2+ years old now.

Test your voltage with a volt ohm meter, it’s likely low.

 

[jdsimard2012]

Yes, OTAs do tax the 12V battery. If the car has not been driven or charged for at least 30 continuous minutes after an OTA, the 12V battery may remain low afterwards.

Plugging in does not keep the 12V topped up if no charging is occurring. You must be actively charging the HVB or driving to charge up the 12V battery. As soon as charging finishes, everything goes to sleep so no further progress on the 12V is made.

Good to know - thank you.

 

[dbsb3233]

Yes, OTAs do tax the 12V battery. If the car has not been driven or charged for at least 30 continuous minutes after an OTA, the 12V battery may remain low afterwards.

Plugging in does not keep the 12V topped up if no charging is occurring. You must be actively charging the HVB or driving to charge up the 12V battery. As soon as charging finishes, everything goes to sleep so no further progress on the 12V is made.

I keep a cigarette plug voltage meter in all the time. Mine shows the charge voltage (~14.3) just from starting the car without driving it. I assume just starting it in the garage and leaving it till it times off on 30 minutes will give it a decent boost. Or bypass the 30 min for longer.

I'm on my 2nd battery. Seems like a lot of the originals may have lost some of their life during slow delivery or something.

 

[blkadr08]

Do you have anything plugged in that might be draining the LVB, like an OBD plug that keeps the system awake, or a dash cam hardwired to an always on fuse?

Just thinking of other things off the top of my head.

Nothing plugged in. But, as I think about it, the car was not driven for 12 days this month while we were away. Probably didn’t help.

BTW, I will update tomorrow after the Tech from my dealer finishes his house call.

 

[dj_stang]

Yes, OTAs do tax the 12V battery. If the car has not been driven or charged for at least 30 continuous minutes after an OTA, the 12V battery may remain low afterwards.

Plugging in does not keep the 12V topped up if no charging is occurring. You must be actively charging the HVB or driving to charge up the 12V battery. As soon as charging finishes, everything goes to sleep so no further progress on the 12V is made.

Doesn’t this seem to you like a terrible strategy? Why not charge the LVB at the very least while plugged in?

Not only does it increase warranty and roadside charges for Ford, but it leaves customers stranded without the ability to open the doors or start the vehicle. Which happened to me.

Even if we say that the car will detect when LVB is critically low and will charge it, why does Ford accept the increased LVB degradation that accompanied as a result? It’s not even a big battery, we’re talking about 300Wh from 0-100% on a battery that is 90+ KWh. That’s a single fraction of a percent per week.

 

[Donna216]

I got this message last week. I assumed it was related to an OTA update. Have not got it again since but I driven it 50 miles a day for 5 days since.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Doesn’t this seem to you like a terrible strategy? Why not charge the LVB at the very least while plugged in?

Not only does it increase warranty and roadside charges for Ford, but it leaves customers stranded without the ability to open the doors or start the vehicle. Which happened to me.

Even if we say that the car will detect when LVB is critically low and will charge it, why does Ford accept the increased LVB degradation that accompanied as a result? It’s not even a big battery, we’re talking about 300Wh from 0-100% on a battery that is 90+ KWh. That’s a single fraction of a percent per week.

I assume that would increase standby draw requirements, which would reduce the efficiency rating (MPGe) of the vehicle.

 

[milepost1]

Doesn’t this seem to you like a terrible strategy? Why not charge the LVB at the very least while plugged in?

Not only does it increase warranty and roadside charges for Ford, but it leaves customers stranded without the ability to open the doors or start the vehicle. Which happened to me.

Even if we say that the car will detect when LVB is critically low and will charge it, why does Ford accept the increased LVB degradation that accompanied as a result? It’s not even a big battery, we’re talking about 300Wh from 0-100% on a battery that is 90+ KWh. That’s a single fraction of a percent per week.

12v dead many times over 3 years. Drive a lot. About 150 miles per day on average. 91kWh but can't get enough juice to open solenoid on door. Not sure how long 91kWh would last running 12v but imagine it would be quite sometime. Or a button to run inverter long enough to wake car up and at least let me open door, as a bonus inverter could run long enough to even start car. Better to just let 12v go dead and leave you stranded.

 

[dj_stang]

I assume that would increase standby draw requirements, which would reduce the efficiency rating (MPGe) of the vehicle.

Well hold on, lets think through this. The power is already being drawn from standby as is, in current situation. Instead of reducing power draw, Ford is deciding to let the 12V either die (as has been reported many times) or alternatively only charge it when its critically low, in which case it either still dies and leaves the customer stranded, or the part's lifespan is shortened. Which means it will die sooner, and leave the customer stranded when it does.

It seems like Ford is trying to mask the power draw by only using shore power, and somehow that doesn't factor into the efficiency rating or MPGe. Like are we really talking about 300Wh to charge it from 0-100%, 0.3% of the car's battery capacity?

I can't tell you how ironic it was that my EV's "battery" was dead and I couldn't even get inside to get my stuff. I don't think any amount of MPGe juicing is worth that or the bad PR or roadside assistance costs, or warranty costs.

 

[eStang]

Low 12 volt battery. Drive the vehicle more often/longer periods of time to allow the 12v to charge.

Or, just turn off the Automatic Shut off feature, turn car on while parked and locked (like in your garage) for a few hours or so.

 

[Just Lurking]

I think we are gonna see this more and more as our batteries are 2+ years old now.

Doesn’t this seem to you like a terrible strategy? Why not charge the LVB at the very least while plugged in?

Yes, it's totally ridiculous. Ford needs to change its settings to keep the 12v topped up more. At minimum:

1) The 12v should charge as much as needed while plugged in, even if the HVB isn't charging. Easy win which costs nothing except the software development time.
2) It should top up the 12v battery more thoroughly when the vehicle is not being driven much. Would have the tiniest impact on HVB which is 100% worth it.[/QUOTE]

 

[kindofblue]

Do you have anything plugged in that might be draining the LVB, like an OBD plug that keeps the system awake

Does having an OBD plugged in all the time drain the 12v battery? That's news to me.

 

[mdolan92869]

Does having an OBD plugged in all the time drain the 12v battery? That's news to me.

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that some OBD adapters can keep talking to the various modules of the car after you've turned it off. If those modules don't go to sleep, they drain the LVB. E.g., I had an app that would show charging data. I had it setup and put my phone in the center console while it was charging and I had gone into the store to use the facilities. Car was off, locked, fob in my pocket and I was quite a ways away. Came back, sat in car while it finished. Looked at data after charging and it had all the data. So, it must've been querying the car for the data while it was off.

Other more knowledgable people on the forum, if any of the above is incorrect, please, oh please, correct it. I'm just going on what I remembered reading somewhere at sometime.

Sponsored