Bye-Bye Battery(?): "See Manual", "Drive Mode Selection Not Available"

[Ahung12]

Took the R in for service today, actually to have my local dealer mount my wheel spacers because Discount Tire cannot. Had a few things come up that suggest a battery on the way out: yellow wrench icon and "see manual" popped up for the first time since I've owned this car, had the "drive mode selection not available" warning come on twice in the last two weeks when I first start the car but drive mode/steering/damper/exhaust modes still select fine. So while they were at it, one of the tech's did a battery test and results came back OK: 12.34V, measured 336CCA, 74% state of health and 67% state of charge. When they went to pull it out of service, the car wouldn't start and needed a jump.

I do a lot of short drives, been taking the R out every day for the last 2 weeks, usually no more than 30 minutes at a time and local roads. The last longish drive was about 1hr one way, and then 1hr back, that was 5 days ago. What's the consensus here? Battery dead and just don't trust these battery test reports? Could it be an alternator issue?

If battery, what does every run and trust? Thanks.

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[Nfs1000f]

Replaced 8 year-old Motorcraft battery in my ‘17 with another Motorcraft. Car was not driven during the winters. Battery was never left uncharged during storage.

 

[cerbomark]

NAPA brand, $200 OTD.

 

[cerbomark]

BCM reset when new battery is in, then you can just simply test the alternator output.

 

[Ahung12]

Yup I have that thread/process bookmarked.

 

[honeybadger]

how old is your battery? I think expected life of OEM battery is only a couple of years

 

[Ahung12]

To be honest, I'm not quite sure. Up until today I was confident that it's the factory battery but the test showed a max CCA of 450 which doesn't jive with the factory R batteries so, I'm sure at some point one of the previous owner's must've replaced it with an aftermarket.

In any case, I'm battery shopping and hoping that addresses the electrical gremlins.

 

[honeybadger]

I'd be surprised if it doesn't. Low voltage will cause the whole car to go bananas. and 12.3v is fairly low - mine runs around 13.4v - but I am running a small lithium

 

[Evenmetal]

I'd be surprised if it doesn't. Low voltage will cause the whole car to go bananas. and 12.3v is fairly low - mine runs around 13.4v - but I am running a small lithium

I had the small lithium battery too, but was having the low voltage issues since the install (not sure if it was related to the AG battery) so I replaced the pigtail connector and alternator and all the issues were fixed. I was reluctant to put the AG battery back in so I am using the OEM Motorcraft. Do you think it's safe to put the small AG battery back in? I hate to have it just sitting around since they are expensive.

 

[honeybadger]

I had the small lithium battery too, but was having the low voltage issues since the install (not sure if it was related to the AG battery) so I replaced the pigtail connector and alternator and all the issues were fixed. I was reluctant to put the AG battery back in so I am using the OEM Motorcraft. Do you think it's safe to put the small AG battery back in? I hate to have it just sitting around since they are expensive.

I used my ATX20Hd for 4 years in the stock setup without issue. It was always on a tender tho.

I now use the ATX30hd because I wanted a spare and chose to upgrade and keep the 20 in the trailer. But still works like new

 

[galaxy]

Same. 4 years, 1X,xxx miles on it, no issues at all on my 20. Zero regrets. I keep mine on a tender when sitting for long periods, but I do that no matter what battery I had. Not sure why this topic seems to be so hit or miss for some. I know there’s some issues with the smaller battery (the 20) if you have high load demands such as big stereo and suspension controller, but short of that, works great on fairly stock electrical car.

Another random thought; don’t stare at the voltmeter on this car and try to figure that thing out. An exercise in futility. It’ll drive you insane. I literaly never watch my voltmeter. The thing with electrical problems on this car is you’ll never have just one symptom. I’ve seen more than one guy on here replace perfectly good batteries and alternators just because they stared at the voltmeter. This car will always have multiple symptoms if there’s a true problem. It’ll let you know.

 

[Stangnut]

Doing a lot of short drives is hard on batteries. 80% of my drives are less than 10 minutes and I just bought my 4th battery for my '19 Bullitt and it's only 6 1/2 years old.

Combine that with the "Easy Exit" power seats draining the battery before it starts up and batteries don't last long.

 

[Evenmetal]

I used my ATX20Hd for 4 years in the stock setup without issue. It was always on a tender tho.

I now use the ATX30hd because I wanted a spare and chose to upgrade and keep the 20 in the trailer. But still works like new

Good to know. Thanks

 

[wingnutt]

Replaced my factory Motorsport with another one at about the 7 year mark…but I also battery tend when sitting for more than a day at home

 

[AnywhereInTX]

5 years on my last battery, hooked up all winter to a tender. Unfortunately, still dead.

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