Check those OEM Batteries! Mine failed successfully

[Cobra Jet]

I've long known of people having the OEM batteries in these cars die after 2 or 3 years, so when my battery suddenly crapped out a couple of weeks ago I figured it had a good 6 year run and that was it. I was in for quite a shock when I took the battery cover off.

I'm hoping my debacle will help someone in the future either avoid my fate or have a simple fix should they run into what I did.

So when I pulled the battery cover off (last time I had this off was winter of 2020), I was greeted by this

Never in my life have I had a lead-acid battery fail so spectacularly.

Now for reasons unknown to me, Ford made the negative terminal clamp swappable, but not the positive terminal clamp. The stud that the clamping hardware sits on sheared off on mine due to the corrosion, so this left me with 3 possibilities.

Fix the stud/nut assembly
Replace the clamp (As per Ford's SSM 48123 using P/N BT4Z-14450-AA (OEM to 11-15 Edge/MKX)
Replace the entire battery harness (A 200+ dollar part, P/N varies based on engine/transmission combo)

I ordered the edge/MKX clamp as per the SSM, Ford states you can un-crimp the factory clamp and crimp on this new clamp to fix the problem. Since it was taking ages to actually ship out, I started thinking if I could fix what is already on my car. Turns out, yes. This is the least labor intensive route to go, which is always my favorite.

The nut/stud assembly that actually forces the terminal clamp closed is the same on the positive and negative side clamps. So I ended up taking apart my negative terminal clamp, and swapping the stud and hardware to the positive side.

Success! The positive side was back in place and clamped down. I then went down to my local dealer and ordered a new negative side (FU5Z-14450-A) and swapped the whole new assembly to the negative cable (my original one was starting to corrode on the bottom)

I replaced the factory battery with an Odyssey AGM96R, I looked into the XSPower battery but didn't want to roll the dice if I was going to any weird fitment issues (some did, some didn't).

So keep an eye on those batteries, my car was driven a week before I noticed it was totally flat and the battery had 9.2v remaining. I also didn't expect to deal with this pile of battery acid and wasn't looking forward to prying the old clamp off or swapping the entire battery harness with its 90 plugs. My alternative idea was to cut the old clamp off, crimp an eyelet on the end and bolt a negative clamp to the positive side. Thankfully I was able to salvage what I had left.



Side note: I keep this car on a deltran battery tender every winter. I had the tender hooked directly to the battery which during this debacle I've learned is incorrect. The correct way is to hook it to the leads going into the fuse box so the battery monitoring system can see the change in voltage that the tender is providing. Example here and here. I'll be making this change.

This is an issue and Ford released SSM 48123 about battery terminal or battery cable corrosion, because it affects model years up to 2019 (not sure if there is a new SSM to cover later years yet). See the actual SSM PDF in the below link:
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/positive-battery-cable-corroded-off.126565/#post-3195853

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[Cory S]

I'm rolling the dice just cause it's cool, but I will try an AntiGravity next battery for this car.

That's what's in mine now.

 

[offroadkarter]

Ouch! Scary.
Some battery terminal grease will protect the terminals against corrosion when something like this happens. Also, lifting that battery cover from time to time to check if all is well is good practice.

I plan on putting some battery terminal grease on now as an extra safeguard.

Wow man, that's insane!

Yeah, almost ruined a test and tune day for me at Island. Not to fear though, 2 days of rain took care of that instead!

Looks like a slow overcharge condition or the internal post seal failed. Leaking electrolyte up through the posts will cause corrosion quickly. Guess I got lucky. I just replaced my original battery from a build date of 4/2016. It was still OK, but reserve capacity was getting lower, and cranking had slowed over the past year. Battery posts were still dry and spotless thankfully.

I wouldn't be surprised if as the battery health was degrading, the alternator was charging it more and more (I mean as far as I'm aware, the BMS works that way)

Yikes.

My '15 still sports the original battery, and everything still looks new. However, I noticed that it cranks over a little slower lately so I plan on replacing it over the car's winter slumber.

I always connect tenders directly to the battery without issue. I've had a battery last over 20 years (yes, really) doing so.

I always have as well (Except for my M5 where the battery is in the trunk), none of my other cars have been this "computerized" though. I'll try what the book suggests and see if it has any adverse issues.

That makes me worry a bit about hooking up my tender in the winter...

I don't blame the tender for this, the car hasn't been on a tender since around April. Its very likely this was starting to overcharge from the alternator as the battery health degraded, until it reached a breaking point.

I've had nothing but great success with Motorcraft batteries. I had a 93 Ranger 4.0 with the BXT-65-650 and I sold with the original battery at 11 years old and 120k on it. I had two mornings at -15F just before and the battery started that truck just fine. I've had two F150s, a Fusion and an Escape since then, in addition to my family's FoMoCo products, all of those batteries exceeded their expected life. I just bought a 17 Mustang GT and found a Duracell battery in it. I'll be putting a Motorcraft in there when I take it out of storage in the Spring. You're right though, check the battery regularly, I really don't like that Ford hid these.

From what I've read on this site, people have better luck with the motorcraft dealer replacement batteries vs what Ford installed at the factory. My 04 Marauder had the original battery last 12 years and most of that was not living on a tender.

This is an issue and Ford released SSM 48123 about battery terminal or battery cable corrosion, because it affects model years up to 2019 (not sure if there is a new SSM to cover later years yet). See the actual SSM PDF in the below link:
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/positive-battery-cable-corroded-off.126565/#post-3195853

I mentioned that around line 16, your post is what got me to order the edge/mkx battery clamp.

 

[galaxy]

Weellll s&%^. After talking sooo good about my original battery, she finally bit me today...

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/had-to-jump-start-bat-lets-troubleshoot.181337/

 

[thunderstrike]

Thanks, I was doing it the wrong way, connecting ground first.

What's the M6 for?

 

[Skye]

What's the M6 for?

"M6" is a reference to the size of that nut, supporting the connection which leads back to the battery.

 

[_zOmbIE_]

Just out of curiosity, how does something fail successfully?

 

[Vlad Soare]

Just out of curiosity, how does something fail successfully?

Like this.
http://www.thebikecomesfirst.com/the-fight-to-be-last-at-the-giro-ditalia/

 

[fast306stang]

I've long known of people having the OEM batteries in these cars die after 2 or 3 years, so when my battery suddenly crapped out a couple of weeks ago I figured it had a good 6 year run and that was it. I was in for quite a shock when I took the battery cover off.

I'm hoping my debacle will help someone in the future either avoid my fate or have a simple fix should they run into what I did.

So when I pulled the battery cover off (last time I had this off was winter of 2020), I was greeted by this

Never in my life have I had a lead-acid battery fail so spectacularly.

Now for reasons unknown to me, Ford made the negative terminal clamp swappable, but not the positive terminal clamp. The stud that the clamping hardware sits on sheared off on mine due to the corrosion, so this left me with 3 possibilities.

Fix the stud/nut assembly
Replace the clamp (As per Ford's SSM 48123 using P/N BT4Z-14450-AA (OEM to 11-15 Edge/MKX)
Replace the entire battery harness (A 200+ dollar part, P/N varies based on engine/transmission combo)

I ordered the edge/MKX clamp as per the SSM, Ford states you can un-crimp the factory clamp and crimp on this new clamp to fix the problem. Since it was taking ages to actually ship out, I started thinking if I could fix what is already on my car. Turns out, yes. This is the least labor intensive route to go, which is always my favorite.

The nut/stud assembly that actually forces the terminal clamp closed is the same on the positive and negative side clamps. So I ended up taking apart my negative terminal clamp, and swapping the stud and hardware to the positive side.

Success! The positive side was back in place and clamped down. I then went down to my local dealer and ordered a new negative side (FU5Z-14450-A) and swapped the whole new assembly to the negative cable (my original one was starting to corrode on the bottom)

I replaced the factory battery with an Odyssey AGM96R, I looked into the XSPower battery but didn't want to roll the dice if I was going to any weird fitment issues (some did, some didn't).

So keep an eye on those batteries, my car was driven a week before I noticed it was totally flat and the battery had 9.2v remaining. I also didn't expect to deal with this pile of battery acid and wasn't looking forward to prying the old clamp off or swapping the entire battery harness with its 90 plugs. My alternative idea was to cut the old clamp off, crimp an eyelet on the end and bolt a negative clamp to the positive side. Thankfully I was able to salvage what I had left.



Side note: I keep this car on a deltran battery tender every winter. I had the tender hooked directly to the battery which during this debacle I've learned is incorrect. The correct way is to hook it to the leads going into the fuse box so the battery monitoring system can see the change in voltage that the tender is providing. Example here and here. I'll be making this change.

My wife's 2019 Explorer died at my brother's house one Sunday. Opened the hood and found this exact scenario. I was able to fix it and replace the battery, I took the battery to the dealership on Monday and showed them everything. They refunded me for the battery about 60 days later. The same dealer had JUST done an oil change for me. Guess they missed the battery during their "multi-point inspection."

 

[fast306stang]

Mine went out like flipping a switch. 2 years old, I had just stopped for gas 30 minutes prior. Started, no issue. Go to move it from the drive way into the garage, and it didn’t even have enough power to lower the window when I opened the door.

My 2018 GT did this. I noticed it cranked slower than usual when I left work, and tried to restart it when I got home. No dice. Battery was reading like 9V. In this case I took the battery to the dealer and they swapped it out for me. They told me they normally won't do this but I couldn't get the car towed in time before they closed and I couldn't jump the car.

On another note. Why is Ford not using AGM batteries yet? My wife's Explorer didn't even have a maintenance-free battery.

 

[Cory S]

My 2018 GT did this. I noticed it cranked slower than usual when I left work, and tried to restart it when I got home. No dice. Battery was reading like 9V. In this case I took the battery to the dealer and they swapped it out for me. They told me they normally won't do this but I couldn't get the car towed in time before they closed and I couldn't jump the car.

On another note. Why is Ford not using AGM batteries yet? My wife's Explorer didn't even have a maintenance-free battery.

Cost. It’s always about money.

 

[WD Pro]

Cost. It’s always about money.

This.

And maybe a hot engine bay ...

EFB is the best cost / quality compromise for typical under hood applications and 'most' users on here

WD

 

[Rapid Red]

I've long known of people having the OEM batteries in these cars die after 2 or 3 years, so when my battery suddenly crapped out a couple of weeks ago I figured it had a good 6 year run and that was it. I was in for quite a shock when I took the battery cover off.

I'm hoping my debacle will help someone in the future either avoid my fate or have a simple fix should they run into what I did.

So when I pulled the battery cover off (last time I had this off was winter of 2020), I was greeted by this

Never in my life have I had a lead-acid battery fail so spectacularly.

Now for reasons unknown to me, Ford made the negative terminal clamp swappable, but not the positive terminal clamp. The stud that the clamping hardware sits on sheared off on mine due to the corrosion, so this left me with 3 possibilities.

Fix the stud/nut assembly
Replace the clamp (As per Ford's SSM 48123 using P/N BT4Z-14450-AA (OEM to 11-15 Edge/MKX)
Replace the entire battery harness (A 200+ dollar part, P/N varies based on engine/transmission combo)

I ordered the edge/MKX clamp as per the SSM, Ford states you can un-crimp the factory clamp and crimp on this new clamp to fix the problem. Since it was taking ages to actually ship out, I started thinking if I could fix what is already on my car. Turns out, yes. This is the least labor intensive route to go, which is always my favorite.

The nut/stud assembly that actually forces the terminal clamp closed is the same on the positive and negative side clamps. So I ended up taking apart my negative terminal clamp, and swapping the stud and hardware to the positive side.

Success! The positive side was back in place and clamped down. I then went down to my local dealer and ordered a new negative side (FU5Z-14450-A) and swapped the whole new assembly to the negative cable (my original one was starting to corrode on the bottom)

I replaced the factory battery with an Odyssey AGM96R, I looked into the XSPower battery but didn't want to roll the dice if I was going to any weird fitment issues (some did, some didn't).

So keep an eye on those batteries, my car was driven a week before I noticed it was totally flat and the battery had 9.2v remaining. I also didn't expect to deal with this pile of battery acid and wasn't looking forward to prying the old clamp off or swapping the entire battery harness with its 90 plugs. My alternative idea was to cut the old clamp off, crimp an eyelet on the end and bolt a negative clamp to the positive side. Thankfully I was able to salvage what I had left.



Side note: I keep this car on a deltran battery tender every winter. I had the tender hooked directly to the battery which during this debacle I've learned is incorrect. The correct way is to hook it to the leads going into the fuse box so the battery monitoring system can see the change in voltage that the tender is providing. Example here and here. I'll be making this change.

That was a nasty surprise, looks like there was a leak around the post, not sealed. Also have seen a loose terminal & post connection cause some of that. You're lucky not to have been stranded. Hot engine bay maybe, the battery case heat cycles, expanding, breaking the seal around the + post.

As to why the + terminal is first on and last removed, prevents voltage spikes, (sparks)

 

[Genxer]

Good reminder. Our battery is under a cover, so out of sight out of mind. In older cars it was right up front and in plain view when going under the hood and it got attended to when needed.

My OEM died after 5 years and the corrosion was shocking.

 

[thunderstrike]

Something to look forward to.... mine is just over 4 years old.

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