FYI Battery replacement

[GTP]

... I'm OK with the full replacement warranty period, but I consider the prorated warranty period to be a marketing scam. It is well known that batteries have to be replaced eventually so they dangle a little "in store credit" if you bring back your battery within the prorated period. This effectively captures you to keep coming back to them for your next battery and it also requires to you run the battery until or very near failure (i.e. stranded somewhere). I choose not to participate, others can decide for themselves.
...

You are spot on about the prorated warranties. I believe that batteries are designed to fail just before the warranty period expires. It gets you to be a return customer to save a few bucks. That is OK if you like the battery you have.

This is why I like the Bosch battery. It is a decent battery, and they will replace it within the 3 year period, no pro-rating. I see Pep Boys has the 96R at only $119 now.

Sponsored

 

[Dave5.0]

If you look at the lip that runs along the top of the cover, that seals to the under side of the hood.
No cover equals no seal and lots of water.in the engine compartment when it rains.

Thanks for pointing that out; I had never noticed it before. I just looked and that sure looks like it should mate with the hood. What about all that "screen wire" on the cover and on the driver's side? It seems the screen would still pass lots of water in a downpour, or when you're washing the car?

 

[Chef jpd]

The screens drain to an undercowl channel that empties elsewhere, not under the hood.

 

[sam97mt]

My wife's battery crapped out. Luckily in a Walmart parking lot so replacement batteries were at hand and we weren't stuck. Unlucky in that Walmart batteries suck. That replacement battery has started showing signs (or completely crapped out - haven't tried very hard to recharge it yet, but overnight on the charger and it didn't take any charge so far) and it has only been in service about 2.5 years. Needless to say that battery is out of service now and won't go back in my wife's car.

Just some food for thought. There are two major battery manufacturers in the US, Johnson Controls and Exide. JC makes batteries for Motorcraft, Autozones Duralast and even Optima. Exide makes Champion for Pep Boys, Interstate, used to make Kirkland for Costco, Everstart for Walmart and now even Bosch.

Basically, get the one thats cheapest with the best warranty cause these buckets of lead are all the same shit at the end of the day.

 

[Grimmer]

And it isn't possible for the same factory to make different designs with different specifications, tolerances, or raw materials?

Being made under the same roof does not necessarily mean they are equivalent...

 

[sam97mt]

And it isn't possible for the same factory to make different designs with different specifications, tolerances, or raw materials?

Being made under the same roof does not necessarily mean they are equivalent...

It is absolutely possible and if you asked me 5 years ago I'd even say it was happening. But today, it's just not economical. Its cheaper to put higher spec (or lower spec) components into each and every battery with just a different label than to manufacture identical batteries with different components.

 

[GTP]

This is part of the new business model. Brand name now means name recognition, and not quality. So companies hire the same single giant factory to make their "brand" of product.

Apparently, there is a single Chinese factory that makes almost every brand of tennis racquet. Yonex from Japan is the only exception I know of.

 

[sam97mt]

Anyone know how to search for batteries by group on pepboys.com versus having to select a car?

 

[MCF84]

I bought my 2016 GT brand new in Sept of 2015. Here we are Sept 2019 and I am on my second motorcraft battery. The first one was replaced when it was under factory warranty. The battery I have now has a sticker that says “09/17” on it which is the manufacturing date. A few months ago I started getting the power save message a lot. It isn’t a daily driver, it’s a 2016 with 18,xxx miles on it so it does sit a lot but gets driven or at least started every 2 weeks on average. Since this is my second battery I have always had it on a battery tender thinking that would help it last since it doesn’t get driven every day. Well the battery still died while ON the tender and I got a bad battery message. I couldn’t jump start the battery or bring it back to life with the tender so I took the battery to AutoZone thinking I’d buy a new one. They were able to charge the Motorcraft one for me free of charge, saying it was still good and I just took it back and re-installed it. Well, here we are about 2 months later and the battery died again after I had driven it around with no issues about 6 days prior. Again a bad battery symbol and can’t jump it. Even though the battery is 2 years old I doubt Ford will replace it under warranty since it was originally replaced under warranty. Does this sound like a bad OEM battery problem that everyone seems to be having or should I worry about a starter or alternator. Should I just replace it with a more reliable brand? Not sure why the battery tested good then just dies. Also, is there any type of re-programming or re-learning the vehicle needs after re-installing a new battery?

 

[Grimmer]

How much do you trust your battery tender?

Not sure if this is happening to you, but my brother had one of those battery tenders that wasn't as smart as they claimed, or was outright defective... Anyway, it pretty much continuously over charged the battery and boiled out the water which killed it.

Also, the on board smart battery management system gets confused if you charge the battery directly at the posts (which bypasses its sensor). There is a positive lug under the black plastic shell (under hood fuse block) that appears to be down stream from the sensor. This is the one that I attached my tender's pigtail to.

Ford tested my battery and called it good too... Right in the middle of it giving me that conserve battery business. When I replaced the battery all that stopped. I'm pretty sure that if Ford tests your battery and it reads above a certain "percent capacity" they won't want to replace it.

Im not sure if you are OK with the slight mismatch of putting in the slightly taller Group 47 (sometimes called H6) battery, but an AGM battery is better suited to life in a car that sits like yours and mine do. Which reminds me... It has been a couple of weeks without my car running long enough to recharge. I should probably hook up the maintenance charger today.

 

[Grimmer]

As far as worrying about the charging system in your car... You can see the charging voltage in the cluster. It will vary based on what the battery management system wants to do, but if it is mostly above 13 volts with the engine running, then chances are it is fine. Edit: A little more detail... When the battery management system wants to bulk charge or needs more power for the car (e.g. run the cooling fans, etc.) the voltage will be up around 14.5 volts, when it wants less charge it settles down closer to 13V. If you are consistently seeing voltages in that range you are fine.

I suspect that your car is fine with regard to both the charging and starting systems. Sitting around is very hard on flooded lead acid start batteries. You are using a tender which should help, assuming the tender is a quality one and doing what is should. For that I prefer the microprocessor controlled ones from a reputable company.

 

[Nagare]

Even though the battery is 2 years old I doubt Ford will replace it under warranty since it was originally replaced under warranty. Does this sound like a bad OEM battery problem that everyone seems to be having or should I worry about a starter or alternator. Should I just replace it with a more reliable brand?

Battery has a separate warranty from the rest of your car and that warranty should be honored regardless.

As far as replacing with a more reliable brand, if you don't need anything more from the battery than what it currently provides, I would stick with what you have OR go with an AutoZone/Walmart battery because it should be easier to take advantage of their warranty instead.

 

[GTP]

What @MCF84 and @Grimmer say, word for word, is my experience. Who would have thought the battery system was such a complicated situation?

Everyone has their different "startup routine" - drive modes, pre-flight checks, etc. Mine is mainly about the dashcam. I want to be sure it is recording before I drive off, be in parking mode in lots, and then not in parking mode when at home. I was concerned that parking mode at home was using the battery too much. Brand new car and Ford already replaced my battery, even though everything tested good. So who knows?

I moved the Power Magic Pro unit into my glovebox so that I can reach it to switch modes. Even so, this brand new battery will drop below 12v sometimes, even if the car sits just overnight.

Very strange behavior.

 

[sam97mt]

Toss the battery. If it dies on you once without leaving something like the lights on, it will never hold a charge. To cheap of a fix to risk getting stuck.

I'm a firm believer that motorcraft batteries are shit, despite being made in the same place as many others.

I had two motorcraft batteries fail the same exact way. A 5 year old battery in my fusion and a 3 year old battery in my flex. Both cracked at the negative post and corroded the terminal.

I will be changing the battery in my mustang before it even has a chance.

 

[TexasRebel]

Toss the battery. If it dies on you once without leaving something like the lights on, it will never hold a charge. To cheap of a fix to risk getting stuck.

I'm a firm believer that motorcraft batteries are shit, despite being made in the same place as many others.

I had two motorcraft batteries fail the same exact way. A 5 year old battery in my fusion and a 3 year old battery in my flex. Both cracked at the negative post and corroded the terminal.

I will be changing the battery in my mustang before it even has a chance.

In my experience, 3 years is about the limit of any replacement rechargeable battery. This Mustang battery is the first OE battery I've ever had last less than 5 years.

Sponsored