OEM Batteries are junk

[angermgmt14]

Just curious...if you lock the car or not, does it make much of a difference on battery drain when sitting?? I pretty much always leave it unlocked because it's under a cover.

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[Strokerswild]

Batteries are a crapshoot.

The battery in my '15 is still the original. The car only gets driven on weekends if the weather is nice the six months out of the year that it doesn't suck here. During the other six months it gets a blast from the tender once a month until the green light comes on and then it sits until the next month. Six years and counting isn't bad.

I've had a Motorcraft last 20+ years in the past....

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

I just leave the tender plugged in all winter. that is what it was designed to do.

 

[Strokerswild]

I just leave the tender plugged in all winter. that is what it was designed to do.

I would too if I had one for each of the six inhabitants that hibernate in my shop during the winter.

 

[klink]

I went through 3 stock replacement battery’s before installing a red top. no more problems

Those Optima batteries ROCK. I had one in my F-150 for 12 years....including four years in Minot North Dakota!

 

[cmxPPL219]

Just curious...if you lock the car or not, does it make much of a difference on battery drain when sitting?? I pretty much always leave it unlocked because it's under a cover.

It makes a difference in the short term.

If the car is parked for "a few days up to couple weeks-ish,' it helps to lock the doors with your remote until you hear the horn honk. What this does on some newer cars (especially Fords since the mid-late 2000s) is that it puts the car in a timeout mode and then triggers the vehicle modules (most of them, not all complete) to go in a deeper sleep, thus consuming less power - so long as no key is pressed on the remote. It is the numerous modules on modern cars that really suck up a lot of power, even just sitting.

When the car is left unlocked, the modules are still 'awake' and there is constant communication attempted with the key/remote, which also helps drain the battery more.

Of course, if storing for the winter/long term, doing the above is useless unless coupled with a tender.

When using a tender, the neg terminal should be hooked up to the ground wire on these cars, which is just before the BMS unit, so that a continues trickle charge doesn't interfere with it, and monitoring the battery health.

As many have correctly stated though, the batteries these cars come with are adequate at best, and after sitting idle for even up to 2 weeks, many of these cars fail to start (due to drainage) when cars of yore could sit weeks on end, and fire right up.

ETA: For those wondering, this is how to hook up the negative terminal from a tender, to these cars (Yellow), which is before BMS Sensor (Green), with respect to direction of travel to the battery itself. Note: original pic from the GT500 forums which I edited for the post

 

[Schwerin]

My 2003 Mach1 battery lasted 7yrs and I only replaced it because after 7yrs I started to worry about it. I had a 2000 Escort for about 8yrs I only replaced it once.

I expect this one to last at least 3-5yrs.

 

[Rick#7]

IMO it's more than just chance, Motorcraft batteries suck compared to other brands, you're more likely to get a short lived Motorcraft than a good one. Back in the 70's-80's they were decent batteries but not today.

The battery in my 2011 bit the dust in 2013 and boil over acid took out the ground cable in the process before the battery itself stopped starting the car. When I bought my '15 V6 new, I got about 2.5 years out of the original battery when I noticed the starter was turning slower and a voltage check confirmed it wasn't taking a full charge so I replaced it with a Duracell AGM before it had a chance to eat up the ground cable. I almost asked the dealer to swap the batteries for me when I traded that car 6 months later for my '15 GT, but I got such a good deal on a 7K mile premium model I felt like I needed to run like I stole it LOL

It wasn't long 'til I regretted that choice because the original battery in my GT died at 4 years of age but less than 20k miles. I replaced that with another Duracell AGM and never had any charging issues with it.

 

[angermgmt14]

It makes a difference in the short term.

If the car is parked for "a few days up to couple weeks-ish,' it helps to lock the doors with your remote until you hear the horn honk. What this does on some newer cars (especially Fords since the mid-late 2000s) is that it puts the car in a timeout mode and then triggers the vehicle modules (most of them, not all complete) to go in a deeper sleep, thus consuming less power - so long as no key is pressed on the remote. It is the numerous modules on modern cars that really suck up a lot of power, even just sitting.

When the car is left unlocked, the modules are still 'awake' and there is constant communication attempted with the key/remote, which also helps drain the battery more.

Of course, if storing for the winter/long term, doing the above is useless unless coupled with a tender.

When using a tender, the neg terminal should be hooked up to the ground wire on these cars, which is just before the BMS unit, so that a continues trickle charge doesn't interfere with it, and monitoring the battery health.

As many have correctly stated though, the batteries these cars come with are adequate at best, and after sitting idle for even up to 2 weeks, many of these cars fail to start (due to drainage) when cars of yore could sit weeks on end, and fire right up.

ETA: For those wondering, this is how to hook up the negative terminal from a tender, to these cars (Yellow), which is before BMS Sensor (Green), with respect to direction of travel to the battery itself. Note: original pic from the GT500 forums which I edited for the post

When I press the lock button on the remote I don't get the horn honk. Do you have to hold the lock button on the remote to get said
horn honk?

 

[GJarrett]

When I press the lock button on the remote I don't get the horn honk. Do you have to hold the lock button on the remote to get said
horn honk?

Press twice.

 

[angermgmt14]

Press twice.

Wow, I feel dumb. Thanks.

 

[pghgeorge]

cmxPPL219

Could you provide some more info on the why ?

" When using a tender, the neg terminal should be hooked up to the ground wire on these cars, which is just before the BMS unit, so that a continues trickle charge doesn't interfere with it, and monitoring the battery health. "

I am curious as to why bypassing the BMS is an issue.

I appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

 

[cmxPPL219]

cmxPPL219

Could you provide some more info on the why ?

" When using a tender, the neg terminal should be hooked up to the ground wire on these cars, which is just before the BMS unit, so that a continues trickle charge doesn't interfere with it, and monitoring the battery health. "

I am curious as to why bypassing the BMS is an issue.

I appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

Yeah for sure - below is a bit of en explanation:

Ford Battery Management System (BMS) connects to the negative terminal of the battery and monitors current, voltage, and temperature. The purpose is that if excessive battery drain is detected, the system temporarily disables some electrical systems to protect the battery and provide data to other systems which manage the charging rate and load-shedding (battery saver) features.
This can be witnessed when your battery's life is on it's last legs, and certain things like heated seats, and various other accessories don't work randomly.

Battery Replacement - If the vehicle battery is replaced, it is very important to perform the battery monitoring system reset using the scan tool. If the battery monitoring system reset is not carried out, it holds the old battery parameters and time in service counter in memory. Additionally, it tells the system the battery is in an aged state and may limit the Electrical Energy Management system functions.

The BMS data is held in non-volatile memory (it is retained even when the battery is disconnected) and cannot be reset by any means other than use of an appropriate tool plugged into the diagnostics port on the car to send the correct 'BMS reset' command-code to the Body Control Module (BCM). (note - there is another way to reset, and one of them is not touching the vehicle for 8 hours, like explained further below)

Therefore, when you connect the negative lead to the negative terminal, bypassing the BMS sensor, the system has no way of accounting for the constant trickle charge, and the system will continue to charge the battery at a rate that reflects time in service and the other parameters, which, down the road, may lead to those ancillary accessories being disabled prematurely, when in fact, the battery is still very healthy, due to the constant trickle charge it was given.

Below, the first paragraph, for more "why:"

 

[pghgeorge]

Yeah for sure - below is a bit of en explanation:

Ford Battery Management System (BMS) connects to the negative terminal of the battery and monitors current, voltage, and temperature. The purpose is that if excessive battery drain is detected, the system temporarily disables some electrical systems to protect the battery and provide data to other systems which manage the charging rate and load-shedding (battery saver) features.
This can be witnessed when your battery's life is on it's last legs, and certain things like heated seats, and various other accessories don't work randomly.

Battery Replacement - If the vehicle battery is replaced, it is very important to perform the battery monitoring system reset using the scan tool. If the battery monitoring system reset is not carried out, it holds the old battery parameters and time in service counter in memory. Additionally, it tells the system the battery is in an aged state and may limit the Electrical Energy Management system functions.

The BMS data is held in non-volatile memory (it is retained even when the battery is disconnected) and cannot be reset by any means other than use of an appropriate tool plugged into the diagnostics port on the car to send the correct 'BMS reset' command-code to the Body Control Module (BCM). (note - there is another way to reset, and one of them is not touching the vehicle for 8 hours, like explained further below)

Therefore, when you connect the negative lead to the negative terminal, bypassing the BMS sensor, the system has no way of accounting for the constant trickle charge, and the system will continue to charge the battery at a rate that reflects time in service and the other parameters, which, down the road, may lead to those ancillary accessories being disabled prematurely, when in fact, the battery is still very healthy, due to the constant trickle charge it was given.

Below, the first paragraph, for more "why:"

Thanks for the details of the "WHY"

 

[cactus_kid]

My 2019 Bullitt, used it 6 days ago went to start it today and screen showed power asleep to save power, battery completely dead, called Ford road service boosted it and ran it 40 minutes (shut the engine off spot) in settings. But 6 days to go dead, have car 1 3/4 years , manufactured August 2019. Wonder if something drained it or battery just junk.

Lock the car !

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