Can my battery die? “Stop safely now”

[bwwF150]

Hi. I got the dreaded”stop safely now” last night when at the MX track. We were there for 6 hrs, in/out of truck and may have had lights on.

I was able to resolve by disconnecting battery for 10 min or so.

I assumed I can’t run my battery down due to PB battery. I’m questioning this now!

Am I able to run down the standard battery by leaving lights on, etc?

thanks!

Sponsored

 

[richardrocks]

I posted about this originally, as this happened with 200 miles on the ODO. Hasn’t happened since, but just yesterday, after a one hour drive, I noticed that the passenger side intelligent access wasn’t working. Googled it and heard it was likely a low battery state. Sure enough, I got this when I powered off. I turned the engine on and the ICE ran for 5 min without ever turning off. Makes me nervous to ever take this thing anywhere off pavement.

You will find some helpful information about battery preservation / monitoring on this forum but it’s still very unsettling. I’m trying to take things in stride and work through the issues constructively but I literally have a spreadsheet going of all the issues I’ve had first 2,000 miles. First, hopefully not last, Ford.

 

[bwwF150]

low battery state is for the standard 12V battery?

 

[RedStorm]

I posted about this originally, as this happened with 200 miles on the ODO. Hasn’t happened since, but just yesterday, after a one hour drive, I noticed that the passenger side intelligent access wasn’t working. Googled it and heard it was likely a low battery state. Sure enough, I got this when I powered off. I turned the engine on and the ICE ran for 5 min without ever turning off. Makes me nervous to ever take this thing anywhere off pavement.

You will find some helpful information about battery preservation / monitoring on this forum but it’s still very unsettling. I’m trying to take things in stride and work through the issues constructively but I literally have a spreadsheet going of all the issues I’ve had first 2,000 miles. First, hopefully not last, Ford.

I don't have a PB, but I was getting this same message for a while. From other threads it sounds like it's typically a bad battery, but for my MY ('21) Ford just used an undersized battery. I ended up upgrading the stock battery from a H6 (720 CCA) to a H7 (850 CCA). It's only been a month but no issues so far.

 

[richardrocks]

I don't have a PB, but I was getting this same message for a while. From other threads it sounds like it's typically a bad battery, but for my MY ('21) Ford just used an undersized battery. I ended up upgrading the stock battery from a H6 (720 CCA) to a H7 (850 CCA). It's only been a month but no issues so far.

Is Ford going to potentially have an issue with swapping out different sized batteries? Any possibly warranty issues?

I feel like the dealer should be readily replacing these when there are issues but I’d also consider spending a little bit of money to avoid the hassle. Any recommended brand?

 

[Snakebitten]

If it's not a Powerboost, your bat tray will hold an H8, according to some fellas that have upgraded.

The Powerboost has the battery isolator mounted to the battery tray on the firewall end of the tray. So H7 is the limit.

Of course the Powerboost has some advantages when it comes to a weak AGM under the hood since it can technically give itself a jump from the Hybrid battery. Within limits, of course.

 

[bwwF150]

If it's not a Powerboost, your bat tray will hold an H8, according to some fellas that have upgraded.

The Powerboost has the battery isolator mounted to the battery tray on the firewall end of the tray. So H7 is the limit.

Of course the Powerboost has some advantages when it comes to a weak AGM under the hood since it can technically give itself a jump from the Hybrid battery. Within limits, of course.

Thanks. I’m still learning nuances of PB ... my uneducated gut says batt voltage was down and tripped a sensor so I went into “stop safely now”. I’ll need to look to see if any codes still exist.

 

[richardrocks]

Thanks. I’m still learning nuances of PB ... my uneducated gut says batt voltage was down and tripped a sensor so I went into “stop safely now”. I’ll need to look to see if any codes still exist.

It’s uncomfortable when getting these messages after driving for an hour and the dealer says battery is fine. That’s why people are taking this into their own hands and monitoring SOC.

I think I’m ready to upgrade my battery as long as the dealer doesn’t blame potential future issues on that

 

[Snakebitten]

On the Powerboost it can be triggered by the SOC on the Hybrid battery dropping below some threshold that I believe is in the mid 30%

Normally the SOC doesn't drop below around 41% before the ICE running enables the traction motor to switch to generator mode and raise the SOC pretty quickly.

But there are circumstances in the first few minutes of a coldstart that can catch the Hybrid Battery at a disadvantage before it can get a good shot in the arm. (example: a weak 12V battery that needs charging immediately)

One thing you can do to really reduce the odds of having a low SOC is to put the truck in Park when you arrive home and then tap the accelerator before you shut down. The ICE will light and run for a few seconds to a minute and then shut off when the SOC is 63%.

This leaves you with a fat Hybrid Battery when you coldstart.

 

[Gros Ventre]

I don't have a PB, but I was getting this same message for a while. From other threads it sounds like it's typically a bad battery, but for my MY ('21) Ford just used an undersized battery. I ended up upgrading the stock battery from a H6 (720 CCA) to a H7 (850 CCA). It's only been a month but no issues so far.

The issue isn't whether your battery is 760 or 800. The symptom you're seeing is a bad battery whatever its rating. Unless you're talking February in Wyoming and -20ºF the 760 vs 800 will make little difference. Chances are that the new battery you put in was a different batch or manufacturer so isn't part of the defective batch. I had some of those symptoms over Thanksgiving Weekend travels a couple years ago. Stopped in at a NAPA place and bought a new replacement battery. Not a peep since.......

 

[Ranger621]

I wish people would quit using acronyms, what is an SOC???

 

[Viper]

State of charge

 

[richardrocks]

I think the moral of the story is, when in doubt, don’t battle your dealer, just go to NAPA and replace the battery with something other than OEM. I’m about to do that.

 

[richardrocks]

Update: truck is at dealer for a few things including this message that appears even after driving for an hour. Truck already left me stranded at 263 miles. They are going to replace battery because “it tested marginal enough”. My salesman offered to advocate for me if needed but service agreed enough is enough.

I’m not sure why there’s any hesitation at all to replace batteries given all that can go wrong. I’m glad that my dealer is fixing it right (the second time).

Sponsored