Phantom Battery Drain

[65mustang]

Went to unlock my Lariat, about 3,000 miles, nothing would unlock it and I had to use the mechanical key. Tested the battery it was under 1V. Anyways had it towed to the dealer. Took a long time but by boosting from the tow truck finally got enough voltage to get it out of park. I'll post when what the dealer says, so far they said they think they heard about a software update? Truck was built in Dearborn late April then sat waiting for chips. Glad it happened at home vs on a trip!

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[Ford Motor Company]

Went to unlock my Lariat, about 3,000 miles, nothing would unlock it and I had to use the mechanical key. Tested the battery it was under 1V. Anyways had it towed to the dealer. Took a long time but by boosting from the tow truck finally got enough voltage to get it out of park. I'll post when what the dealer says, so far they said they think they heard about a software update? Truck was built in Dearborn late April then sat waiting for chips. Glad it happened at home vs on a trip!

Good morning! I would like to look into this battery concern on my end. To get started, could you please send over a private message with your VIN and the name and location of your local Ford dealer?

 

[JEB]

Went to unlock my Lariat, about 3,000 miles, nothing would unlock it and I had to use the mechanical key. Tested the battery it was under 1V. Anyways had it towed to the dealer. Took a long time but by boosting from the tow truck finally got enough voltage to get it out of park. I'll post when what the dealer says, so far they said they think they heard about a software update? Truck was built in Dearborn late April then sat waiting for chips. Glad it happened at home vs on a trip!

I have been battling a voltage issue as well, although not nearly as severe as yours. My Lariat, built about a month before yours, keeps going into deep sleep within an hour or two of parking it. After my dealer made several calls to Ford engineering, the current theory is a faulty battery management sensor and if not that a bad body control module. My dealer has a new sensor on order.

The software your dealer is probably thinking of was for an earlier phantom drain that doesn’t apply to your truck. It was an update to the gateway control module for units built prior to 3/16/21. That module has since been updated a second time recently with Power Up 2.1.0. Regardless, at 1V, your battery is toast regardless of how it got that way and should be replaced.

 

[65mustang]

VIN is 1FTEX1EP1MFB858797 and it's at the dealer now, Cotrac in Dutton ON. (up until a few hours ago the Fordpass map would not update from our house location, few hours ago it did update to show the truck at Cotrac, so I assume they must have some life back in it now)? I could have put a charger on it at home, but left it "as is" so hopefully the dealer can find a fault so it won't happen again .... LOL

 

[Ford Motor Company]

VIN is 1FTEX1EP1MFB858797 and it's at the dealer now, Cotrac in Dutton ON. (up until a few hours ago the Fordpass map would not update from our house location, few hours ago it did update to show the truck at Cotrac, so I assume they must have some life back in it now)? I could have put a charger on it at home, but left it "as is" so hopefully the dealer can find a fault so it won't happen again .... LOL

Hey, thanks for getting back with us! Could you please send over this info as a private message? Once you send that over I will be happy to continue looking into this for you!

 

[65mustang]

Dealer returned my truck, the only fault registered was "Left Rear Door Open", so drained battery might have been my fault, self inflicted. Dealer did adjust the rear door latches (Super Cab) I was very impressed with Ford and the Dealer's, Cotrac, customer service Five Star all around.

 

[parkerdog]

Dealer returned my truck, the only fault registered was "Left Rear Door Open", so drained battery might have been my fault, self inflicted. Dealer did adjust the rear door latches (Super Cab) I was very impressed with Ford and the Dealer's, Cotrac, customer service Five Star all around.

I thought they had some kind of shut off built in to keep things like that from happening?

 

[65mustang]

I thought they had some kind of shut off built in to keep things like that from happening?

Agreed, the literature would lead you to believe accessories like an interior light, courtesy lights, would be shutdown after a time period if left on by mistake. When we get some half way decent weather here I'm going to try things like leaving a door ajar or the glovebox open and see if in fact the courtesy lights shutoff after a while..... aka does the refrigerator light go out!

 

[65mustang]

Agreed, the literature would lead you to believe accessories like an interior light, courtesy lights, would be shutdown after a time period if left on by mistake. When we get some half way decent weather here I'm going to try things like leaving a door ajar or the glovebox open and see if in fact the courtesy lights shutoff after a while..... aka does the refrigerator light go out!

Got my truck back Tues, as of Fri. all good?? I tried both leaving a rear door "ajar" and then next leaving the drivers door wide open In both cases the interior lights, and everything from I could see, shut down after about 10 minutes, as expected. So what caused the battery to drain completely sitting in my laneway is a mystery, and hopefully never happens again!
Bob
(p.s. I did invest in a set of good booster cables).

 

[parkerdog]

Agreed, the literature would lead you to believe accessories like an interior light, courtesy lights, would be shutdown after a time period if left on by mistake. When we get some half way decent weather here I'm going to try things like leaving a door ajar or the glovebox open and see if in fact the courtesy lights shutoff after a while..... aka does the refrigerator light go out!

It's after August is there such a thing as half way decent weather up there until June?

 

[65mustang]

Did it again, flat bed picked up my truck just now. Battery was dead at 3 Volts, tried jumping and boosting but that would only wake up all the relays etc, would not turn over.

 

[Graygoose2021]

still stock battery?

 

[65mustang]

Dealer just called .... they replaced the original battery but claim, which I question?, that the Garmin dashcam was draining the battery? it shuts down when the truck is off. (I had tried boosting it and left it on a charger for about a hour before the flatbed showed up, would not even try to turn over). Dealer claims after they left it on their booster on it for a while it started. I believe a bad battery? who knows, just hope I don't get stranded somewhere. Truck has about 15,000 kms on it now. We'll see what happens with a new battery. I told them to leave the dashcam disconnected. It started and ran fine 3 days ago. Dashcam has been there over a year without problems and started right up after sitting a lot longer then 3 days. Gonna call BS on this one!!

 

[Snakebitten]

My quest to discover a potential random parasitic drain led me to install an inexpensive Bluetooth battery voltage monitor so that I could at least log the battery SOC 24/7/365.

And you don't have to "wake" the truck up by unlocking or opening a door, which immediately puts a dropped voltage value before you get a chance to view the SOC.

Ironically, I haven't had any discernable/obvious parasitic draw since I installed it. Go figure.

I HAVE had a surprising drop in the HV (Hybrid) battery SOC overnight, a couple of times. That one is beyond my comprehension of how the truck works fundamentally. Especially when off.

 

[HammaMan]

My quest to discover a potential random parasitic drain led me to install an inexpensive Bluetooth battery voltage monitor so that I could at least log the battery SOC 24/7/365.

And you don't have to "wake" the truck up by unlocking or opening a door, which immediately puts a dropped voltage value before you get a chance to view the SOC.

Ironically, I haven't had any discernable/obvious parasitic draw since I installed it. Go figure.

I HAVE had a surprising drop in the HV (Hybrid) battery SOC overnight, a couple of times. That one is beyond my comprehension of how the truck works fundamentally. Especially when off.

check your battery monitor closely -- see if the system has some of the EV logic in it. The upper trim MME has our same DC/DC and turns on every 48hrs to add 380wh of energy to its tiny 12v battery. Dumb thing still goes into low-power mode though. LFP on the horizon for it

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