Trusty (til now) 2021 OB died in traffic today

[Mark S.]

I've loved my Outer Banks (<24,000 miles) and it's performed near flawlessly for me the last 2 years. I was at a stoplight today and out of nowhere it completely died; doors would not unlock, flashers did not work, nothing, nada. Fortunately some people stopped behind me and put their flashers on. Also, I always carry a portable battery and that did start the car enough to get it home safely into my garage.

Modern engines use electronic ignition and fuel injection, which means they require an electrical power source to operate. Your situation is a bit strange. If the alternator is functioning you have an electrical power source any time the engine is running. If the alternator fails your engine will run until the battery is depleted. The fact your engine quit suggests an alternator issue: the engine was running on battery power until the battery was fully depleted. Question: Did you leave the portable battery connected to the car when you drove it home? If not, it would seem the alternator must be functioning or else the engine would not have continued running after you disconnected the portable battery.

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[Broncoette]

Modern engines use electronic ignition and fuel injection, which means they require an electrical power source to operate. Your situation is a bit strange. If the alternator is functioning you have an electrical power source any time the engine is running. If the alternator fails your engine will run until the battery is depleted. The fact your engine quit suggests an alternator issue: the engine was running on battery power until the battery was fully depleted. Question: Did you leave the portable battery connected to the car when you drove it home? If not, it would seem the alternator must be functioning or else the engine would not have continued running after you disconnected the portable battery.

I did not leave the battery connected. The car started, drove it approximately 10 minutes to get home, parked in the garage and turned it off. I did try starting it again to see what it would do and it will not start. It did make a bunch of noises and the lights flashed for a bit. I haven't tried jumping again with portable battery as I figured I would let the dealer take over from here.

 

[Mark S.]

Interesting. There simply isn't any way the car will run if the battery is depleted and the alternator isn't...uh...alternating. That is, producing power. My guess is your battery is gone, but the alternator is fine. I can't explain why it shut down while you were driving. Perhaps the idle became low enough the alternator couldn't produce enough juice to power all the systems, or maybe the auto start/stop system got confused and shut the engine down. For whatever reason, once the engine was off you had no juice, which is why none of your electrical components worked.

Please let us know what your dealership finds out.

 

[Broncoette]

Interesting. There simply isn't any way the car will run if the battery is depleted and the alternator isn't...uh...alternating. That is, producing power. My guess is your battery is gone, but the alternator is fine. I can't explain why it shut down while you were driving. Perhaps the idle became low enough the alternator couldn't produce enough juice to power all the systems, or maybe the auto start/stop system got confused and shut the engine down. For whatever reason, once the engine was off you had no juice, which is why none of your electrical components worked.

Please let us know what your dealership finds out.

Thank you for that information. I'm almost certain the car was in "auto stop" while I was at a red light. From there it completely shut down.

I'm on my way out of town so it won't get to the dealer until Thursday. I will definitely keep you posted to what I find out.

 

[Jmuns]

I'm almost certain the car was in "auto stop" while I was at a red light.

Bingo. It's the battery which is why it was throwing the errors upon start-up and won't start again now that it's home. You could bypass the hassle of towing it to the dealership by just jumping it again and turning off the auto start/stop and drive it there yourself. My fleet rental that just had a battery die at 16,000 miles was the same way. I drove it with a bad battery for a day and just jumped it at each stop lol.

 

[Broncoette]

Bingo. It's the battery which is why it was throwing the errors upon start-up and won't start again now that it's home. You could bypass the hassle of towing it to the dealership by just jumping it again and turning off the auto start/stop and drive it there yourself. My fleet rental that just had a battery die at 16,000 miles was the same way. I drove it with a bad battery for a day and just jumped it at each stop lol.

Haha, I thought about that. I may give that a whirl. The dealer is about 10 miles from me.

 

[rocks]

Another reason I never use start/stop besides hating it.

 

[RSH]

Another reason I never use start/stop besides hating it.

Auto start stop has nothing to do with the OP's situation, it's a byproduct.
When working properly, auto start stop is basically transparent.

As noted in many posts, the leading cause of BS electrical issues are battery related.
Ford seems to have installed 3 different battery types likley dependent on availability during production.
1. Lead acid ( My Badlands had this battery from the factory) which for me caused the same issues as the OP
2. Enhanced Flooded Battery (Comparble to AGM)
3. AGM battery (Dealer replaced my Badlads lead acid battery with a Motorcraft AGM under warranty, all my electrcal issues were resolved)

 

[tRex]

Are rhe batteries lead acid? Was told if a vehicle has auto start stop, it should have an AGM battery or it will be nothing but problems.

AGM is a lead-acid battery of a newer, more efficient design. Generally speaking they are more robust in about every way, but a conventional battery should work fine for the 3-5 years to be expected of it. And they are cheaper.

 

[coopny]

AGM is a lead-acid battery of a newer, more efficient design. Generally speaking they are more robust in about every way, but a conventional battery should work fine for the 3-5 years to be expected of it. And they are cheaper.

Enhanced flooded batteries (more than standard lead acid batteries) and AGMs (more than EFBs) charge faster, can provide more power when discharged for engine starts, tolerate temperature extremes and discharges better, and have longer lifespans in terms of overall number of engine starts.

Auto manufacturers do not equip cars to have EFB/AGM out of the factory because they cost more - the automaker would rather pocket every penny they reasonably can. But the demands of modern electrical systems in cars combined with engine start/stop systems have caused more cars to need EFB or AGM.

I remember visiting a family member's house. I left something in the car, they offered to get it, and they unlocked the car, got it and locked. And they still heard noise and told me they thought there was something with my new car... thanks to the internet, I knew it was the fans for the headlights, which start as soon as they come on (e.g. unlocking the car) and run for some time after the lights are turned off.

When you combine this with safety sensors, wifi hotspots, the radio, the screen in the gauge cluster, active grill shutters, people charging their phones with DC chargers that can pull 45 watts+ for fast charging over USB-C now, that can be a lot of electrical demand while the car is stopped.

People are already having battery failures in cars that Ford equipped with standard flooded lead acid or EFB batteries within the 3 year bumper-to-bumper warranty and Ford is warranty replacing them with AGMs. It sounds like to me either Ford wanted an AGM all along but shipped lead acid/EFBs as substitutes to keep cars rolling off the lines during COVID part shortages, or they thought lead acid/EFBs would cut it for the electrical demands of the Bronco Sport, only to find out that it they were not lasting and AGM was needed.

For perspective - pretty much every battery checker I checked pricing out Bronco Sport batteries in this other thread only offered AGM batteries. This included parts.ford.com. The only one that offered EFB in addition to AGM was Autozone, and when EFB and AGM are the same price, there's no reason to go with EFB - AGM is a superior technology in vehicles designed for it (like the Bronco Sport).

 

[RDS40]

It's the battery. Easy fix.

Why would the battery totally disable the car..and that quickly? The alternator should sully enough juice to keep it going.

 

[Jmuns]

Why would the battery totally disable the car..and that quickly? The alternator should sully enough juice to keep it going.

If the battery can’t hold a charge and the start stop kicks on then car won’t start up again.

 

[Broncoette]

I'm hoping to limp my Bronco Sport to the dealer tomorrow for a fix to my issues (fingers crossed!) and I will keep you all posted. Meanwhile it occurred to me to check my Ford Pass app on my phone for the error messages I received after my car died. After jumping the battery with my portable charger the following were all the messages on the screen. I did make it home though without any issues.

Stay tuned! I appreciate everyone's help so far.

 

[Mark S.]

I'm hoping to limp my Bronco Sport to the dealer tomorrow for a fix to my issues (fingers crossed!) and I will keep you all posted. Meanwhile it occurred to me to check my Ford Pass app on my phone for the error messages I received after my car died. After jumping the battery with my portable charger the following were all the messages on the screen. I did make it home though without any issues.

Stay tuned! I appreciate everyone's help so far.

That thing blew a gasket! Seriously, many have reported events involving a rash of unrelated error messages (screen lit up like a Christmas tree!). As far as I know, none of them were actually experiencing all the reported issues; all resolved their problem with a new battery.

 

[Bucko]

My wife reported to me yesterday that our BS gave her the warning that the battery was going to sleep mode (the best she could remember the text). I figured the BS sits in the garage more than its driven.

She started it and ran a few errands before returning home. I went out and hit the start button, and all was well. The short trips must have been enough for it to charge up.

I plan to install my trickle charger on it tonight.

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