Dead battery 11 days after BCM recall was completed. Found a leak when changing the battery.

[MedTech]

I have a 2021 Big Bend Sport. My apologies in advanced if this gets long-winded.

First off, I have never had a battery only last three years; I automatically swap my batteries at five years but never had one die on me in three. A little background, the vehicle went to the dealer on Aug 12th for an oil change and multi-point inspection. While at the dealer they performed the BCM recall and the SYNC-3 update. On the multipoint inspection, the battery was marked at 100% state of health. Fast forward to yesterday, Aug 23rd, got in the vehicle to go to work in the morning and I got a message stating the vehicle was in battery saver mode, thought that was a bit strange as I didn't see that anything got accidentally left on all night. I attempted to start the car and it started without any hesitation, 100% normal. Then, eight hours later, after work, went to go home, no messages on the screen, however the car would not turn over....the battery measured just a touch over 10 volts using a voltmeter. Anyway, jumped it and drove home. When I got home, after an 18 mile drive, I put my battery tester on and it showed 22% state of health. I am trying to figure out how a battery goes from 100% to 22% in 11 days. Any changes to the BCM with the recall that would increase the drain on the battery? This vehicle is my daily driver, it does not sit for long periods of time without being driven.

I replaced the battery this morning. When purchasing the battery, I found this vehicle requires an AGM battery, which makes sense. However, nowhere on the OEM battery that I pulled out did it say that the OEM battery was an AGM; it was, however, marked "lead acid battery". Did this vehicle have the wrong damn battery in it from factory? I am thinking yes it did and that is why it only lasted three years. For those of you that have changed your battery, did you notice if your OEM battery was labeled as AGM?

When I pulled the air box out to remove the battery, I found a leak. At first I thought this might just be road grime but everything else around it is super clean. The unit right below the air box is labeled as being the all-wheel drive unit. There is a big area that is wet with oil or grease, this is fresh as it was wet and not dry. I also found some liquid in a couple of low spots, it was very thin, like water and had no smell....it may be water but don't know how water could have got up in there. There is a tube, with a cap, sticking up out of the drive unit which I believe is a breather....I am pretty sure the oil is coming out of it. For those members that have had to change their battery, have you seen this (please see attached pictures) under your air box? There should not be any oil coming out of that breather.

Again, sorry for being long winded, just wanted to provide as much information as possible in hopes to get some good feedback and be armed with information before calling the dealer on Monday. Any information would be very much appreciated.

 

[PonyDriver43]

I had the oil in the same spots you have circled in my brand new at the time Dec 21 built 2022 BS OBX. Turned out it was transmission fluid. Believe that item in your last photo is a transmission vent. Though is was concerning at the time, I cleaned out the oil (folded paper towel poked with a screw driver), hit the area with a squirt of brake cleaner & let it dry. It never came back in the 12 months/7K miles I put on my Bronco Sport.
I just figured transmission may have been a tad over filled.

Clean those two spots up, if it comes back then maybe take another look.

Good Luck

 

[RWT]

In today's modern vehicles, which are almost never completely switched off and have start/stop function, 3 years of life is about average for a flooded battery. My previous vehicle, which was purchased new, the battery died at 2 years and was replaced under warranty.

No, your vehicle was not delivered with the wrong battery. It was only recently that Ford recognized/admitted these vehicles should have an AGM battery. Even my 2023 BS/Badlands came with an Enhanced Flooded Battery, (EFB), not an AGM. It was built one year ago this month.

As mentioned above, the source of the oil is the transmission vent shown in your picture, (grimy rubber cap with the orange triangle on it). Seepage from it is normal and that amount is probably normal for the age of your vehicle.

JMHO
No expertise implied or expressed

 

[RSH]

My 2021 Badlands original battery was a FoMoCo standard lead acid. I had it replaced under warranty when it started having issues, the replacement was a Motorcraft AGM, have not had any problems with it.
I just had the recall completed along with having my 4WD module replaced, I hope the battery doesn't start have problems because of the update.
The oil residue in your photo looks like it's coming from the PTU vent.

 

[MedTech]

I don't believe it would ATF since it is not red, it also does not have that "sweet smell" that ATF has. In those two little pockets, I believe it is water, maybe condensation spitting out the vent. Maybe they are using some new ATF that is black and doesn't have that normal sweet smell.....doubtful. I don't feel those vents should spit out any oil, they are there to allow the unit to breathe and not pressurize. Could be that it was overfilled at the factory, that would be another testament to Ford's shitty quality control these days......Henry Ford is probably turning over in his grave. I am not going to clean this up quite yet until I send the pictures to the deal.

Regarding the battery, if Ford just "realized" these vehicles need an AGM battery then I don't know what kind of engineers they have over there, this should have been one of the easiest specifications to get correct. I think Ford was either trying to be cheap or they were having trouble getting AGM batteries during the pandemic and just put anything in so they could ship it.

Thanks everyone for their input, exactly what I was aiming for.

 

[sajohnson]

FWIW:

"Flooded Battery Lifespan. A standard, flooded lead-acid battery tends to have the shortest lifespan of the different battery types since it was designed to provide short bursts of energy to start a vehicle. A flooded battery lifespan is about three to five years, or long enough to start the engine around 30,000 times.":
https://www.continentalbattery.com/blog/how-long-do-car-batteries-last

(30,000 times is a lot longer than 3-5 years. An average might be (say) 3 or 4 starts per day [w/o auto stop/start]. That's 10,000 days / 27 years! Continental is a very respected battery mfr, so I'm clearly missing something).

Google AI:

"A standard, flooded lead-acid battery in a car typically lasts three to five years, or about 30,000 starts. However, some say that batteries can last as long as 10 years or more if they are fully charged and protected from temperature extremes. "

(There's that 30,000 starts figure again. Hmm...)

Temperature is important. Here in the woods in MD the temps are relatively moderate -- generally about 20F (winter low) to 85*F summer high. Even before using the Battery Tender (BT) maintainers, we'd get a good 5+ years out of FLA batteries. Since we began using the BT units, 7-8 is common.

Of course, back when we were commuting to work 5 days/week (plus weekend errands) there was no need for a BT. The resting voltage of the batteries was around 12.65 to 12.70 volts. The batteries that got a BT were in cars that were not driven very often. So it's not really a fair comparison -- in both cases the batteries are held at ~100% SOC, but the ones with a BT connected are used much less.

In contrast, people in very hot climates (desert Southwest) report only getting 2 years or less.

 

[MedTech]

FWIW:

"Flooded Battery Lifespan. A standard, flooded lead-acid battery tends to have the shortest lifespan of the different battery types since it was designed to provide short bursts of energy to start a vehicle. A flooded battery lifespan is about three to five years, or long enough to start the engine around 30,000 times.":
https://www.continentalbattery.com/blog/how-long-do-car-batteries-last

(30,000 times is a lot longer than 3-5 years. An average might be (say) 3 or 4 starts per day [w/o auto stop/start]. That's 10,000 days / 27 years! Continental is a very respected battery mfr, so I'm clearly missing something).

Google AI:

"A standard, flooded lead-acid battery in a car typically lasts three to five years, or about 30,000 starts. However, some say that batteries can last as long as 10 years or more if they are fully charged and protected from temperature extremes. "

(There's that 30,000 starts figure again. Hmm...)

Temperature is important. Here in the woods in MD the temps are relatively moderate -- generally about 20F (winter low) to 85*F summer high. Even before using the Battery Tender (BT) maintainers, we'd get a good 5+ years out of FLA batteries. Since we began using the BT units, 7-8 is common.

Of course, back when we were commuting to work 5 days/week (plus weekend errands) there was no need for a BT. The resting voltage of the batteries was around 12.65 to 12.70 volts. The batteries that got a BT were in cars that were not driven very often. So it's not really a fair comparison -- in both cases the batteries are held at ~100% SOC, but the ones with a BT connected are used much less.

In contrast, people in very hot climates (desert Southwest) report only getting 2 years or less.

One thing I guess I forgot to mention, I am not in a desert climate, I am in Orange County so the temperatures are fairly mild, for the most part, and I never use that stupid auto start/stop...never never, I hate it. My son is in Phoenix and he said is lucky to get three years out of a battery in that climate. I do have a tender for my C5 when it is not going to be driven for a while (but I rarely use it, only when I will be out of town for more than two weeks), but this Bronco is my daily commuter so it does not need a tender.....if a daily driver needed a tender, there would something very wrong. It just bugs the crap out of me that within 11 days it went from a 100% SOH to dead without a warning of slow starts or anything like that.

 

[Mark S.]

about three to five years, or long enough to start the engine around 30,000 times.

I think that statement is missing the caveat "whichever occurs first."

 

[Dude]

It just bugs the crap out of me that within 11 days it went from a 100% SOH to dead without a warning of slow starts or anything like that.

I’m in one of those hot climates and 2 year battery life is about right

The OE EFB lasted 2 yrs and 5 months, replaced under warranty with the motorcraft AGM Battery

100% SOH to dead without warning is not atypical for us. I knew my OE battery was on its last week or so of life by “real-time” monitoring of the battery voltage - even a relatively low accuracy +/- 0.2V device plugged into the 12V port is good enough. And it’s low-cost at $17.

See https://www.broncosportforum.com/forum/threads/recall-24s24-quarterly-report-loss-of-drive-power-from-undetected-low-battery.11890/post-199833

Also see this post and its linked Midtronics article on why batteries can show good voltage (~12.6V) when the engine is off yet drop in milliseconds to a voltage that won’t start the vehicle. Also discussed why getting no warning the battery has failed is not unusual.

https://www.broncosportforum.com/forum/threads/5-23-2024-recall-24s24-on-hold-as-of-5-24-2024-hold-is-lifted.11399/post-197071

 

[kshaw]

With battery management systems such as the Ford has, it is critical that you connect your negative clamp to the correct place on the car for both jump starts and charging else you risk getting bad readings on battery status and even destruction of parts of the battery management system. On the Ford, you have to connect the negative to a point before the battery management system and not the battery post. There is a YouTube video explaining all this. My Porsche has the same restrictions and there is particular bolt where you are supposed to connect the negative clamp.

 

[DWG]

Ford batteries only last about 3 years including AGM's. That is all they are warranted for and that is generally all they last. Since having a 95 Ford Windstar battery go just after the 3 year warranty expired I have always tried to replace the OEM batteries at 3 years. My 19 Edge battery was tested a couple of times close to the 3 year warranty expiring because I thought I was having some electrical gremlins. Just before the 3 year warranty was to expire it tested bad and was replaced.
When I purchased my 24 Badlands I quickly noticed that it came with the EFB battery instead of the AGM which is listed as the OEM battery on the Ford parts website. The dealer would not replace the battery since there was nothing wrong with it. The dealer did mention that there was a shortage of the AGM batteries. I do not know how far back the shortage might have gone but I would bet that there was a shortage and Ford decided to use the EFB's in the Bronco Sport's for some reason.

 

[MedTech]

With battery management systems such as the Ford has, it is critical that you connect your negative clamp to the correct place on the car for both jump starts and charging else you risk getting bad readings on battery status and even destruction of parts of the battery management system. On the Ford, you have to connect the negative to a point before the battery management system and not the battery post. There is a YouTube video explaining all this. My Porsche has the same restrictions and there is particular bolt where you are supposed to connect the negative clamp.

The is a good point, I learned about this years ago. All my years of working on cars, I never clamp directly to the negative terminal of the battery unless the battery is out of the car and charging on a bench.

 

[MedTech]

I had the oil in the same spots you have circled in my brand new at the time Dec 21 built 2022 BS OBX. Turned out it was transmission fluid. Believe that item in your last photo is a transmission vent. Though is was concerning at the time, I cleaned out the oil (folded paper towel poked with a screw driver), hit the area with a squirt of brake cleaner & let it dry. It never came back in the 12 months/7K miles I put on my Bronco Sport.
I just figured transmission may have been a tad over filled.

Clean those two spots up, if it comes back then maybe take another look.

Good Luck

Since I still have warranty on the vehicle, I reached out to the dealer and sent them the pictures about this fluid leak and the service technician said exactly what you stated "excessive transmission overflowing through filler tube". They cleaned it up and I am going to keep an eye on it. Mainly, I wanted to make sure this was in the vehicle's history in case something happened later down the line, Ford cannot tell me that I ignored it. In my opinion, having transmission fluid overflow from a fill port or vent tube should not happen on a new vehicle but I will monitor it and see if it continues to happen....hopefully this was a one and done and there is not another problem lurking that will pop up when the vehicle falls out of warranty.

Sponsored