2024 BS Badlands -- Delivered with enhanced flooded battery

[coopny]

The car had hesitation after some recent decent (15+ miles each way) driving, so I bought the battery tester to check things out. I did test it with three other batteries: two traditional SLA, and one proper AGM. All were rated to their expected voltage (12V) and expected CCA. The BS battery is the only one under a year old (by far...)

For all other cars, the results were as expected; the car barely driven with some start hesitation had a "battery good, please charge", and the other batteries were "battery good".

Hesitation on a 8 month old battery makes me suspect the battery. I have a DC power splitter in my car with a voltmeter, as does my radar detector, and I regularly see 14.2V on both while engine/alternator are running. Auto start/stop makes this way more wild (12.6 down to 12 before engine starts and up to 14.8), but I have auto start/stop turned off.

I'm inclined to suspect the battery itself unless there's a larger parasitic draw in the BS, of which no source is obvious.

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[coopny]

Something is off here. This car was driven 70+ miles on Saturday, 50+ miles Sunday, twelve miles yesterday, two miles today... and the idle engine off battery voltage is 12 volts just 6 hours after driving. I don't think it's the alternator because I can see that get to 14.2-14.8V for a while and then ramp down on a longer drive, and if I give that an hour for surface charge to dissipate I do see higher voltages I don't see an obvious parasitic draw cause, in terms of in vehicle accessories (radar detector dashcam cell phone booster etc.), the powerports time out within 10 seconds of opening the door after engine off.

So parasitic draw or bad EFB, I don't know. I suspect the battery. It's not bad enough to test as "replace battery" yet, but I think I will be one of the "lucky" people who has their battery die between years 1 and 2...

 

[RDS40]

My 22 Explorer sits for extended periods during the summer months. Never had a battery issue and it has as much, or more constant power drain. Something's not right that a battery tyender has to be plugged in.

 

[sajohnson]

Something is off here. This car was driven 70+ miles on Saturday, 50+ miles Sunday, twelve miles yesterday, two miles today... and the idle engine off battery voltage is 12 volts just 6 hours after driving. I don't think it's the alternator because I can see that get to 14.2-14.8V for a while and then ramp down on a longer drive, and if I give that an hour for surface charge to dissipate I do see higher voltages I don't see an obvious parasitic draw cause, in terms of in vehicle accessories (radar detector dashcam cell phone booster etc.), the powerports time out within 10 seconds of opening the door after engine off.

So parasitic draw or bad EFB, I don't know. I suspect the battery. It's not bad enough to test as "replace battery" yet, but I think I will be one of the "lucky" people who has their battery die between years 1 and 2...

You might consider checking for a parasitic load by removing the neg(-) battery cable and placing an ammeter between the cable and the battery terminal.

Use the highest amp range first (typically 10A) to avoid a blown fuse in the meter.

 

[RSH]

Something is off here. This car was driven 70+ miles on Saturday, 50+ miles Sunday, twelve miles yesterday, two miles today... and the idle engine off battery voltage is 12 volts just 6 hours after driving. I don't think it's the alternator because I can see that get to 14.2-14.8V for a while and then ramp down on a longer drive, and if I give that an hour for surface charge to dissipate I do see higher voltages I don't see an obvious parasitic draw cause, in terms of in vehicle accessories (radar detector dashcam cell phone booster etc.), the powerports time out within 10 seconds of opening the door after engine off.

So parasitic draw or bad EFB, I don't know. I suspect the battery. It's not bad enough to test as "replace battery" yet, but I think I will be one of the "lucky" people who has their battery die between years 1 and 2...

If your battery voltage measures 12.03 volts its only at 45% of capacity for a flooded battery which is boarder line good.

Does your auto start stop function if you remove the eliminator?
If not, that is one of the functions that is "turned off" to save the battery.
Other fuction are also turned off if battery voltage is low.

My 21 Badlands was delivered with a FoMoCo standard lead acid battery.
I started having various electrical issues which I have posted about a number of times.
Finally got the dealer to replace the battery under warranty and the vehicle has been flawless since. The replacement battery was a Motorcraft AGM.

 

[coopny]

If your battery voltage measures 12.03 volts its only at 45% of capacity for a flooded battery which is boarder line good.

Does your auto start stop function if you remove the eliminator?
If not, that is one of the functions that is "turned off" to save the battery.
Other fuction are also turned off if battery voltage is low.

My 21 Badlands was delivered with a FoMoCo standard lead acid battery.
I started having various electrical issues which I have posted about a number of times.
Finally got the dealer to replace the battery under warranty and the vehicle has been flawless since. The replacement battery was a Motorcraft AGM.

I'd need to test that. The eliminator doesn't absolutely eliminate the possibility of using auto start/stop, what it essentially does is just have a "memory" for the switch position. If I press it to off and stop my car, the next time I start my car it remembers that it was off and virtually "presses the button" (auto start stop disabled by switch message in gauge cluster). In contrast if I press the button again so it is on, the next time I start my vehicle auto/start stop will be on. And I can dynamically use the button anytime I want.

It's going to be cold and I don't want the surprise of a dead battery so I'm topping it off with a Schumacher battery charger at the moment. From there next week maybe I will test for parasitic draw as sajohnson suggested.

I think the battery is bad, but not bad enough to fail a load test yet (which is the threshold Ford would use for warranty replacement).

I called my Ford dealer to set up my NYS inspection in March (always get caught with my pants down on appointment availability when I see the sticker expiring so figured I'd be better off doing it in advance) and I asked the dealer about it. There's no TSBs or recalls for the battery on a 23 BS BL, and since it's FordPass connected they have the telamatics. Zero wrong with the vehicle that registers from a diagnostic (remote through FordPass) end in terms of electrical.

 

[Dude]

…maybe I will test for parasitic draw as sajohnson suggested.

With the 120 minute Reserve Capacity of your battery it’s many many days for the nominal parasitic draw of a bronco sport to drain the fully charged battery therefore it’s far more likely the battery has a failure.

But if you do measure the nominal parasitic draw after all the timeouts settle out we would all like to know that number.

Stated on an earlier post: “to measure parasitic draw might have to do the hookup running wires out to allow hood to be closed (not sure) and then wait for all the timeouts”… need to research if hood on bronco sport needs to be closed or not but all doors should be closed for the nominal parasitic draw measurement which is performed after all of the Bronco sports timeouts (headlamp cooling fan:, etc) have timed out.

And if you have aftermarket devices plugged in unplug those .. you can measure their nominal draw as a separate measurement.

 

[wireman]

With the 120 minute Reserve Capacity of your battery it’s many many days for the nominal parasitic draw of a bronco sport to drain the fully charged battery therefore it’s far more likely the battery has a failure.

But if you do measure the nominal parasitic draw after all the timeouts settle out we would all like to know that number.

Stated on an earlier post: “to measure parasitic draw might have to do the hookup running wires out to allow hood to be closed (not sure) and then wait for all the timeouts”

I think normal parasitic draw is around 10-20 milliamps but may vary by vehicle.

 

[Dude]

I think normal parasitic draw is around 10-20 milliamps but may vary by vehicle.

Newer vehicles nominal parasitic draw is 50-65 milliamps

 

[vxarctic]

https://www.lensunsolar.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=84_89&product_id=471

Someone else posted this a year or so back after installing it on their BS and I always thought it was neat. A hood mounted solar kit to keep your battery charged/maintained.

 

[sajohnson]

Based on what I've measured, it's best to connect a Battery Tender (or similar) if the BS is going to be sitting more than a few days.

 

[AZ_85623]

I bought a cheap battery tester from Amazon. Here is my status after 5 weeks and 1200 miles on the Enhanced Flooded Battery.

 

[coopny]

Either something is severely wrong with the battery or there's a large parasitic draw. I haven't hardwired anything that isn't factory. The 12V "cigarette lighter" powerpoint below the radio turns off within 5-10 seconds of ignition off door open, but just to rule out a cause of any non-factory load, I've unplugged it. Putting the battery back on the charger.Called the dealership back and the first person who answered couldn't find any customers they've service for parasitic draw at their location. She told me she would circulate the issue with a more senior technician and have them give me a call back.

Bear in mind this test is this morning, 41 hours since charging it with a wall charger.

Car off, battery tester directly to the battery:

In car, accessory power on, engine off. It quickly declined from 11.6 to 11.3 volts. At 11.4 volts my radar detector spoke "low battery".

If the issue goes away with the accessory power unplugged, I at least have some control of it until I can work out when to get a fix (maybe a software update for whatever module controls the powerports). I am doubtful this is the case but it's the easiest thing to test, and if it is the case, my splitter has a physical on/off switch I can use when entering/exiting the vehicle.

If the issue does not go away... this is a bumper to bumper service issue.

Unless of course, the wonderful mice who kept nesting in my car have chewed on something to cause damage. I don't see any obvious nesting material, signs of mouse presence, or damage in the engine bay, but that does not mean that the mice could not have chewed on something that is in a difficult to see or impossible to see (without removing parts) area of the car...

My $18 aliexpress battery tester (convenient and pocketable) can test for voltage state of charge and a cranking test... but it does not do a load test. So off to Amazon I go to spend $21 on a different one (with a small LCD screen, no bluetooth) that will do an alternator test and an actual load test to see if it's the battery or not. I realize the dealer can run a load test, but for the price, convenient enough to just keep around home.

EDIT: Dealer tech tells me that 11.98V is basically 12V so that's "normal" which... contradicts every other resource I've ever seen. I'm probably just going to either battery load test it myself or go to an auto parts store to see if the load test fails.

 

[Dude]

Either something is severely wrong with the battery or there's a large parasitic draw. I haven't hardwired anything that isn't factory. The 12V "cigarette lighter" powerpoint below the radio turns off within 5-10 seconds of ignition off door open, but just to rule out a cause of any non-factory load, I've unplugged it. Putting the battery back on the charger.Called the dealership back and the first person who answered couldn't find any customers they've service for parasitic draw at their location. She told me she would circulate the issue with a more senior technician and have them give me a call back.

Bear in mind this test is this morning, 41 hours since charging it with a wall charger.

Car off, battery tester directly to the battery:

In car, accessory power on, engine off. It quickly declined from 11.6 to 11.3 volts. At 11.4 volts my radar detector spoke "low battery".

If the issue goes away with the accessory power unplugged, I at least have some control of it until I can work out when to get a fix (maybe a software update for whatever module controls the powerports). I am doubtful this is the case but it's the easiest thing to test, and if it is the case, my splitter has a physical on/off switch I can use when entering/exiting the vehicle.

If the issue does not go away... this is a bumper to bumper service issue.

Unless of course, the wonderful mice who kept nesting in my car have chewed on something to cause damage. I don't see any obvious nesting material, signs of mouse presence, or damage in the engine bay, but that does not mean that the mice could not have chewed on something that is in a difficult to see or impossible to see (without removing parts) area of the car...

My $18 aliexpress battery tester (convenient and pocketable) can test for voltage state of charge and a cranking test... but it does not do a load test. So off to Amazon I go to spend $21 on a different one (with a small LCD screen, no bluetooth) that will do an alternator test and an actual load test to see if it's the battery or not. I realize the dealer can run a load test, but for the price, convenient enough to just keep around home.

EDIT: Dealer tech tells me that 11.98V is basically 12V so that's "normal" which... contradicts every other resource I've ever seen. I'm probably just going to either battery load test it myself or go to an auto parts store to see if the load test fails.

Check the specs on both battery test devices (the one you have and the one you plan to order). If they spec readings at +/- 0.1V a reading of 11.95 could be 11.85 to 12.05 which is a range of ~34% to 50%.

 

[wireman]

I took delivery of my new vehicle yesterday (11/10) and was disappointed to see an old style flooded battery instead of an AGM.
I expect to replace it within two years or the first time it leaves me stranded.

My 2021 BL had the EFB battery replaced 2 months ago with a Motorcraft AGM under warranty.

I've charged the AGM battery to a 100% full charge. 3 days later it's down to 12.3 volts without driving.

For whatever reason this seems to be the norm on this vehicle while sitting.