Battery just died - no warnings or any signs

Chiefthepup

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Oh wow... I had not seen this specific trickle charger... looks reasonable and pretty affordable compared to others I was looking at...

Thanks for the heads up!
Yeah! It’s only a 2a charger so it’s really more of a maintainer in my eyes (I know nothing about how any of it actually works) I bought it cause I had ran my battery down to where it was turning on battery saver mode and no stop start and it took it essentially 3 days to bring my battery back up to 100% haha. But ever since it’s been golden
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NewStockyBalboa

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There's an active recall out now to address this very issue. You can get it done in 30-45 minutes with the Ford mobile service. There's been some anecdotal reports that people still have issues after the upgrade, but I'm curious if you have had that performed yet?

Some background on why this is even an issue in the first place: While there are a ton of advantages in using the newer lithium-ion batteries that these vehicles have, one of the major drawbacks is the very steep discharge curve. Old lead-acid batteries have a flatter discharge curve, which means they give you plenty of warning when they are dying. Lithium-ion batteries just don't do this- they can be on very little charge and give you almost full voltage- making traditional voltage monitors pretty useless. Here's a graphical example of what I'm talking about:
Ford Bronco Sport Battery just died - no warnings or any signs 1722526624766-hk


I have a battery tender/monitor, and hooked it up to my Bronco when the recall first came out to see how my battery was doing. The tender read under 25% charge, but it still had full voltage. So buying simple volt monitor for these kinds of batteries is just a waste of money.

My personal solution to this is to have a battery jumpstarter on hand in the vehicle- I got it for a wilderness camping trip and it's been great for the last two years. I put it on the charger every 6 months, but I've never seen the battery on the unit be under 85%, even after use. The brand I have is Hulkman and while I haven't had to use it on my vehicle, it easily jumpstarted a buddy's CRV with a completely dead battery from a bad alternator. I'd recommend putting a sticky note on the unit though so you don't forget how to put it into 'force charge' mode when you have a severly drained battery.
I wanted to come back to this thread. Even though I replaced my battery. I did get the recall in the mail. Recall 24S24 / NHSTA Recall 24V267. I am getting it completed by end of this month. There is a battery icon on the dashboard. I am not sure why so many users are saying there is no warning. That is the warning. If that light comes on, then your battery needs to be checked.
 

Dude

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I wanted to come back to this thread. Even though I replaced my battery. I did get the recall in the mail. Recall 24S24 / NHSTA Recall 24V267. I am getting it completed by end of this month. There is a battery icon on the dashboard. I am not sure why so many users are saying there is no warning. That is the warning. If that light comes on, then your battery needs to be checked.
That light could mean other issues with the charging system not just the battery. Also, owners have reported actual messages both on the instrument cluster and in the FordPass App.

See this from the owners manual about the battery icon:

Ford Bronco Sport Battery just died - no warnings or any signs IMG_7818
 

Rawah652

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I wanted to come back to this thread. Even though I replaced my battery. I did get the recall in the mail. Recall 24S24 / NHSTA Recall 24V267. I am getting it completed by end of this month. There is a battery icon on the dashboard. I am not sure why so many users are saying there is no warning. That is the warning. If that light comes on, then your battery needs to be checked.
I believe the recall is because that light didn't come on when it was supposed to. Not much use in a warning system if it doesn't actually give you a warning.
 
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NewStockyBalboa

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I believe the recall is because that light didn't come on when it was supposed to. Not much use in a warning system if it doesn't actually give you a warning.
Yep, exactly.
I believe pre-recall, the light does not come on, even for low voltage, whatever that tolerance is on the control system. But hopefully, post-recall fix, can now light the battery icon. Notifying users of a potential battery issue or other electrical issues. I can easily use meter if the light actually comes this time to see if I am in good voltage range or not.
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