12-volt battery died; Ford "working on a patch"

[HBGuy]

Last Sunday evening (18 Aug) I returned home with the main (lithium) battery ~ 75% charged, according to My Ford Mobile. On Tue evening (20 Aug), I got in the car to go to dinner, but the car was dead. No lights, radio, nada. I was unable to charge it with my L2 Cripple Creek charger, either. I checked to see if the lights had been left on accidentally, but they were off.

I call Ford's Emergency Assistance number and a tow to my dealer was scheduled for the next day. The tow truck arrived promptly and I was given the option of a jump start to see if it would help, and it did. Immediately afterward, I was able to charge the main battery and noticed that it still had the same charge level as it did when I got home on Sunday night. The battery completed charging in ~ an hour and I drove the car to my dealer (Theodore Robins Ford; Costa Mesa, CA) on Wed PM.

This afternoon I received a call from the dealer that the problem I described above "is a known issue. Ford is working on a patch for it but don't expect it in the next week or two". The dealer technician stated that this information was available to him via Ford's technical portal and that he would call me when the patch was ready. My FFE was pronounced "fit to drive" and shouldn't have any further problems.

Has anyone else on this Forum had a similar problem, and if so, has it recurred?


2013 Ford Focus Electric, Ice Storm
L2 Cripple Creek Charger

 

[Kung Fu Panda]

My 12V battery also died and had to be jump-started, immediately after the 3.5 update.

Did you recently perform the 3.5 update?

 

[HBGuy]

Yes, I had MyFord Touch upgraded to 3.51. I also had an additional upgrade (3.6.x) installed at my dealer on this visit.

 

[Josephus]

We had a similar situation, however we did not need to resort to a jump.

Fully charged the car, and then it sat for a full day in the garage. Charging port light never came back on. My wife went to drive it the following (3rd) day and it would not start, dash would not come on, screen did some weird things like it was updating, I got a low-12volt battery text warning. Plugging in the trickle charger once or twice got it to start. Amazingly, the battery guage was full.

FYI, found out that up here in Portland, each dealer has a specific EV technician who is only there one day a week. At least for the two of the dealers here anyway.

 

[WattsUp]

I wonder if the 3.5 software is not the blame, and this is due to something as simple as the Ford techs who installed the update doing something silly while they had your car... like setting your lights to "running lights" mode or turning on the dome light? So, you get home, turn off the car, get out, and don't notice the lights that are still on. The next day... dead 12V battery.

@Josephus: The high-voltage battery and the 12V battery are independent. You can drain the 12V battery just like an ICE vehicle... lights left on, something plugged into 12V jack, etc.. This will not drain the high-voltage battery; only the 12V. I think your car charged up normally that first day, but then something drained the 12V battery. Without the 12V battery, none of the car's computer systems will work, so the car will appear "dead" until you charge/jump the 12V battery.

 

[jgphillips]

I have found two ways to drain the 12 volt battery; 1) not putting it in Park when you turnoff the car, 2) leaving it on a charger over the weekend and not driving it (I have a Leviton L2 charger).

Ever since I avoided the two conditions above, I have not had any problems.

 

[robochimp]

Don't electrics use a DC to DC converter (HighVoltage to 12V... in place of an alternator)

if so, there's no real good reason for the 12V to be dead, unless the batteries were toast to begin with.

 

[WattsUp]

I have found two ways to drain the 12 volt battery; 1) not putting it in Park when you turnoff the car, 2) leaving it on a charger over the weekend and not driving it (I have a Leviton L2 charger).

Ever since I avoided the two conditions above, I have not had any problems.

Hmm, any idea why leaving it plugged into the charger would drain the 12V battery?

Is the behavior specific to Leviton, or have people had this happen with others?

 

[robochimp]

it's a shot in the dark, but "backfeeding" can happen to batteries on a solar backup system unless a backfeed cutoff is installed...
in other words, once the solar charge is done and the sun goes down, the panels will drain the batteries unless there is a diode acting as a cut off circuit.

 

[Dreaming-in-Focus]

I have a leviton L2 EVSE at work and at home -our car is either driving or on the charger at all times, never had a 12volt issue for 10800 miiles. SSN issue? different story all together.

I have found two ways to drain the 12 volt battery; 1) not putting it in Park when you turnoff the car, 2) leaving it on a charger over the weekend and not driving it (I have a Leviton L2 charger).

Ever since I avoided the two conditions above, I have not had any problems.

 

[kmaluo]

I have found two ways to drain the 12 volt battery; 1) not putting it in Park when you turnoff the car, 2) leaving it on a charger over the weekend and not driving it (I have a Leviton L2 charger).

Ever since I avoided the two conditions above, I have not had any problems.

Hmm, any idea why leaving it plugged into the charger would drain the 12V battery?

Is the behavior specific to Leviton, or have people had this happen with others?

Seems like the Focus keeps itself in a wake state when plugged in, even when the high capacity is not charging. The 12V probably only charges when the High Capacity is actively charging. Hopefully an easy enough bug to squash.

 

[JTCalif]

I unplug from my charger (an L2 by spx) soon after it fills, but had no idea that might avoid a 12V battery problem; leaving it connected should not bother it, but believe evidence.

(My routine is due to reports that the capacity of Li-ion batteries should last more years if they are kept within a mid-range, like 15 - 85 %. The Ford program may do that sort of thing (hidden) by itself, but it may help if I do so myself most days. So, I only fill it shortly before driving, when that is practical.)

 

[danholl]

I've had my FFE for more than a year, always leave it plugged to a GE 240V EVSE left it in for 2 weeks while on vacation. Never have had problem with 12V battery

 

[jmueller065]

Did you happen to leave the "go" times set? I would imagine having the car "turn on" for 20-30 minutes a day may be enough to charge the 12v battery (or, perhaps, drain it if it doesn't charge it during that time)?

I've just returned from a 5 day vacation where we even had a 6 hour power outage--haven't checked on the car yet; but I think I did forget to turn off the go times.

 

[brookscl]

I just had this same issue happen. Left Friday evening with the 2014 FFE plugged in (120). Returned Monday (today) about noon and went into the car to retrieve something from the center console. Didn't leave the lights on or any other electronics, but I did unplug the car from the charger. About 4 hours later went to the car and it was dead - no charge ring lights, etc. Was able to jump start the 12V and everything seems back to normal again. Needless to say I'm carrying jumper cables in this car now.

 

[henryj01]

Mine did the same this weekend, worked fine Saturday noon and Sunday night the 12V battery was "dead". jumped it from the C-Max and the Focus started right up...obviously a manufacturers' defect. Nice work FORD :roll:

 

[az erik]

Oddly enough I stumbled onto something I question. Having been in the 12volt industry (fancy term for Car Audio installer) the USB is powered full time. I went out this morning and plugged in a 128gb thumb drive loaded with music. It started flashing, the car had been sitting all night unplugged. From my experience most other USB's I have come across power down after a certain amount of time, mainly to keep from draining the 12volt battery. This constant wake state seems to be able to charge my iphone 5 as well whenever, which I have to admit is nice for a change, though not at the cost of killing the car battery. I almost plugged in a 750gb external with a laptop hard drive but I wont mess with that now.

 

[WattsUp]

Oddly enough I stumbled onto something I question. Having been in the 12volt industry (fancy term for Car Audio installer) the USB is powered full time. I went out this morning and plugged in a 128gb thumb drive loaded with music. It started flashing, the car had been sitting all night unplugged. From my experience most other USB's I have come across power down after a certain amount of time, mainly to keep from draining the 12volt battery. This constant wake state seems to be able to charge my iphone 5 as well whenever, which I have to admit is nice for a change, though not at the cost of killing the car battery. I almost plugged in a 750gb external with a laptop hard drive but I wont mess with that now.

Hmm, the USB ports in my FFE definitely lose power shortly after turning the car off (my iPhone stops charging). Turn the car back on and the USB ports become powered again (iPhone wakes up and beeps just like its had been plugged in).

Also, you are sure the turned off the car, with all doors closed, and waited long enough to verify (or not verify) that the port stays powered?

I am still running MFT 3.1, though. Perhaps there has been a change in later versions.

 

[az erik]

Came out in the morning and popped it in. Unless it powers up when the doors open. I had run out put my coffee cup in the console, ran back in grabbed the drive and plugged it in. It might be coming on when the screen comes on. I'll leave my phone on the cord and seat and open the door to see if it comes alive. I'm on 3.6 which hopefully resolved this and the SSN before my wife flips out

 

[jgphillips]

I'd like to clarify that I use an external timer to shut off power to my Leviton L2 charger during non off-peak times (0600 to midnight). I'm guess that combination creates a load on the 12 volt battery if others don't have the same problem. I don't trust the timer on the car....at all.