FFE 12V Stranded Me for the First Time

[Omen87]

It took almost a year. Left work tonight at 11pm. Got in my car, hit the power button, and everything starts flickering. :|

Had to have a buddy come jump me to get home. It's a fairly new battery, too. I replaced it about 6 months ago with a new Motorcraft battery from the dealer.

I wish Ford could figure this out.

 

[triangles]

Welcome to the club! I don't think there's anything Ford can do without changing the design. Any "rogue" module that doesn't shut down when commanded always has access to the 12V battery and will drain the battery if given enough time. What makes it worse is that the issue is often intermittent and since there's no datalogging of what shuts down and what doesn't there's no way to troubleshoot it unless you catch it in the act. Since you are more than likely out of warranty on whatever the culprit is, you can do some troubleshooting yourself. All you need is a multimeter and some basic hand tools. You basically have to measure the current draw on the battery after it has set for 40 minutes. It's imperative that you do nothing to "wake up" the car as that resets the 40min. timer. Unhooking the battery to put your meter in series also resets the timer. If the current draw is greater than 50mA you have to start pulling fuses until you find the fuse that you pull that causes the current to drop under 50mA. You have to leave every fuse out since it could be more than 1 module misbehaving. You can read about my adventures here: http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3812 Good luck and keep us updated on how you resolve the problem.

 

[NightHawk]

I recommend keeping a portable LiOn 12v car battery jump starter unit in an FFE all time time for emergencies.

 

[triangles]

The worse case scenario is you could rig up a relay to disconnect the 12v battery and put a switch inside the car to operate it. I had pondered using a "latching" relay similar to this one that doesn't require power to maintain it's state. It would be a crude hack but possibly an inexpensive fix for an out of warranty FFE. It would also be really annoying that the radio would be reset to default all the time but you'd never have to worry about the 12V going dead unless you forget to "turn off" the 12V battery! :lol:

 

[Omen87]

I wonder if something like this would work?

PriorityStart! 12-Volt-Pro-SP PriorityStart Automatic Battery Protector

 

[Guest]

Thats an interesting product. I dont know how it would work with our cars though. If you access the car with the mfm app it might disconnect the battery. Lots of modules in our cars that that draw power at one time or another when the car is "off".

 

[Omen87]

Yeah, I'm not sure either. It says if the battery drops below 11.7v it will disconnect. Then a small load change will reconnect it, such as stepping on the brake pedal...but if the battery is already disconnected then how can there be a load change?

Also, I'm not sure that I want to gamble $100 on it. A $100 lithium jump pack would probably be money better spent. NOCO Genius Boost Plus GB40 1000 Amp 12V UltraSafe Lithium Jump Starter

 

[NightHawk]

Also while at home in the garage, you could always hook up a simple 12v battery minder device, that keeps the 12v battery charged overnight. Its easy to setup to be easily plugged and unplugged with its cable.

 

[NightHawk]

The Lion portable jump starter unit I got from amazon a year ago has worked well, has some extra features too for use to run 12v devices with a cig lighter plug and charge USB devices plus an LED flashlight as well:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014QZZGLW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[triangles]

I was going to recommend this one that I have but I see it's now over 2x what I paid for it back in 2014. https://www.amazon.com/STANLEY-Ll1000-Li-Ion-Battery-Starter/dp/B005IU28AW It also doesn't fit in the glove box. I did see a review of one of the Genius Boost brand products that guarantees I'd never buy one of their over rated products. For $60 this one even has a built in air compressor https://www.amazon.com/STANLEY-J5C09-Jump-Starter-Compressor/dp/B002X6VXL4/ Although storing it where you can get it may be a problem.