Greatly diminished battery after SSN recall?

[bev_la]

Our FFE was rear ended. The SSN recall was performed while in the shop for the body work. I called Ford to let them know and they had Bosch contact me. After reviewing pics of the car they said the battery was fine. We have had the car back for a few weeks and we see maybe 45 miles on a full charge. Has anyone seen a significant reduction in battery capacity after the recall update?

 

[davideos]

I do see a reduction in capacity, but I'm still in the observation mode. I'm not sure when I realized it, and I'm not positive yet because the cold climate throws things off a little...even though I'm in so cal. If I put the trip monitor on the left side LCD and zero it out; then put the battery value charge display on the touch screen, I can observe the power used on the left and associate that with percentage of battery consumed.

When I'm at 90% battery my consumption is 1.6kwh. However today, I went down to 10% and the consumption was 16.0kwh; which means I'm getting 17.7kwh out of my battery...which is only 77% of battery capacity....and that is a bit low. I think the consensus is that we should be getting 80% to 85%...or somewhere around there. I'll keep my eye on it for now. Some of the data reporting by the car hasn't been know to be the most reliable information.

 

[WattsUp]

Perhaps bev_la's FFE (for some reason) suddenly thinks they are a really inefficient driver?

If so, wasn't there a way to reset the car, including all of its ideas about past driving habits? The "master reset"? Perhaps bev_la could do this to start over (although I think this would also mean they'd have to set up MyFord Mobile all over again).

In any case, even without any reset, several trips with an efficient driving style should also do the trick. If you keep the average energy usage to around 250 Wh/mi, your range estimate on a full charge should be 70-80 miles.

 

[WattsUp]

When I'm at 90% battery my consumption is 1.6kwh. However today, I went down to 10% and the consumption was 16.0kwh; which means I'm getting 17.7kwh out of my battery...which is only 77% of battery capacity....and that is a bit low.

That does sound a bit odd.

Then again, we have no idea if the percentage read-out is strictly linear (although the numbers you mention certain seem as if it is).

The only real test you could do is take it down to 0% (or as close as you care to go) and see what the total energy consumption is at that point.

 

[davideos]

...
The only real test you could do is take it down to 0% (or as close as you care to go) and see what the total energy consumption is at that point.

That is what I was attempting to do....take it down lower in the event of non linearity. The reset idea might help if my driving has anything to do with it. I do a lot of freeway driving, so my range is typically less than the advertised....but I wouldn't have expected that because I'm not looking at watt hours per mile; simply percentage vs energy consumed. Over the holiday, perhaps I'll take it down close to zero and then do circles around the chargers at the nearby shopping plaza....or test out ford's roadside assistance

 

[michael]

I did a similar experiment, and I found considerable nonlinearity in the early stages of discharge (first 1 or 2 KWH). What I ended up doing was to collect KWH and % data every KWH or so (it's not critical, just collect a dozen or two data pairs). It's not necessary to go all the way to zero, 10% or even 20% works fine. I only got to 40% before I reached home so I stopped there.

Then enter the data pairs into Excel and plot KWH consumed as a function of %. You can eyeball a straight line fit, see where the extrapolated line crosses the % origin. Better yet, use Excel to do a linear regression from 90% to whatever minimum you reached, and find the intercept.

I plotted from 90% to 40% (which is as far as I got) and the intercept was 19.2 KWH total battery capacity, right in line with our estimates. My eyeball straight line was a little higher, maybe 19.5 This was after SSN fix, so I have no reason to suspect this significantly affects the capacity.

 

[WattsUp]

I did a similar experiment, and I found considerable nonlinearity in the early stages of discharge (first 1 or 2 KWH). What I ended up doing was to collect KWH and % data every KWH or so (it's not critical, just collect a dozen or two data pairs). It's not necessary to go all the way to zero, 10% or even 20% works fine. I only got to 40% before I reached home so I stopped there.

Then enter the data pairs into Excel and plot KWH consumed as a function of %. You can eyeball a straight line fit, see where the extrapolated line crosses the % origin. Better yet, use Excel to do a linear regression from 90% to whatever minimum you reached, and find the intercept.

I plotted from 90% to 40% (which is as far as I got) and the intercept was 19.2 KWH total battery capacity, right in line with our estimates. My eyeball straight line was a little higher, maybe 19.5 This was after SSN fix, so I have no reason to suspect this significantly affects the capacity.

Nice work! Good to hear the fix doesn't appear to affect the range -- I'm scheduled to take mine in next week. (Obviously, the actual battery capacity would not be affected, just what the car might be programmed to do with that capacity.)

 

[az erik]

Also keep in mind the diminished distance due to weather. The second the heater is on you lose range. But based on the above math it's correct.

 

[buythebook]

:evil: Did recall 12v battery dead 2x times had on charger many times to keep battery up recall changed out battery mileage up but few days later -10F came left IN 34F garage 5days plugged in battery about dead ! NO fix On recall got a new almost dead 12v battery and another day in ford shop!!Thank God In Fords world I have a 8day Week and time is free!!