Battery maintainer questions, not for long term storage

[OutofNowhere]

Retired life = DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!

If I could drive and knit or game at the same time, sure... but nobody wants that!

It's easy -

"Remote services disconnected" is bad and means low battery.

"Sleep/saver mode" is NORMAL and means the car is doing its normal routine.

Got it?

So the "normal" sleep mode isn't going to send me nastygrams about not driving it enough then, I guess, just the "remote services disconnected" will. I feel a bit silly having to plug in a car that's not even an EV. Just sayin'.

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[AZ_Ryan]

If I could drive and knit or game at the same time, sure... but nobody wants that!



So the "normal" sleep mode isn't going to send me nastygrams about not driving it enough then, I guess, just the "remote services disconnected" will. I feel a bit silly having to plug in a car that's not even an EV. Just sayin'.

Oh it might still send you messages. I have no idea because I don't let my car sit.

A battery maintainer is always a good idea for any car that sits. Unless you like buying new batteries every couple years. It's been that way long before EVs. If you feel silly, then go drive your car man.

 

[laurent13009]

I had the same message on the app. The stop/go has been working on and off and eventually stopped working after I didn't drive for 2 weeks. Having said that, the battery has been neglected by the previous owner and shows 2/3 of its life on the central screen so I should probably get a new one.

 

[OutofNowhere]

The stop/go has been working on and off and eventually stopped working after I didn't drive for 2 weeks.

Do you mean the auto start/stop feature wasn't working consistently?

Mine doesn't actually have the auto start/stop feature (there was a short time during the 2024 build year where parts were not available), so I don't have any idea how the battery life or health would affect that.

 

[Starship Enterprise]

I had the same message on the app. The stop/go has been working on and off and eventually stopped working after I didn't drive for 2 weeks. Having said that, the battery has been neglected by the previous owner and shows 2/3 of its life on the central screen so I should probably get a new one.

My guess is the car senses low battery and decided it doesn't have enough juice for constant restarts at stop lights.

 

[laurent13009]

yes that's exactly what's happening, although 2/3 of battery life sounds reasonable to me.
auto start/stop makes quite the difference in fuel consumption for city drive, would be great if ford updated that.

 

[Starship Enterprise]

If you have a garage, get a battery maintainer, it will help. use it often.

 

[laurent13009]

I do but unfortunately no power socket at reach

 

[Starship Enterprise]

Your garage close enough to run a line to it? Even a long extension cord from the house?

 

[Doug Watson]

I know there are other battery tender threads (one even today!), but I have different questions and didn't want to hijack someone else's thread.

I apparently don't drive my poor car enough (and when I do, it's generally short errand trips within a 5 mile radius of home, mea culpa), and I've now gotten the messages that the remote features have been disabled one too many times.

I've got a CTEK battery charger/maintainer coming in today, and I'm going to do the "semi-permanent" install so it's easier to deal with. I want to leave it on the maintainer all the time and, ideally, just unplug it when I'm ready to drive.

BUT I see this in the manual:



Do I need to worry about this 8 hours thing if the car is plugged into the maintainer constantly? Should I unplug it the night before I plan to drive it?

Also, I read something about AGM batteries and the auto start/stop system. I'm guessing this car has the AGM battery by default, even though the car actually doesn't have the ASS system installed. Do I need to do anything different with this battery maintainer with the AGM battery?

Thanks for any help!

I drove mine on Saturday and by Monday morning I got the same message. This happens all the time but the battery is not the issue that causes this it's the AGM battery and that stupid battery monitor. Not sure what the voltage range is when this message happens. When I check the battery voltage it's almost 12 volts. The car has never not started with almost 20 months of ownership.

 

[Starship Enterprise]

Almost 12v is low. Battery maintainers seem a PIA but are a necessity with modern cars if you want optimal battery health.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

I drove mine on Saturday and by Monday morning I got the same message. This happens all the time but the battery is not the issue that causes this it's the AGM battery and that stupid battery monitor. Not sure what the voltage range is when this message happens. When I check the battery voltage it's almost 12 volts. The car has never not started with almost 20 months of ownership.

Under 12v at rest is dangerously low. It should be 12.6v fully charged.

 

[Doug Watson]

Under 12v at rest is dangerously low. It should be 12.6v fully charged.

Thanks

 

[LouG]

It always pays to get a proper load test one when there's recurrent battery issues. Some things don't show up until there's serious current draw.

 

[OutofNowhere]

Almost 12v is low. Battery maintainers seem a PIA but are a necessity with modern cars if you want optimal battery health.

Under 12v at rest is dangerously low. It should be 12.6v fully charged.

So where should I be looking to see this number? When only the accessory power is on? Because if the engine is at idle, it's showing 14.*, but when the engine is off and only accessory power is on, it's currently showing 12.0. This is after having it on the tender for a recondition cycle Saturday to Sunday, leaving it off the tender since Sunday, and driving it on two short errand trips today (Tuesday).

When I was at the dealer last Wednesday (before putting it on the tender on the weekend), they pulled my vehicle up by VIN and said the battery was at 65% charge. I don't think I can see that anywhere in my vehicle or the FordPass app myself, correct?

I just can't figure out how to monitor this.

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