Battery Management

[samson]

How come you guys are so worried about your voltage, and monitoring it?
Just drive the car every couple of days and it charges it self.
I don’t understand why the hassle of manually charging it and constantly monitoring….

Nobody wants to risk their car dying on them. And with the electrical/battery issues that have been reported so far on the S650 we all got a little spooked.

I do think topping the battery off when you first get it is a good idea. There's no telling how long these batteries have been sitting before you take delivery. Seems like a lot of them are showing up with a low charge that doesn't seem to get charged up on the first drive for some reason.

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[YamenGT650]

Nobody wants to risk their car dying on them. And with the electrical/battery issues that have been reported so far on the S650 we all got a little spooked.

I do think topping the battery off when you first get it is a good idea. There's no telling how long these batteries have been sitting before you take delivery. Seems like a lot of them are showing up with a low charge that doesn't seem to get charged up on the first drive for some reason.

Makes sense for a long parked car… I’ve always been bad at understanding electricity, so i don’t claim to know what’s best.

Am curious since you mentioned topping it off the first time… I took the car for a 400 mile road trip on the 2nd day i got it, would that be enough to fully charge it? Instead of hooking it up to a wall charger?

 

[samson]

Makes sense for a long parked car… I’ve always been bad at understanding electricity, so i don’t claim to know what’s best.

Am curious since you mentioned topping it off the first time… I took the car for a 400 mile road trip on the 2nd day i got it, would that be enough to fully charge it? Instead of hooking it up to a wall charger?

Yes that should be way more than enough to top it off. However, when I picked my car up I drove it about 70 miles home and the voltage reading were <13V the whole way. Then down to 12 the next day. Since I topped it off it seems to be at 14.5 - 15 while driving and 12.5-13 resting which appears correct. It's almost like it needed to be "trained" the first day with the charger. It's like it gets accustomed to not running and lowers the capacity and charge. Other folks here have a much better understanding of the BMS than I do. But that was my experience. All has been perfect since the charge.

 

[sdsteele2]

What is the difference "electrically" if the car is locked vs. not locked?

When the car is shut off and locked, after a period of time it goes into a “deep sleep”. If the car is unlocked many of the subsystems stay in a standby state. When you lock it, you’re telling the car that it can power down more stuff when it wants to.

Side note, one of the ways to reset the battery management system baseline is to lock the car and leave it alone for something like 8 hours.

 

[DCS]

When the car is shut off and locked, after a period of time it goes into a “deep sleep”. If the car is unlocked many of the subsystems stay in a standby state. When you lock it, you’re telling the car that it can power down more stuff when it wants to.

Side note, one of the ways to reset the battery management system baseline is to lock the car and leave it alone for something like 8 house.

Good to know. I have been trying to get a consistent parasitic current reading (car shut off, but not locked) with an inductive current meter. However, the three times I have done this I have seen three different readings - 400mA, 300mA, 100mA. Readings were taken from the negative lead from the battery - perhaps 30 minutes to an hour after shutdown. The clamp on my meter is too small to go around the positive lead.
Question: will I be able to lock the car with the hood open?

 

[JPGC_S650]

How come you guys are so worried about your voltage, and monitoring it?
Just drive the car every couple of days and it charges it self.
I don’t understand why the hassle of manually charging it and constantly monitoring….

I said the same thing at first since my Mustang is my daily driver and I drive 90% of the time locally, so no need to charge or worry about charging it. However; I understand as I do the same thing with my motorcycle as it is a weekend toy for me.

 

[RLE55]

A bit surprising not to drive it for 16-18 weeks, unless you’re like stuck in a snow packed neighborhood…

Exactly. Once the temps go below 45 on a constant basis, its hibernation time and that goes for the white stuff too. It's a summer car.

 

[RLE55]

There's no telling how long these batteries have been sitting before you take delivery.

Yep, ours sat in a big corporate parking complex for nearly 2 months before being shipped out.

 

[sdsteele2]

Good to know. I have been trying to get a consistent parasitic current reading (car shut off, but not locked) with an inductive current meter. However, the three times I have done this I have seen three different readings - 400mA, 300mA, 100mA. Readings were taken from the negative lead from the battery - perhaps 30 minutes to an hour after shutdown. The clamp on my meter is too small to go around the positive lead.
Question: will I be able to lock the car with the hood open?

I think you can lock the car but I don’t know what happens if the hood latch sensor sees the hood open. I have never tried it.

 

[keithwalton]

I think you can lock the car but I don’t know what happens if the hood latch sensor sees the hood open. I have never tried it.

Depends on the sensor ford uses, most will have a push switch somewhere that can be fooled into thinking its closed. Same for doors.

In reference to earlier observations a lot of modern cars only top up a battery (if that's the state of charge) when the vehicle is coasting and fuel has been cut.
It saves on the alternator being a parasitic drag / fuel consumption under normal use.

It will be dealt with by the BMS and ECU there is a level of intelligence involved and as other have stated it'll hold the battery around optimum charge of 80%. If you're charging through the jump posts then the BMS will handle the charge.
It's best to do this and use a dumb charger.
If ford use an intelligent enough BMS it'll learn about the health of your battery and adapt.

When installing a new battery at a later date you may need to program the car to the new battery (my old E60 BMW needed this) as the charge profile of an old battery is very different to a new one and can rapidly shorten the life of a new battery.

And as for why people are concerned. From the numbers gathered so far if you don't use your vehicle or have it on life support it'll barely last 2 weeks before the battery is to flat to start.

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