replaced batteries

[khern]

Today I am having my battery replaced AGAIN!! Replaced at 2 months and now at 4 months. Seems highly unlikely that it would realy be a dead cell a second time which is what Ford is trying to say. THOUGHTS ANYONE???

 

[hybridbear]

When your battery was first replaced was the date of manufacture the same as the original dead battery? Since Ford got a batch of bad batteries it's possible that the first replacement was also one of the bad ones

Edited June 24, 2013 by hybridbear

[khern]

Todays explanation from FORD is its a cranking issue--when I explained whole car electrically dead---no cranking issue had arisen before it being just dead--they said AGAIN I just don't understand cars. They said a new service update informed them that when this happens they should reset the "module" and if that didn't work-which it apparently didn't--they should replace the "module". SO now waiting on the replacement module. When I pointed out that if it was a module problem it didn't make since that replacing the battery 2 months ago shouldn't have worked it was AGAIN that I just don't understand cars.

Don't know if they replaced the last battery with a same bad batch one and no way to find out at this point.

[kicker48219]

i have a 2013 cmax hybrid bought november, 2012. i have approx 15,000 miles on it.The first time i woke up to a dead battery, i had it towed into service.  they said defective battery and replaced it.  the next time i woke up to a completely dead car again they charged the battery and kept it over the weekend to see if it was ok on monday.  it was fine. the next time it happened they said they had some technical bulletins on this problem and kept my car to download new software.  after i picked it up, the next day they called to say they had new technical bulletins and i should make an appt to bring my car in next week for a fix.  i brought it in when scheduled and they had to keep it overnight but said it should be all fixed.  this last time i woke to a dead battery i had the tow guy jump start it and drove to the dealership, they checked the battery again, kept it overnight and "released" it back to me with no work done because it was working fine (holding a charge).  i know i left nothing on any of these times however two times i recall that the last time i was in the car the night before was through a rear door, don't recall if i locked it with the front door botton or the remote.  don't know if this has anything to do with it or not....really sucks that i bought a new car for the dependability factor and don't feel like i have a dependable vehicle now.

[Adair]

It's so disappointing to hear of these battery issues! Have you, Kicker48219, or  khern, taken copies of the info from this forum to your dealerships? You are not alone in this issue.....many others have had the same problems. Some resolved, some not. Please read thru the thread to see if there is a common denominator...maybe it will help your dealership to isolate your problem. Any way to find if your batteries were part of the same batch of bad ones?

 

Please keep us posted of any changes/resolution to your problems. It may just help someone else.

[Noah Harbinger]

There could very well be a dead cell in the battery, in addition to some other problem: If the battery is not being charged properly, or discharges excessively, then it will damage the battery - and before the emergence of a pattern of excessively frequent dead batteries that cannot be traced to a bad batch, it would be perfectly reasonable for a dealer to test the charge capacity of the battery, see that it is insufficient, and conclude "Whelp! Bad battery!"

 

It's only once the pattern emerges that such a conclusion would become suspect - and in this case, though far too common, it is still infrequent enough that a dealer would likely see enough to believe with high confidence that something is amiss: With something like 40k C-Max Hybrids sold in the US, and 2000 dealerships, each dealership has likely only sold 20. The average dealerships probably sells more F-150s in a month than they have ever sold C-Maxs. It would really take the Corporate Overlord to integrate the various experiences of the dealers to establish statistically that "Yup, something's up!"

 

So if a few dealerships still don't have the message that "hey if the battery is dying, there's something bigger going on", I wouldn't be too surprised. 

[profk]

Khem;

 

If I were you,, I would find out if my state has a "Lemon Law" (mine does) and read up on it. My state's law is something like you can demand a refund or a new car if yours has been in more than 3 times for a specific recurring problem within the first year. Especially if it's been kept overnight. Sorry I can't be more accurate, but thankfully I have never had to invoke it. And it's mighty rare for any dealer to get it get that far around here. 

 

Your dealer's casual (and insulting) response makes me think your state has no such law. With it, dealers and manufacturers are HIGHLY MOTIVATED to fix your car properly the first time.

 

Years ago dealer problems could be resolved by a regional office of the manufacturer, Ask about it. Mention "Lemon Law" and how badly your state needs one. It's not our problem to diagnose Ford's problems, but they DO have records of batch numbers, So you can ask--and tell us!

 

BTW: Doesn't the C-Max have a separate 12V battery system for things like the lights and starter? Is that what failed?

 

Sorry to be such a noob, but we've only had our car for 4 days, and I was barely able to pry her out long enough to set the radio presets. :)

 

Bob

[asb]

Take it to a different dealership.  And you can probably do a 'buy back' through Ford and get another CMax.