dead battery....again :(

[Vicki McCarthy]

Purchased this vehicle in March 2014.  First incidence of a dead battery happened around June  and when I called the service department from where I purchased it, they said to have it jumped and then drive it to dealership's service department.  Roadside assistance came out to jump battery and then I drove it to dealership (about 40 miles away). Technicians did whatever testing on it and came back to me and said that since I had driven it such a distance, it "had reset all computer functions and they couldn't tell what was wrong".  They then told me that if it should happen again, to have vehicle towed to service department so that they could hook up computer to it to see what is wrong.  August of 2014, went to leave for work and car was dead again. This time, called roadside assistance to get it towed to dealership.  With the way this vehicle is when it is "dead", I could not put the car into neutral to get it out of my driveway for tow truck, so he had to give it a quick jump to get enough power for me to get it into street.  Towed it to dealership, they ran diagnostics, and decided to replace battery.  Today, November 9, 2014, went to go get into car and it was found dead again.  Will be having it towed to dealership in morning to see what they have to say.  Very unhappy about this issue as I really do enjoy the car.

 

 

[Kelleytoons]

Make sure you read at least some of the battery threads here (a quick search will reveal some of the longest ones -- those are ones you definitely want to pay attention to).  There are *many* causes of this problem, and a simple battery replacement is seldom the answer.  You will need to be the point person on this, as you absolutely cannot leave it up to your dealership to solve it.  I know -- that's annoying, but this issue is complicated and most dealerships don't have a clue (and even Ford is still searching for definitive answers).  But by reading the threads and learning what causes you can point them to look at you can be proactive and help (and there are at least a few causes that can be "fixed" apparently).

 

This issue is most prevalent with 2013 SE models without MFT -- if this description fits you then you *definitely* need to do the research.

[kaptnk228]

Our battery problem is solved for now:  

 

Cause:

 

1. Failed dc/dc charger that floats 14.3-5 Volts on battery when car is started.

2. The culprit for the battery drain was a high amp fuse!!  It caused the charging voltage to drop to 13.5 V (no alarm but there should be one) and to drain battery when car is off

3.  No battery low or charging system alarms to tell you.

 

As soon as it failed it told the dealer not to just replace the battery but figure out what caused it to drain.  The fuse was the difficult one.  An infrared camera might have picked up the hot element.  I told them to follow the current to the component that was draining the battery.  It took 2 weeks but we are working again and enjoying our C-Max.

 

Ford still have to fix the NO ALARM problem.  Until that is fixed we will run a volt meter in the 12 V socket to monitor the battery/charging system.  This should be part of the standard instrumentation of the car.

 

You may have another cause but I suspect this fuse problem is causing a lot of batteries to fail.

 

retired P.Eng.

[littlebitfarm]

Just had my 10th dead battery issue a couple weeks ago. Called the dealership. They said they would come get it. No show. Called the dealership the following Monday, said they would come get it. No show. Called the main dealership, left a message with the owner. Then called my salesman. They got it in and I got a loaner. They checked it out, did everything in the TSB including coating some wires and updating some modules. Hope it is fixed now, if not the owner said we would do an in house trade and be done with it. Hate to give up my mileage but I didn't buy a brand new car to have continuing service issues.