SOC % dropping as soon as I turn truck on

[jthiesse13]

I'm experiencing an issue with my 23 Lariat ER where I charge it to 90% and it drops to 89% before I leave the garage. It just started doing this a few weeks ago. Anyone else seeing this and have any thoughts?

Sponsored

 

[RLXXI]

Charge it to 100% and see how it reacts.

 

[Montecarlossfan]

I'm experiencing an issue with my 23 Lariat ER where I charge it to 90% and it drops to 89% before I leave the garage. It just started doing this a few weeks ago. Anyone else seeing this and have any thoughts?

Possibly temperature related … I’ve seen this when I charge to 80 and it’s 70 out , pull out in morning and it’s 79 percent and 40 out.

 

[Grease Lightning]

I'm experiencing an issue with my 23 Lariat ER where I charge it to 90% and it drops to 89% before I leave the garage. It just started doing this a few weeks ago. Anyone else seeing this and have any thoughts?

Do you have an OBDII scanner? Watch the pack voltage and kWh rating. Remember that the percentage on the dash is a guess by the BMS, so say it thinks you are at 80.01 and drop to 79.99, then it will go down, but little energy left the pack.

The second consideration is now that temps are changing for fall, is do you have heat going somewhere? Could be in the cabin, or depending on how cold your area gets, could be some going to the battery.

Lots of reason why it could be dropping by 0.5%…..

 

[FloridaMan655321]

I charge to 85% and often will be at 84% when I leave in the morning. I just assumed it was because it *just* gets to 85% and after a few times updating its status to Ford it drops to 84.9%. I noticed my wifes Tesla will kind of keep drawing energy even after it hits 80% where the Lightning doesn't. Maybe someone will correct me but I just assumed the Tesla kind of keeps at a 80% throughout the night where the Lightning just stops drawing once it hits 85.0%

 

[jetfixr1]

This happens to me too, a 1% change is negligible IMO. My pack SOH is 100% after 41k miles. Sometimes it'll charge to 80 and when I start to drive it displays 81 for a mile or two. Same for charging to 80 and dropping to 79. Its probably the software calculating the available energy and compensating for temp changes. I would be more concerned with a 2-3% change or more.

 

[Henry Ford]

Charge it to 100% and see how it reacts.

This.

There is an anomaly where one battery module is bad but there are no IP or DTC messages. It can be identified by charging your truck to some number higher than about 87% and observing the SOC behavior upon startup and driving. A truck with a bad module will drop from a higher SOC to about 87% over a time period ranging from immediately to really quickly. Sorry for the technical terms.

My truck had a bad module and my dealership had a hard time diagnosing it because there were no messages telling them the battery was bad. I told them the battery was bad because I'd read about the issue on this website. The problem they had was that Ford wouldn't pay them diagnostic fees based on "the Internet." When all of Ford's ideas were exhausting they tried my idea of running a battery health check, which finally identified the bad module.

 

[TaxmanHog]

When all of Ford's ideas were exhausting they tried my idea of running a battery health check, which finally identified the bad module.

Isn't "Battery Health Check" an official procedure Ford Technicians are supposed to consider using with their diagnostic tools, SMH!!!!!!

 

[Robert1380]

I'm experiencing an issue with my 23 Lariat ER where I charge it to 90% and it drops to 89% before I leave the garage. It just started doing this a few weeks ago. Anyone else seeing this and have any thoughts?

You’re not alone. Mines been doing the same thing for awhile now

 

[cblackride]

I'm experiencing an issue with my 23 Lariat ER where I charge it to 90% and it drops to 89% before I leave the garage. It just started doing this a few weeks ago. Anyone else seeing this and have any thoughts?

Mine does the same thing when I charge to 90%. Less than 90% and it takes a while to drop.

 

[WaterboyNorCal]

Exactly what others have said. 90% is an estimate. The Lightnings seem to stop charging pretty quickly after reaching the set SOC, so it's common for the truck to drop quickly to 89.X% and show an INDICATED SOC of 89%. Check with an OBD reader - although of course there COULD be something going on, most likely everything is FINE. Unfortunately (and we are all susceptible to this), with so much information available, it's easy to fall prey to the "WebMD syndrome", and think that something is wrong when it's not. And since we all notice scary posts that scream, "My battery module FAILED", it's easy to think that we're next...

 

[djwildstar]

I'm experiencing an issue with my 23 Lariat ER where I charge it to 90% and it drops to 89% before I leave the garage.

I have a '23 Lariat ER and have observed the same thing in both directions: an immediate drop in state of charge within a few minutes of unplugging, and a slightly longer-term boost in state of charge shortly after I start driving. They both seem to be temperature related. They don't seem to indicate any sort of problem or issue -- I suspect that the computer adjusts the SoC estimate as the battery cools down on a hot day or warms up on a cold day.

 

[chl]

I'm experiencing an issue with my 23 Lariat ER where I charge it to 90% and it drops to 89% before I leave the garage. It just started doing this a few weeks ago. Anyone else seeing this and have any thoughts?

That small drop is fairly normal.

If you were monitoring it, you may also observe a small peak in current at the same time.
Both have been observed in the Lightnings and other EVs as well as solar charging systems that use Li and BMS technology.

Several factors can be involved in the 1% drop:

The BMS using some energy balancing which can continue after the charging has finished. The battery cooling by the thermal management system will also continue to use some energy.

As mentioned by others, the temperature will cool down after the charging has stopped and the voltage goes down slightly as well.

Add to this the fact that the charge level displayed is really an educated (computer) guess and it may get revised as the BMS gathers more data points after charging.

If you saw a large drop, that would be an indication of an impending HV battery failure and should be checked out by Ford.

 

[Sneakypetie78]

I'm experiencing an issue with my 23 Lariat ER where I charge it to 90% and it drops to 89% before I leave the garage. It just started doing this a few weeks ago. Anyone else seeing this and have any thoughts?

Not uncommon. It shuts off charging once it hits 90%. The minute you start to drain it, it goes to 89%.

I figure it like it doesn't charge to 90.9%, but rather 90.0% and shuts off.

Not to worry.

 

[RLXXI]

Isn't "Battery Health Check" an official procedure Ford Technicians are supposed to consider using with their diagnostic tools, SMH!!!!!!

The diagnostic tool they use is FDRS. There are other specialty diag systems just for the HVB however.

Sponsored