Ford LIES!

[chl]

But what a pain to have to hook up your truck frequently, JUST to keep the 12v alive and well.
Put a sticky on the dash: "Remember to plug in maintainer"

That's why I put the SAE cord in so I just open the charge port door to connect it - well, I also have to remember to plug in the NOCO in my garage afterwards as well - yes, I have overlooked that once or twice, lol.

There is always something.

Still a lot less hassle than an ICE vehicle with oil changes, filters, gas station lines, etc.!

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[FastCote]

With all this talk about battery tending, I am still lost as to how this happened to me. I drive it every day, 30 minutes each way. I also charge it every day. Ford "says" the 12v battery is "fine". They have had it nearly a week and I have no choice but to just pick it up and wait for it to strand me again!

 

[chl]

With all this talk about battery tending, I am still lost as to how this happened to me. I drive it every day, 30 minutes each way. I also charge it every day. Ford "says" the 12v battery is "fine". They have had it nearly a week and I have no choice but to just pick it up and wait for it to strand me again!

I forgot if I asked or not, but you charge it downstream of the BMS sensor correct?

A 2022 Lightning 12v battery, if it wasn't on a smart AGM battery maintainer as much as possible, is likely on it's last legs.

Not sure how they techs checked the battery, but if they did it correctly, and the battery is really OK, then there is some other electrical issue going on.

Among the things owners have reported are: the PTC (heating element), towing connector wiring, wiring back behind the glove box that was bad/intermittent, a bad component of the BMS (sensor or other part), other connectors under the truck that have become corroded from road salt etc., an allegedly bad HV wiring harness, loose terminals on the 12v battery, and probably others I can't recall off the top of my head.

Electrical problems can be hard to pin down sometimes.

However, 99% of the time (it seems) it is a weak 12v battery.

1/2 hour driving every day should be adequate, except maybe if using HVAC and other 12v system drains from aftermarket stuff or things plugged into the various outlets.

When I had trouble with my 6 month old truck getting an OTA back around the summer of 2024, Ford told me to drive for an hour to charge up the battery. However, that wasn't good enough.

What worked was an overnight charge session on the EVSE to 90% HVB state of charge. That got the 12v battery up over the threshold of 85-90% needed for the update.

Ever since then I have had it on a maintainer every night and when not being used, and so far so good.

The Lightning on its own does not seem to fully charge the 12v battery to 100%, and over time, that can cause sulfates to build up and become permanent on the plates weakening the battery, so it fails under load. That is just a characteristic of lead-acid batteries.

If the techs just measured the terminal voltage without putting it under a load test, shame on them - that doesn't really 'check' the battery adequately.

I hope you can get this solved and not have to give up on the Lightning.
Keep us posted on the result.

 

[chriserx]

With all this talk about battery tending, I am still lost as to how this happened to me. I drive it every day, 30 minutes each way. I also charge it every day. Ford "says" the 12v battery is "fine". They have had it nearly a week and I have no choice but to just pick it up and wait for it to strand me again!

my truck hasn't stranded me yet, but I have the nearly the exact usage pattern you do, with the addition that I disabled the vehicle idle power off timer and leave it running pretty much anywhere I go. before I got my new evse setup, the truck would sleep at least every 2 weeks, often more. pretty dumb. now I have a tapered charge profile so it's quite literally abc, always be charging. mine is automatic, but you can manually lower the charge rate in the app/truck to similar effect without an external maintainer.

 

[MountainAlive]

With all this talk about battery tending, I am still lost as to how this happened to me. I drive it every day, 30 minutes each way. I also charge it every day. Ford "says" the 12v battery is "fine". They have had it nearly a week and I have no choice but to just pick it up and wait for it to strand me again!

The only other thing I’d check that’s 12v related is to make sure the connections to the 12v battery are tight. Even slightly loose and that also causes issues.

 

[chl]

my truck hasn't stranded me yet, but I have the nearly the exact usage pattern you do, with the addition that I disabled the vehicle idle power off timer and leave it running pretty much anywhere I go. before I got my new evse setup, the truck would sleep at least every 2 weeks, often more. pretty dumb. now I have a tapered charge profile so it's quite literally abc, always be charging. mine is automatic, but you can manually lower the charge rate in the app/truck to similar effect without an external maintainer.

Yes, that is another strategy, L2 charge at a low-ish current level every chance you get and leave the truck on when parked on errands.

It probably uses a bit more 'juice' than using a maintainer, but nothing too significant I imagine depending on electricity costs in your area.

For me the maintainer is pretty convenient, and I know it is doing the right thing with its 'smarts' - not going to give the battery too high a charging current or fail to get it to 100% the way the Lightning does.

 

[chriserx]

Yes, that is another strategy, L2 charge at a low-ish current level every chance you get and leave the truck on when parked on errands.

It probably uses a bit more 'juice' than using a maintainer, but nothing too significant I imagine depending on electricity costs in your area.

For me the maintainer is pretty convenient, and I know it is doing the right thing with its 'smarts' - not going to give the battery too high a charging current or fail to get it to 100% the way the Lightning does.

it's still quite early in my ownership and with limited data, but it appears to be about 5-10% less efficient at the taper point. in my normal use case it's not insignificant, but on roadtrips where the discharge is deeper, it becomes a rounding error.

 

[chl]

it's still quite early in my ownership and with limited data, but it appears to be about 5-10% less efficient at the taper point. in my normal use case it's not insignificant, but on roadtrips where the discharge is deeper, it becomes a rounding error.

I always leave the truck on when I run errands, too.

Two summers ago (2024) when it was hot as fudge, like 100 in the shade, and I parked in the full sun in a parking lot, with the truck off, went in for 1/2 hour to get groceries, when I started the truck, the AC on MAX AC blew hot air with the smell of coolant in my face!

I turn the AC off and opened the windows right away.

Then a few hours later when the truck had been in the shade, I tried the MAX AC again - no problem.

So I looked it up and talked to an HVAC guy I know, and figure it was a pressure overload of the compressor/pump causing a seal to leak, or something like that. Did not see any coolant leaks under the truck, so must have been 'internal.'

Never happened again that summer or next, so I think it was because it was just sitting there in the sun at over 100F with the cooling system off.

There was a thread where some other owners had a similar experience.

If it ever happens again, it'll be a trip to Ford.

Anyway since then I always leave it on when parked in the summer so things stay cool.

 

[chriserx]

I always leave the truck on when I run errands, too.

Two summers ago (2024) when it was hot as fudge, like 100 in the shade, and I parked in the full sun in a parking lot, with the truck off, went in for 1/2 hour to get groceries, when I started the truck, the AC on MAX AC blew hot air with the smell of coolant in my face!

I turn the AC off and opened the windows right away.

Then a few hours later when the truck had been in the shade, I tried the MAX AC again - no problem.

So I looked it up and talked to an HVAC guy I know, and figure it was a pressure overload of the compressor/pump causing a seal to leak, or something like that. Did not see any coolant leaks under the truck, so must have been 'internal.'

Never happened again that summer or next, so I think it was because it was just sitting there in the sun at over 100F with the cooling system off.

There was a thread where some other owners had a similar experience.

If it ever happens again, it'll be a trip to Ford.

Anyway since then I always leave it on when parked in the summer so things stay cool.

weird, the only place i'd imagine it could've come from was the heater core, had it happen twice over the years, once at 300k mi CRX, and once at ~175k mi sentra spec v. but both of those you could smell it before the car was on. did/could you check if the coolant level changed?

 

[chl]

weird, the only place i'd imagine it could've come from was the heater core, had it happen twice over the years, once at 300k mi CRX, and once at ~175k mi sentra spec v. but both of those you could smell it before the car was on. did/could you check if the coolant level changed?

Yea weird.

No coolant level change as far as I could tell - the truck came filled to the MIN level and it was still there.

It was only on a few seconds before I shut it off.

I don't think I saved the link but there was an HVAC site that explained when the compressor pressure gets too high under extreme conditions (like very high temps), it can happen that some coolant leaks around a seal, as I recall.

Later on I added some to put it in the middle of the MIN and MAX levels. Which reminds me I should check it again now that it's March.

There was at least one or two other owners who had the same issue on the thread.

Ford's rep even messaged me about my experience (not sure it was 'Brian' or someone else), and I gave him the VIN. But since it only happened one time under extremes of temperature, probably got over 120F in the lot, hopefully just a one time thing.

Fingers crossed, as always.

 

[DavidS]

I could be wrong but I think I’ve seen indications that in extreme temperatures (cold or hot), the heat pump will prioritize battery temperature management over cabin temperature.

 

[chl]

I could be wrong but I think I’ve seen indications that in extreme temperatures (cold or hot), the heat pump will prioritize battery temperature management over cabin temperature.

Could be, but mine is a 2023 Pro - no heat pump.
I hear they are an issue in the extreme cold, and are noisy as well...too bad.

 

[mr.Magoo]

Should I take truck from this dealer and move to another?

I'm pretty confident that Ford Corporate will not tell you to what to do, other than that you have to decide for yourself which dealership you feel comfortable working with.

 

[Jenovalente]

My two cents - I replaced the lead acid battery with a 12v lithium battery that has a built in heater and Bluetooth. Did that within the first 6 months of owning the truck (23 XLT).

The battery was a few hundred bucks, but it is better than the lead acid one. If you check online, Ohnmu offers a lithium and also a sodium battery specifically for the Lightning (I think it works ina Mach E as well.

I would also invest in a diagnostic scanner. Doesn’t have to be a Mongoose (I do have one), yet I have had a couple of occasions where the dealer was like - meh, don’t know what happened, it’s all good. I printed out the trouble codes and told them it’s obviously not good. The more ammunition you have in pushing for a repair, especially under warranty, the better.

 

[RLXXI]

My two cents - I replaced the lead acid battery with a 12v lithium battery that has a built in heater and Bluetooth. Did that within the first 6 months of owning the truck (23 XLT).

The battery was a few hundred bucks, but it is better than the lead acid one. If you check online, Ohnmu offers a lithium and also a sodium battery specifically for the Lightning (I think it works ina Mach E as well.

I would also invest in a diagnostic scanner. Doesn’t have to be a Mongoose (I do have one), yet I have had a couple of occasions where the dealer was like - meh, don’t know what happened, it’s all good. I printed out the trouble codes and told them it’s obviously not good. The more ammunition you have in pushing for a repair, especially under warranty, the better.

There have been reports of those ohmmu batteries catching fire and or just drop a cell and shut down completely. Sounds like you got one of the good ones.

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