Charging hot battery

[VirtualTed]

Had this issue just yesterday. Parking in the sun on black asphalt resulted in the outside temp registering 118 degrees and the battery temp about half-way to the upper end of "normal".

Turning on sport mode will accelerate the cooling of the battery and bring it down more quickly than normal mode. Do this on your way home before plugging in if you can.

After I charged up on a particularly hot day I simply went out and turned the truck on and the cooling kicked on and cooled the battery down after about 20 minutes to the middle hash mark.

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[WaterboyNorCal]

Yes the OPs temp is still well within the normal range, but it is wise to question when it moves off the exact middle—because it normally doesn’t!

I’ve had my truck almost three years and driven about 80,000 miles and the battery temp rarely leaves the middle mark. Once it was -20 F and I could not plug in overnight and the battery cold soaked , so I got to see the gauge turn amber as the indicator left the normal range on the cold side.

Recently I saw it elevate on the hot side as I DCFC for the fourth time that day on a road trip through Kansas at 108 F ambient air temps. What I noticed first was not the temperature gauge (because you can’t see it while fast charging), but the charging speed dropped drastically. When I disconnected (wrongly assuming a problem with the EA charger I was using), that is when I saw the temperature gauge. I tried to convince myself that it was just because it was so hot outside, but it happened again that evening when I made it to Denver and it was only 61 F ambient temps. There was definitely something wrong with my cooling system while charging. The dealer diagnosed it as a coolant valve, but after that was replaced I made the return roadtrip in much more reasonable temps. Unfortunately, the battery temperature elevates whenever I DCFC for more than about 20% and the charging speed is thermally throttled to 100 kWh or less. Needless to say this is not normal even though whenever the battery temperature elevates it is remaining in the normal range. It takes about 10-15 minutes longer for a 20-80% charge stop. The truck is scheduled to go back to the dealer tomorrow. I hope they find the issue.

So, yes there is a normal range, and no, I never received a fault indication from the truck; however, there is certainly something different about it’s performance now and that is worth noticing.

Thanks for sharing your experience - this is good to know. It makes sense that you would see elevated temps when DCFC at over 100 degrees ambient but it definitely seems odd that you would see anything above the "normal halfway hash mark" at 61 degrees ambient, even while charging. If you get further info from the dealer regarding what is happening with your truck, can you add a new post, so we can all learn what happened? Thx!

 

[Joneii]

Thanks for sharing your experience - this is good to know. It makes sense that you would see elevated temps when DCFC at over 100 degrees ambient but it definitely seems odd that you would see anything above the "normal halfway hash mark" at 61 degrees ambient, even while charging. If you get further info from the dealer regarding what is happening with your truck, can you add a new post, so we can all learn what happened? Thx!

Yes, I’ll keep you posted. It is currently at the dealer. The EV tech said there are two TSBs out that address this problem and he is updating software. I’m not sure why the dealership in Colorado didn’t update the software when they changed the coolant valve. I’m wondering if the coolant valve even needed changed. So far it has all been covered by my extended warranty plan, so I’m only out the $100 deductible. However, I’d rather not pay the $100 twice for the same problem especially if the dealership in Colorado should have reasonably known about the TSBs. We’ll see how this pans out.

 

[Joneii]

I got my truck back a couple days ago, but wasn’t able to DCFC until today. The dealership didn’t have access to a DCFC, so they couldn’t verify if the software updates worked. Today I DCFC from 50-80% and I did get slightly elevated battery temperatures (ambient air temperature was 85 F), but there was no thermal throttle of the charging speeds. I will try a deeper into the pack DCFC next week when I tow the camper to Vermont to drop my son off at college. For now I’m calling this a win—the temps stay in the normal range AND I didn’t get a slow down on my normal charging speeds. If that holds through the towing and multiple DCFCs next week, then I’ll call it fixed.

On a side note; the first dealership charged me a $100 deductible to use my extended warranty to repair a component exclusive to the HVB system (HVB coolant valve). The truck has less than 80,000 miles, so the 100,000 mile original manufacturer warranty should have covered the valve replacement. The second dealership didn’t bill me a dime as everything is under the original warranty. I am currently looking into getting my $100 back, but it would’ve been better if I had known my warranty a bit better and brought it up before they charged me the deductible at the first dealer. Hopefully this helps someone avoid a similar hassle in the future.

 

[Joneii]

Adding another update and posting a question for the charging experts on the forum:

UPDATE: On our towing drive from PA to VT and back, the truck did experience elevated temperatures on the second DCFCing stop. We were charging from about 25% to 80% on most stops. The first charge was unremarkable, the second charge of the day resulted in elevated temperature, but normal charging curve speeds. The third and fourth charges had elevated temperatures and thermal throttling to keep the temperatures in the normal range. This added about 10 minutes to the normal charge times.

QUESTION: Maybe a year or so ago I think there was an update that changed the charging curve. It allowed the truck to charge at higher peak charging speed at the beginning of the charge. Before this update the truck would max out around 172 kW/h. After the update the truck would peak around 188 kW/h. Is it possible that this change is why I’m now seeing elevated temperature and thermal throttling on multiple deep DCFCs in a single day?

 

[Joneii]

So, the hot charging issue appears to be due to a bad cell in the upper rear battery module. This will be my second module replacement. Fortunately it is still under warranty at 82,000 miles. Unfortunately, I’m a bit concerned about what will happen after 100,000 miles as the lat module replacement billed Ford $9900.

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