Ford LIES!

[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.

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[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.

 

[chl]

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.

Yes, that fire gave me pause...

 

[CoolViper777]

That lithi battery fire is very sobering. Better to keep lead/acid for accessory battery.

While EVs look like normal cars, they really aren't. When gassing up an ICE car, the "dangerous" flammable part happens far from your home and garage. Barring some major issue with your car, like a fuel leak or electrical short, it's not going to catch fire once it's off.

Not necessarily with an EV, especially if you are charging. For EVs, about 25% of fires occur during charging. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable charging indoors TBH. It's a an always on appliance. When I get my Lightning, charging will happen outdoors, even when I have a garage that can fit it. At least until I "trust" it to not have electrical issues.

https://www.tl-x.com/post/ev-charging-fire-statistics-safety-facts-2025

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.

¹0

Yes, that fire gave me pause...

 

[chl]

That lithi battery fire is very sobering. Better to keep lead/acid for accessory battery.

While EVs look like normal cars, they really aren't. When gassing up an ICE car, the "dangerous" flammable part happens far from your home and garage. Barring some major issue with your car, like a fuel leak or electrical short, it's not going to catch fire once it's off.

Not necessarily with an EV, especially if you are charging. For EVs, about 25% of fires occur during charging. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable charging indoors TBH. It's a an always on appliance. When I get my Lightning, charging will happen outdoors, even when I have a garage that can fit it. At least until I "trust" it to not have electrical issues.

https://www.tl-x.com/post/ev-charging-fire-statistics-safety-facts-2025



¹0

A lot of safety built-in to the Lightning, but a few wrinkles, one of which may have led to the Ohmmu fire: the battery charging current can be rather high when the battery is significantly discharged, based on observations and measurements made by some owners.

Although the Ohmmu claims to be plug-n-play compatible and has its own internal BMS, something went wrong in the case of the fire that Ohmmu did not anticipate.

The Lightning does seem to allow the 12v battery to get rather significantly discharged and does not effectively limit the charging current to no more than what a manufacturer of a 35Ah battery would consider safe and optimum, of no more that 10.5A.

My solution along with other owners is to use a battery maintainer with an AGM mode to keep the battery topped off to 100% using a relatively low charging current, whenever the truck is not in use, generally overnight.

That avoids 2 problems. 1) the battery will get topped off to 100% driving off sulfates that could be come permanent if not done, and 2) avoiding excessively high charging currents which could result in internal heat causing swelling and venting and leading to a loss of electrolyte.

To make it convenient, I added an SAE charging wire at the charge port next to the hinge and connected to the 6mm battery downstream of the BMS sensor - I may have already posted above, but here is a link again about putting trickle charger/maintainers on the battery and how to make it easier by adding a trickle charger wire:

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/charging-12v-battery.16979/

My truck:

EV battery fires are relatively rare, but the F-150 Lightning has had a few, and some other HVB battery issues due to battery manufacturing problems.

I am not overly concerned about it, but if Ford's quality control were better overall, I would feel a lot better about it for sure.

ICE vehicle fires are more common, and sometime they do happen in garages, for example, when there is a faulty ignition system component leading to a short and an electrical fire, for example which affected some Ford Rangers.

Kitchen cooking fires, a fire from improperly handled or disposed of smoking products, or an electrical fire from an overloaded outlet, are probably the most common causes of house fires that originate indoors.

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