System Off to Preserve Battery

Ford Focus Electric Forum

Help Support Ford Focus Electric Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Hokus

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2013
Messages
24
We had the software update done last Monday. Everything had been working fine. We've been enjoying some of the new features like the regen activating when you remove your foot from the accelerator pedal and having the OAT shown on the center screen now. We drove the car on Saturday and everything was fine. I went out this morning and it basically a brick. I got in the car, shut the door and the words "System Off to Preserve Battery" or something very similar popped up on the screen for a couple of seconds. When it went away, that was it. Nothing will work now. The only life at all is when you open the doors the marker lights at the front and rear and the license plate light flicker. I've unplugged it, plugged it back in, pressed the button with my foot off the pedal, with it on the pedal and nothing. Has anyone had anything like this happen and if so, hopefully there was a solution that worked for you. At this point the dealer is going to have to tow in it to work on it. It won't even shift into neutral so the towing will be more fun because the whole car will need to be off the ground but it can't be pulled onto a flatbed.

Thanks,
 
I think you need to jump start or put a battery charger on the 12V battery under the hood.

It sounds like that battery is dead for some reason. Dealer visit is the right thing to do.
 
Well, it appears that you are correct. I hooked my battery charger up to it and it immediately started acting differently. The ring around the charge point came on and some of the lights on the dash came on. Now it wouldn't "start" the car but that may be due to the low voltage. There was a clicking sound going on so I turned the charger off because I don't want to harm anything. Can you charge the 12v just like any other battery? I guess it's going to be a dealer item anyway because the battery isn't even a year old. Only 8K on the car tool. I wonder if it's a coincidence that we just did the upgrade?
 
Update... so the dealer told me to call Ford Roadside Assistance. After explaining the problem they said I had an option to jump the vehicle or have it towed to the dealer. So I went for the "jump" option. I hooked my battery charger up to it and set it for a 50 amp start mode. I got in the car and the dash lit up and when I stepped on the brake and pressed the button everything came on EXCEPT the little green car. I waited about another 30 seconds and pressed the brake and pressed the button again and it "started". I disconnected everything and drove it to the dealer. So they called once to say that they wanted to know the last time we had charged the vehicle. I told them that it was still on the charger from the previous night when it first acted up. They then called back and said they had sent some information to Ford and that they expected a call in the morning. It gets to spend the night at the dealer. Oh, when I brought it in I was told by the service adviser that they had seen this before and that they had replaced the 12v battery and that none of the cars had come back. Apparently mine didn't just require a battery swap.
 
So they still have the car. They've been in contact with Ford Engineering running some tests. They've asked about whether I had the car in park, whether there was anything plugged into the USB port or any of the charging ports. I think I made a mistake by telling them that we have a GE Wattstation charger because when I called today they said the Ford wanted them to charge the car overnight on one of their chargers and if the battery still had a charge in the morning then it was probably the charger. Funny, when I got the car started the drive battery was full so the charger had been charging. We did have lightening here on Saturday night so who knows.

Does anyone else use the GE Wattstation?
 
Hokus said:
Does anyone else use the GE Wattstation?
Yup. Never a problem these last four months of ownership. But then again, it is patently silly to blame the charging station. I have probably used 20 different charging stations and they all do the same thing: A plug with just a circuit board and a relay. There is nothing mysterious about a charging station. If they fail, it's usually some poor soldering on the circuit board. But they either work or they don't. Ford is truly grasping at straws here.
 
I called them back last night to tell them that when I jumped the car and drove it to the dealer the drive batter was 100%. I don't see how it could have charged that battery and not the 12v, at least from a charger standpoint. It seems to me that would have had to be something internal.

Oh well. I'm expecting they will call today and say I can pick it up. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if it happens again.
 
Hokus said:
I called them back last night to tell them that when I jumped the car and drove it to the dealer the drive batter was 100%. I don't see how it could have charged that battery and not the 12v, at least from a charger standpoint. It seems to me that would have had to be something internal.
Contrary to what you might think, the 12V battery is not charged if the FFE is turned off, even when connected to an EVSE and the high-voltage battery is charging.

The 12V battery only charges from the high-voltage battery while the car is turned on, kinda like the 12V battery in an ICE only charges while the car is turned "on" (running) and the engine is driving the alternator.

Remember, many FFE systems were adapted from the ICE version. (Which is why the FFE still has a 12V battery to begin with.)
 
Your description of the problem is perfect the warning suddenly on the main screen, then totally off, except for little fast blinking side lights. About 500 miles on my car so far. I last drove on Friday, tried to drive this Sunday night. And the 12V battery died. I can't think of anything I did to cause this problem. I did have a non-attached USB cable plugged in to the USB socket where I normally attach to my smart phone for charging - it also rained hard on Saturday.

I'm fairly confident that the head lights and cabin lights were not on. I wonder if those charge lights are powered by the 12V battery - because those were on for a long time because I just left charger plugged in. Not ready to point the finger at Ford but I'm going to be making double and triple sure everything is off - so if this happens again I'll be able to say for sure.

Otherwise I love the car, and I'm getting around 85 miles per charge.

There is one more funny bug. If you plug your Android Smart Phone in, the music starts to play, if your playlist is short, then the car plays all the navigation codes in order up to something like 79 codes - one right after the other. Turn LEFT, Turn Right, Do a U Turn, Go Northwest, Go North, Go South, etc.
 
the 12V battery drain issue has happened to me 4 times now. The only common thing is that the car sat each time on the charger fully charged for over 24 hours. It seems to me that if you don't unplug the car after it's fully chargde there is a drain on the 12V bat. I am in touch with the dealer to hevae them look at this issue and will let you guys know what i find out.
 
Okay, confirmed. If you leave the charger cable plugged into the car then the 12V battery drains.

1 day - 12 V battery okay
1.5 days - 12 V battery marginal (car may give weird warnings but can be made to work)
2 days - 12 V battery is dead.

This is quite a lot of current drain with a little investigation the source of the drain should be easy to find. I'm suspecting that the drain is coming from a charger board that powered from the 12V battery. Probably they are powering the electronics from the 12V instead of the main battery. I don't think the drain is just the LEDs because it doesn't seem like they would consume enough juice to kill the battery. If the battery is around 50AH and can last for 50H, then the leak has got to be at least an Amp. Something is not getting shut down as it should.
 
jmcdonald said:
Okay, confirmed. If you leave the charger cable plugged into the car then the 12V battery drains.

Are you charging 110 or 240 and do you think the charge type might be a factor in the 12 volt battery drain?
 
We just had our second 12V battery fail that was resolved with a jump start. Root cause seems to be the same as what others have reported: leaving the car plugged in for 36 hours or more without driving it. Called the dealer and I'm taking it in tomorrow - they claim there is a "reprogram" that should resolve this. Surprising as I've seen nobody else on this forum mentioning such a fix.

Another interesting point: over they phone they reminded me that the manual says you shouldn't let the car sit for 2 days without starting it. I've read and re-read the manual and have found no guidance like this - am I missing something?
 
I'm curious if anyone has tried to set the "Go" times to see if that helps with the 12V battery issue?

It would seem to me that if you setup daily "Go" times (just pick a random temperature) that would give the 12V battery a good 15 minutes or so charge when the car starts and then 15 minutes later shuts off. The car is fully alive when running the HVAC during the go time--I would be surprised if it doesn't also engage the 12V charger at that time.
 
brookscl said:
Another interesting point: over they phone they reminded me that the manual says you shouldn't let the car sit for 2 days without starting it. I've read and re-read the manual and have found no guidance like this - am I missing something?

fwiw, I've left mine in the garage for 8 days in a row, several different times, and not had a problem starting when I got back. :?: It wasn't plugged at the time.
 
jmueller065 said:
I'm curious if anyone has tried to set the "Go" times to see if that helps with the 12V battery issue?

It would seem to me that if you setup daily "Go" times (just pick a random temperature) that would give the 12V battery a good 15 minutes or so charge when the car starts and then 15 minutes later shuts off. The car is fully alive when running the HVAC during the go time--I would be surprised if it doesn't also engage the 12V charger at that time.

I'm trying that now as well. After the service visit tomorrow I may turn this off for a while to see if the problem reproduces but I agree this may be a way to mitigate the issue.
 
Car left off, not plugged in: no problem here, in our 2012 (with no update of anything).
It sat idle for 2 weeks at about 1/4 state of charge, then worked fine immediately when I got back to it. I did not charge it first.

12 v. battery charging: seemed to charge as soon as I connected the 240 v. "charger".
(The voltage jumped from 11.9 to 13.5 volts on connection, as I noted in "Sudden power loss while driving" back in April. I am almost sure the car was off, then.)

At end of charge: I have not left it connected, so cannot report what happens to voltage later.
Would be interesting to know if it begins to drop much, after the charger relay opens.
If it stays up, I guess something (a program?) is better in this car (built in May 2012, I think), and was done differently in others. I may test that this weekend.
 
Has anyone learned any more info on this issue, is there a complete known solution yet?

I had this issue myself today for the first time after less than a week from delivery of my 2014 FFE.
The 12v battery level had gone down I guess below the threshold that it allows starting of the car.
Letting the 12v battery charge for a few minutes in acc mode would allow it to start, but I had to go to a doctor appointment right away so I took my ICE pickup instead.
I do have an emergency 12v battery jump kit that has its own small 12v battery, so I moved that into the back of the FFE in case this ever happened away from home.
But it might only happen if you leave the car in your garage in OFF mode with a full or nearly full HV battery and plugged into the 120V charger for a day or more like I did?
I can measure the 12 battery voltage and it does appear to go up to >13V in acc mode indicating it should be charging, but in OFF mode it will be <12V right now. If the 12v battery is more charged it will read 12.5V+

Is this a 12V battery problem that is fixed with a replacement 12v battery or is it something they can modify in the car itself, perhaps a software/firmware update? Has anyone had the problem totally fixed by something they did at the dealer? If so, please post the details so I can pass it on to my Ford dealer - they had never heard of this problem before!
 
Back
Top