WattsUp
Well-known member
After a normal day of driving to about 25% battery remaining, I arrived home and plugged in my FFE using the Ford-supplied Level 1 charger. This was around 7pm.
Later, around 3am, I couldn't sleep. I reached for my phone and decided to check on my FFE's charge. Everything looked okay... still charging, finishing around 8am. Then, I just happened to flip over to the "Vehicle Status" page. It showed the battery status was "Poor". Huh? I fired up my laptop and checked the battery status at the MFM website. Same thing. It showed "Poor" and advised "Plugging in recommended". What the... ? The car is plugged in. The ambient temperature (reported by the phone and website) in my garage was 75 degrees.
I went down to the garage and the car. Silence. Charging ring on, but no fans or systems running. I got in and the cabin felt slightly warm inside... but not excessively so. I turned the car on. Literally within 30 seconds, I received a text message, "Hot battery. Limited performance. Plug car in when not in use". Gee thanks... why didn't I receive a warning earlier? I also noticed a warning on the dash about being plugged in... which is no big deal, I've seen that before (it's to stop you from driving away when still attached to a charger). But, thinking I might take a short drive just to check things out, I went ahead and unplugged the car. That instant, all hell broke loose under the hood... pumps started whirring up, liquids were gurgling around, and fans came roaring on. Obviously, the car was cooling off... but only after being unplugged?
If the car needed cooling, especially seemingly due to charging, why wasn't it already doing so while plugged in? Why did I have to turn it on and unplug it first? What kind of battery management is THAT? Anyway, the cooling cycle went on for a good 10 minutes before whirring back down into silence. When I re-checked the battery status, it had switched to "Good". At least that made sense. Seeing as the outdoor temperature was a brisk 55 degrees, I did go for a short drive (seemed like it might help cool things off even further). Everything seemed normal during the drive.
But... now I'm concerned/perplexed. If the battery can get too hot after charging on 120V for several hours in fairly normal ambient temperatures and the car doesn't respond by automatically cooling (nor notify me until it's too late) it makes me wonder how many other times I haven't been aware of a hot battery. Perhaps other times, the battery eventually cooled down and no warning was sent, and no fans came on the next time I started the car.
Anybody else experience this?
Later, around 3am, I couldn't sleep. I reached for my phone and decided to check on my FFE's charge. Everything looked okay... still charging, finishing around 8am. Then, I just happened to flip over to the "Vehicle Status" page. It showed the battery status was "Poor". Huh? I fired up my laptop and checked the battery status at the MFM website. Same thing. It showed "Poor" and advised "Plugging in recommended". What the... ? The car is plugged in. The ambient temperature (reported by the phone and website) in my garage was 75 degrees.
I went down to the garage and the car. Silence. Charging ring on, but no fans or systems running. I got in and the cabin felt slightly warm inside... but not excessively so. I turned the car on. Literally within 30 seconds, I received a text message, "Hot battery. Limited performance. Plug car in when not in use". Gee thanks... why didn't I receive a warning earlier? I also noticed a warning on the dash about being plugged in... which is no big deal, I've seen that before (it's to stop you from driving away when still attached to a charger). But, thinking I might take a short drive just to check things out, I went ahead and unplugged the car. That instant, all hell broke loose under the hood... pumps started whirring up, liquids were gurgling around, and fans came roaring on. Obviously, the car was cooling off... but only after being unplugged?
If the car needed cooling, especially seemingly due to charging, why wasn't it already doing so while plugged in? Why did I have to turn it on and unplug it first? What kind of battery management is THAT? Anyway, the cooling cycle went on for a good 10 minutes before whirring back down into silence. When I re-checked the battery status, it had switched to "Good". At least that made sense. Seeing as the outdoor temperature was a brisk 55 degrees, I did go for a short drive (seemed like it might help cool things off even further). Everything seemed normal during the drive.
But... now I'm concerned/perplexed. If the battery can get too hot after charging on 120V for several hours in fairly normal ambient temperatures and the car doesn't respond by automatically cooling (nor notify me until it's too late) it makes me wonder how many other times I haven't been aware of a hot battery. Perhaps other times, the battery eventually cooled down and no warning was sent, and no fans came on the next time I started the car.
Anybody else experience this?