Maximusi Posted February 14, 2016 Share Posted February 14, 2016 Good Afternoon Fellow S-Max Owners! I have just joined the Ford Owners Club picked up my new used car yesterday from a Ford Dealer its a 2010 2l Diesel Titanium Spec. So far I am loving the car not that I have driven it much only from the dealer and around town once. There is however a little concern I have I was sitting in it last night configuring the bluetooth voice dialing phone book when I got a warning that the battery is low. I was in the car no longer than 15 minutes with the car powered on (no engine). I started the engine up so I could sit there and finish configuring the phone book and was about another 20 minutes. I haven't been out in the car since I need to go and put some fuel in it this afternoon and pickup my brother in law but thats two very short journeys. I do know the car was sitting at the dealers for a few weeks so should I be worried about the battery? I am doing 2 x 30 minutes journeys on Tuesday will that be a decent enough run to help charge the battery up or should I be looking to invest in a battery charger? I do have a trickle charger somewhere but it was a cheap £5 job about 5 years ago so is it safe to pop that on while the battery is still connected to the car? There is no way I am disconnecting the battery! Thanks in advance for your responses. Regards, Max Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastvelz Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Mine does this regularly. My thinking is that it measures a drop in amps when not charging. Not had a starting problem at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Power Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Like you I've just recently bought a new, 2nd hand S Max Titanium X 2010 face lifted model ( Mk2 ) and noticed the same problem i.e. the low battery warning message came on. I took it back to the stealer where. I bought it from and they did a battery test which came back saying it was at the proper charge. My guess is your car just needs a couple of good runs because it's probably been sitting about wherever for ages which has caused the battery to just drain a bit ( The S Max is well known for draining it's battery if it's not used regularly ) I've took mine on a couple of longish runs and the message has disappeared up to now. Also there is the built in Ford converse test you can do whereby a menu comes up on your dash where you can scroll down to see what charge your battery is holding. Google S Max Ford Converse test and you will find a YouTube clip that shows you how to do it. Basically it involves holding down / pressing the centre button on the right hand side of the steering wheels button cluster whilst pressing the power / starting button at the same time ( keep your foot off the brake pedal if you have a power shift box otherwise it will start ) the menu of tests will appear and you scroll down to the battery info. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardtail Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 hi ive also just brought a 14 plate 24000mile smax sport last tueday and when straight from there to cornwall and like yourself once we were sorted on hols i sat there for 5 mins setting my phone when the low battrey flashed up ,the car was still hot from travelling the 400 mile there so should have been fully charged grrrr ,anyway i had the battrey tested at 4 places while there and all said battrey was fine ,now ive monitored the battrey in convers whilst driving and it seems to ramp up the 14.7-8v and stops there a while then drops to 12.4v then back up not sure if this is some sort of special charge system on the ford as today at work i checked someones 13 plate mondeo and his also shows low battrey and has 12v at standing without engine running .Could anyone conferm it this is normal at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo48 Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Hi, I have had a similar problem on my Titanium 'S' 2.0 tdi , it went back to the dealers several times, they eventually re-set the computer and checked all the management relays and all was fine for a couple of weeks then it started again, so I bit the bullit and got a new battery, all was fine for a few days then the low battery light came on again, to cut a long story short change the battery in the KEY FOB, problem has gone away. By the way the car battery when check by an independant battery shop showed a faulty cell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximusi Posted May 18, 2016 Author Share Posted May 18, 2016 I really need to turn e-mail notifications on didn't even know anyone had replied so sorry about that. I did ask the dealer about it and they said it just needs a good run as they leave the boots open all day during business hours on all their cars and the boot light would of drained the battery. Sure enough after using it for a couple of days I have not had a warning since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Lad 680 Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Evening, about 8 days ago I had to call the AA out to come and jump start me as the car wouldn't start...however all the windows worked properly and all the electrical bits and bobs were good. The AA man jump started the battery and tested it, and like the rest of you the battery came up good...I left it running when we got home to see if it would charge the battery. One thing I noticed is that every second time I start the car I get a message up saying the immobiliser is active?? yet the alarm hasn't been activated...I mentioned this to the AA man (he was a very nice man) and he said this sometimes this indicates that the car does not recognise the key?? Today the engine seems to be taking a bit longer to start...and the immobiliser activated message comes up...so I will be replacing the batteries in my 2 key fobs. hopefully this does the trick :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximusi Posted October 22, 2016 Author Share Posted October 22, 2016 Did you have any luck with that? I have not opened the key up on my S-Max but one of my previous cars the immobilser chip was not powered by battery and just became weak had to hold it in a certain way for the car to reconise but this doesn't sound like a battery problem at all. Just for an update as per my original post I have had the car several months now and not a single problem with the battery no more low warnings so just needed some driving to recharge it after the dealship leave the boot open during openening hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Louise Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Hi folks! Same problem! I have an s-max 7 years old now and the engine purrs like a kitten. But during this lockdown year I have driven it very little—and on the odd occasions when I have it has started first time and been fine—but when I stop and park up for any length of time it starts giving me either an amber or a red low battery warning. I’ve had the battery in the key fob changed and had the battery replaced as well—I’ve taken the car out maybe once a fortnight for W 20 mile motorway trip—still getting the message—but the car is still starting first time every time. it’s going into the garage for them to check it out next week—-will let you know what happens—I’m comforted to see how may of us have the same problem with only one of the group having problems starting the car, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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