On 6/6/2024 at 8:14 AM, RaduF86 said:

Actually you just mentioned the issue right there. No engine -> 12V means the battery is really low so the car acts accodingly. So now Ford must figure out why that is. Is it not charging(bad battery or buggy smart charging software), or the car is not sleeping.

As you've mentioned already, the car being new, Ford should look at it and you should not buy anything yourself.

Ford CS contacted me to say he had remotely accessed my car and found that the battery is only at 48%. So there is a serious drain on the battery. As I said, the car will be going in on 25th June and they will have it for 3 days. I have been here before with the previous car 8 times in 7 months and they couldn't fix it. So, what they plan to do this time that is different, I have no idea.

Watch this space!

Today, I collected the car from Rates Ford in Grays. After a lengthy conversation prior to collecting it, I managed to persuade them that it needed a higher capacity even though Ford had not authorised it. Maybe it was me telling them if it had to come back again, I wouldn't be taking it back home anymore. Anyway, it now has the 700Ah battery fitted as in the picture at cost to them and not me!

Watch this space!

Old battery

 

New battery

What about the root cause for the battery drain? Is there any while the car is locked, or the old battery was just bad?

I am surprised they originally fitted the 60Ah battery. My 2020 mhev came directly with the 70Ah battery which worked very well for 3 years and 3 months.

On 7/1/2024 at 8:04 AM, RaduF86 said:

What about the root cause for the battery drain? Is there any while the car is locked, or the old battery was just bad?

I am surprised they originally fitted the 60Ah battery. My 2020 mhev came directly with the 70Ah battery which worked very well for 3 years and 3 months.

The root cause of the battery drain was never found. It never actually went totally flat as the battery management stopped this from happening. But it would lose connection with the Ford Pass app and various functions ceased to work. The battery warning would appear soon after the car had been driven and at any distance even after a 140 mile round trip.

The previous Focus which was eventually rejected was factory fitted with a 60Ah battery which they replaced with the same 4 times (with the same spec) which never cured the problem. The new car came with the 60Ah battery and I suggested to customer services they fitted the 70Ah battery which they reluctantly did. The new battery has been in since 28th June and so far has been OK.

Just had a call from CS to see how the car is behaving and will call again on Monday 15th.

For 2 weeks after the installation of the 70Ah battery fitted, there was no problem. Then..... it all started again and has steadily got worse. No remote access to the car. Aircon and other items failing to work. The car went into the local dealership and all they could blame it on was the dashcam! Obviously total rubbish. The dashcam is not a factory fitted option, but it was fitted when the car was new at the dealership by a vey competant auto electician who has since checked the installation.

It is now back in the hands of customer services who have passed it on to tech support who will be monitoring the car remotely.
I'm on the verge of giving up!

10 minutes ago, Aubrey_S said:

For 2 weeks after the installation of the 70Ah battery fitted, there was no problem. Then..... it all started again...

Good to see that battery technology is continuing at a fair pace 😃

23 minutes ago, Aubrey_S said:

For 2 weeks after the installation of the 70Ah battery fitted, there was no problem. Then..... it all started again and has steadily got worse. No remote access to the car. Aircon and other items failing to work. The car went into the local dealership and all they could blame it on was the dashcam! Obviously total rubbish. The dashcam is not a factory fitted option, but it was fitted when the car was new at the dealership by a vey competant auto electician who has since checked the installation.

It is now back in the hands of customer services who have passed it on to tech support who will be monitoring the car remotely.
I'm on the verge of giving up!

It could easily be the dashcam if it’s got a permanent live feed. 

29 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

It could easily be the dashcam if it’s got a permanent live feed. 

I understood that the draw of a dashcam was about 200ma. with modern ones cutting off power altogether if it senses a battery dropping to about 11.5v. Would the dashcam need to be faulty to flatten he battery, or would it still do it if working properly?

Non essential functions are switched off long before 11.5v on the latest models.  You must have seen Unofix's chart.

 

5 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I understood that the draw of a dashcam was about 200ma. with modern ones cutting off power altogether if it senses a battery dropping to about 11.5v. Would the dashcam need to be faulty to flatten he battery, or would it still do it if working properly?

11.5V is too low. The car shuts down features way before that.  If I was using a permanent live feature I’d want to set the cut off voltage at about 12.4V. 

3 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Non essential functions are switched off long before 11.5v on the latest models.  You must have seen Unofix's chart.

 

I was just going with the NextBase instructions I have for my own DashCam, where it states an 11.6v powerdown of cam if battery falls to that level. 😃

36 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

  You must have seen Unofix's chart.

......and for those who might have missed it 🤣

On 8/19/2024 at 8:08 PM, Aubrey_S said:

For 2 weeks after the installation of the 70Ah battery fitted, there was no problem. Then..... it all started again and has steadily got worse. No remote access to the car. Aircon and other items failing to work. The car went into the local dealership and all they could blame it on was the dashcam! Obviously total rubbish. The dashcam is not a factory fitted option, but it was fitted when the car was new at the dealership by a vey competant auto electician who has since checked the installation.

It is now back in the hands of customer services who have passed it on to tech support who will be monitoring the car remotely.
I'm on the verge of giving up!

Of course it happened again since the root cause was never found. The problem with remote car monitoring is that it needs ECUs that are awake and drain the battery in order to be able to send data to Ford servers. And once the battery is low enough the deep sleep shall prevent data to be sent because everything will shut off. Except whatever it is that further drained your battery to below 12V.

So whoever is diagnosing your car needs to find the root cause, otherwise the issues won't stop.