Hello all, 

I have a 2022 Fiesta 1.0T Ecoboost, mild hybrid.

About 2 weeks ago I noticed the air con was not working, no other issues with the car. On Wednesday it went to Ford for its first service, where they also investigated the air con issue.

I was told that the battery was reading 12.6V however the State of Charge was only 22%… I was advised to leave it in the garage overnight for them to charge it, at a cost of £78.00. I declined this and  they said to leave it on charge for 6-8 hours at home.

I bought a car battery charger for £20.00, set it up to charge, and it did so… for 45 minutes until it said battery full. I started the car, and the air con still didn’t work. So I put it on charge for another 3 hours but it kept stopping because it was saying battery full, so I kept u plugging it and back in to keep charging it every 30 minutes or so.

Still the air con does not work. They said there were no other issues found with the air con, relays, fuses, gas etc.

 

Can anyone advise what I should try next or how to get it to charge for longer?

45 minutes isn't long enough

Disconnect the battery negative cable and charge over night

If that still doesn't work, you need a new battery

8 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

45 minutes isn't long enough

Disconnect the battery negative cable and charge over night

If that still doesn't work, you need a new battery

Appreciate your reply 

I have had the terminals connected and the charger on these terminals, and the charger stops after 45 mins and says it’s full, will it continue to charge if I remove the negative cable from the battery and try to charge?

Or does the charger continue to charge even though it says battery full?

Many thanks

Also, should Ford be trying to charge me £78.00 to charge my car battery? The battery has a 3 year warranty and is only 2 years old?

The batteries Ford are fitting are JUST enough to make everything run. JUST. But cheap

If you do change the battery fit a higher capacity

Yes, I would charge it with the negative disconnected

38 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

The batteries Ford are fitting are JUST enough to make everything run. JUST. But cheap

If you do change the battery fit a higher capacity

Yes, I would charge it with the negative disconnected

I have just tested the battery after it has been sitting for 3 hours. It was reading 12.35V, which as I understand is low. 
 

With the engine running it went up to 14.6V so proves the alternator is charging the battery.

 

Im still struggling to understand if the battery charger continues to charge the battery when it says battery full on the screen?

It might not be a very good battery or charger

If you are planning on keeping the car for a fair while, take the hit and fit a new, higher capacity battery.

You could argue the toss with Ford to fit a new battery and they may do so, but you'll get the same rubbish one again and then the problems will just start over again.

2 hours ago, Rob27489 said:

I bought a car battery charger for £20.00, set it up to charge, and it did so… for 45 minutes until it said battery full.

What charger is this? A "smart" battery charger could take anything up to 12 hours to go through its full cycle.

So the car is a lease, I have had it for 2 years and it goes back in 1 year so I definitely don’t want to be buying a new battery.

As far as the charger, I will post a picture of it, but it says ‘Full’ after 1 hour or so and stops charging, I think..?

9 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

What charger is this? A "smart" battery charger could take anything up to 12 hours to go through its full cycle.

 

Do I need a different type of charger?

35 minutes ago, Rob27489 said:

Do I need a different type of charger?

Don't recognize that one, though I've seen similar on Amazon, Ebay, etc. What does the user guide say about charging times - 45 minutes doesn't sound right.

Recommended by members on here are the Maypole MP 7423, C-tec MXS 5 and Noco Genius 5, the latter two being the most expensive.

I only have personal experience of the Noco and C-tek and found both work well. They do take several hours to work through up to 8 charging stages. I'm sure @StephenFord and others will give recommendations on the Maypole.😀

After the full sequence I find voltage is around 13.3v, though after a few days it drops back to 12.4 v which is about 80% state of charge as per the table below. At this level it's hit and miss if everything (e.g. start/stop, interior lights) works, particularly if the car is not used regularly/only for short trips.

Huge amount on Fiesta battery issues here:

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/115331-car-battery-mk8/#comments

Incidentally I asked my dealer to check the battery/charging system at my last service, though having had the same issues with my previous Mk 8 I suspected it was just par for the course. I was able to leave the car with them and they did a battery charge FOC.

Unless Ford are going to replace the battery under warranty, I'd be inclined to keep it going until you hand it back by regular charging. Even if you splash out on a more expensive charger, you'll probably need it for your next car. This is not exclusively a Ford issue - there's a thread on the Toyota Yaris forum about 12v battery issues which had reached 95 pages last time I looked.

 

 

55 minutes ago, Rob27489 said:

 

I have one of these and they're very good.

have you got the mode set right?

Definitely try without negative connected though first

Thank you for the replies, the car actually does about 180 miles a week, never left without running for more than a day. Thank you for all of the information Eric.

 

Thats interesting you have the same charger Dave, I simply plugged it all in and connected the croc clips and set to ‘Car Mode’ and left it to run, started about 6A and after an hour or so said ‘Full’ and every 5 - 10 seconds the fan started and stopped and it read about 0.5A then said Full again, as sort of a cycle every 10 seconds, should I be doing something different aside from disconnecting the negative?

13 minutes ago, Rob27489 said:

should I be doing something different aside from disconnecting the negative?

No

 

Just now, DaveT70 said:

No

 

So I don’t need to do ‘pulse repair’ or anything?

Just now, Rob27489 said:

So I don’t need to do ‘pulse repair’ or anything?

You can, but with negative off

10 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

You can, but with negative off

I appreciate all of the help.

 

As you own this charger, do you know if it continues to charge when it says ‘Full’ on the LCD screen? When the fan starts and stops every 5 seconds or so?

On 5/17/2024 at 11:53 AM, Rob27489 said:

I appreciate all of the help.

 

As you own this charger, do you know if it continues to charge when it says ‘Full’ on the LCD screen? When the fan starts and stops every 5 seconds or so?

It goes into trickle charge mode once it's full

3 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

It goes into trickle charge mode once it's full

Yes, the ones I'm familiar with as mentioned earlier go into what is variously called "float" or "maintenance" mode after full charging. If left connected they monitor the battery and " top up" as necessary. They don't have a fan though, as they're all pretty small - about the size of a tv remote.

Intrigued as to what brand this charger is.

Looks like one of those cheap Chinese items given multiple brand names.  Considerably cheaper than the Maypole though!  

12V 6Amp Car Battery Charger, Fully Automatic Smart Charger, Trickle Charger and Maintainer with Temperature Compensation, Pulse Repair Charger Pack for Car, Motorcycle, Lawn Mower: Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

That's what mine is. Well, mine is yellow

Works really well though

1 hour ago, DaveT70 said:

Well, mine is yellow

Presumably because it's Chinese?😀

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Considerably cheaper than the Maypole though!  

@StephenFord will be getting worried!😀

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

@StephenFord will be getting worried!😀

Just had a look, it doesn't come complete with a 'fly lead' though 🤣 Pretty sure the MayPole is probably made in China too, everything is made in China, that's why they need over 3000 coal fired powerstations, whilst the UK has just one LOL