Book2
Member
My 2018 Limited (302A) consumes a lot of battery power when parked long in garage. Battery charge gets lower at a much faster pace than in an old-timer car, since a lot of modern electronic functions in the car are working while parking.
If I were you, before buying a new battery (I personally go for the same OE spec. from Ford dealer), it may be worth checking the battery condition since there is a chance that your battery may be still rechargeable and usable.
I am happy with my battery tester (TOPDON BT100) which has charging system check function, also using a good battery charger (CTEK Multi US 7002), you can buy them from Amazon for around $170 total.
It is a bit of investment, but gives me a peace of mind to check the battery health from time to time when I do not drive my car often.
A word of caution about selecting a battery tester.
Some battery testers do not give consistent result each time. Testing the same battery repeatedly, you see a no-good tester shows different answers each time - says Need Charge or Bad at first test, and then next time says Good - so it is confusing.
Simply useless, a tester or something for measurement must show consistent results, otherwise not worth a penny!
It happened to me on TOPDON AB101, around $10 cheaper than BT100. I compared these two models side by side and confirmed BT100 gives me consistent results so I returned AB101.
BT100 has less steps than AB101 before start measurement, so it is simpler and quicker to use.
As other folks pointed out, auto-stop and door touch sensors (except driver's door) are disabled when low battery charge, so I can tell it is time to check / charge the battery.
Until this summer I drove only once a week for only a couple of miles, and the battery tend to get weaker, so I connected the charger (36 - 48 hours) in every 2-3 weeks.
After summer I have been driving around 40 miles a day (5 days a week), not noticed any of these low-battery signs, so I have not used the battery tester / charger any more.
I manually turn off the auto-stop, I mostly drive on busy city streets, stop and go many times, and thinking it is too much of work for the cranking motor and for the battery (cranking requires huge amps to the motor).
If I were you, before buying a new battery (I personally go for the same OE spec. from Ford dealer), it may be worth checking the battery condition since there is a chance that your battery may be still rechargeable and usable.
I am happy with my battery tester (TOPDON BT100) which has charging system check function, also using a good battery charger (CTEK Multi US 7002), you can buy them from Amazon for around $170 total.
It is a bit of investment, but gives me a peace of mind to check the battery health from time to time when I do not drive my car often.
A word of caution about selecting a battery tester.
Some battery testers do not give consistent result each time. Testing the same battery repeatedly, you see a no-good tester shows different answers each time - says Need Charge or Bad at first test, and then next time says Good - so it is confusing.
Simply useless, a tester or something for measurement must show consistent results, otherwise not worth a penny!
It happened to me on TOPDON AB101, around $10 cheaper than BT100. I compared these two models side by side and confirmed BT100 gives me consistent results so I returned AB101.
BT100 has less steps than AB101 before start measurement, so it is simpler and quicker to use.
As other folks pointed out, auto-stop and door touch sensors (except driver's door) are disabled when low battery charge, so I can tell it is time to check / charge the battery.
Until this summer I drove only once a week for only a couple of miles, and the battery tend to get weaker, so I connected the charger (36 - 48 hours) in every 2-3 weeks.
After summer I have been driving around 40 miles a day (5 days a week), not noticed any of these low-battery signs, so I have not used the battery tester / charger any more.
I manually turn off the auto-stop, I mostly drive on busy city streets, stop and go many times, and thinking it is too much of work for the cranking motor and for the battery (cranking requires huge amps to the motor).