Stuck at an intersection, Expedition 2019 won't start.

[Jake8]

Story: Yesterday, I was driving a few hours none stop, assuming the battery should get charged in such a situation, nope, wrong. I got to a red light, stopped, the auto shutoff function kicks in and there goes the car turning off. The battery was drained and unable to startup the car. I actually started noticing problems a few minutes earlier, while driving the car at about 35mph, it just went into neutral gear on it own while driving, a minute before that the car shutoff at the last light but was able to startup over again with my first attempt(first time in over 30k miles).

I bought the vehicle in December of 2019.

Questions:
Should I go buy a AGM battery charger or should I just buy a new battery?
Should I try the dealership to see if something is draining the battery or is 2 years expected out of this vehicle battery? I never left the lights on or anything like that.
I have a recall from Ford about 21N08 PCM REPROGRAM DUE TO ENGINE SHUDDEr, 21B10 POWERTRAIN CONTROL MODULE REPROGRAM FOR CAM PHASER RATTLE. Can any of this be related to the battery issue?

Thanks in advance for any opinions, advice or comments.

 

[FlyBry]

If your alternator is charging correctly, then your battery is done, over, toast, kaput. Time for a new battery.

 

[Jake8]

If your alternator is charging correctly, then your battery is done, over, toast, kaput. Time for a new battery.

Hi thanks for your response,
Can I figure this out without the help of the dealership?

 

[FlyBry]

Yes. With a fully charged battery, and the engine running, you could test the alternator, or drive to an Autozone for an alternator load test.
Read the voltage on the meter - Start the engine and observe the voltage on the meter. The voltage should read a minimum of 13 volts. A good alternator should put out between **13.5-14.5 volts. Stress test the alternator - Place a load on the alternator by turning on the headlights, the radio and the air conditioning

 

[Motorcity muscle]

Need to load test battery after charging it. Should charge to 13.4-13.6 volts. Put a voltage meter on battery terminals and start the truck, watch the meter and you will know where the problem lies. Once started should go over 14 volts for a bit. Voltage on start should not drop below 12 volts. Could be bad connections on battery.

 

[FlyBry]

Need to load test battery after charging it. Should charge to 13.4-13.6 volts. Put a voltage meter on battery terminals and start the truck, watch the meter and you will know where the problem lies. Once started should go over 14 volts for a bit. Voltage on start should not drop below 12 volts. Could be bad connections on battery.

"Could be bad connections on battery."
Check the battery terminals closely. Should not be any corrosion on an AGM battery. Make certain where the wires terminate into the connectors are good & solid.
These 4th Gens are very battery sensitive.

 

[5280tunage]

I've heard of weird stuff happening in these with bad batteries, but just randomly going into neutral on its own, not so much. Especially when at that point the cat should be running off the alternator, not the battery.

 

[Going_Going_Gone]

Questions:
Should I go buy a AGM battery charger or should I just buy a new battery?
Should I try the dealership to see if something is draining the battery or is 2 years expected out of this vehicle battery? I never left the lights on or anything like that.
I have a recall from Ford about 21N08 PCM REPROGRAM DUE TO ENGINE SHUDDEr, 21B10 POWERTRAIN CONTROL MODULE REPROGRAM FOR CAM PHASER RATTLE. Can any of this be related to the battery issue?

Thanks in advance for any opinions, advice or comments.

Maybe Both
I'd agree that it's probably new battery time. Now, if you want to buy a charger too, here's what I did: for about a year the Auto Stop/Start on my '19 hasn't been working. It doesn't get driven as much as I planned, so I bought a Noco Genius 10 battery charger that has a setting for AGM batteries. It will charge them up and maintain it with trickle charge mode. I can usually tell when the battery needs to be charged when the rear doors fail to unlock by touch, the radio won't stay on the full ten minutes after shutting down, or a power step is slow to retract. I'll put the charger on it to top off the battery. Even leaving the charger connected for two days, the Auto Stop/Start still does not work--not that I consider that a bad thing. Mine will be three years old the end of the month so I will probably need a new battery myself.

 

[Knut]

Hi thanks for your response,
Can I figure this out without the help of the dealership?

Just go to Auto Zone. They will test both for free..

 

[Roger Aulabaugh]

Oreillys will test battery and alternator for free also.

 

[Book2]

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).

 

[DWs-TTEB]

This happened to me today leaving Costco. Full tank of gas and a new battery. Tried for fun to jump it with a Suburban to no avail and also disconnected the battery for 15 mins and tried again. Currently waiting on the tow truck to take it to the dealership who will look at it on Thursday (8-11-2022).

 

[DWs-TTEB]

@Jake8 did you find out what the issue was?

 

[zak99b5]

the battery in my new-to-me 2020 seems bad. After sitting for two days over which I installed 2 sets of roof rack load bars (ill-fitting Amazon then OE ford), battery was dead at 8.xx volts.

Jump pack got it started and the alt charged it up to 12.7v. Let it sit overnight and it was down to 12.2v. let it sit one more night, and down to 11.7v. Drove it around, auto start disabled.

Plugged in forscan to enable the trailer brake control, amd I noticed that the car is set to keep the battery at only 80%. Guess to save fuel? I’m thinking of seeing if I can change that to 90%.

Charging only to 80% seems harder on the battery AND will make an iffy battery fail more quickly, leaving you stranded.

 

[rd618]

the battery in my new-to-me 2020 seems bad. After sitting for two days over which I installed 2 sets of roof rack load bars (ill-fitting Amazon then OE ford), battery was dead at 8.xx volts.

Jump pack got it started and the alt charged it up to 12.7v. Let it sit overnight and it was down to 12.2v. let it sit one more night, and down to 11.7v. Drove it around, auto start disabled.

Plugged in forscan to enable the trailer brake control, amd I noticed that the car is set to keep the battery at only 80%. Guess to save fuel? I’m thinking of seeing if I can change that to 90%.

Charging only to 80% seems harder on the battery AND will make an iffy battery fail more quickly, leaving you stranded.

Filling to 100% puts more strain on the battery. It's also why Tesla doesn't default to 100% either...

 

[Rossue]

Had similar issue last year while battery still under warranty. Went to Autozone and their tester said "Bad battery". Took it to Ford dealer and they found a loose ground. No problems since. Weird the ground wire was loose; I bought it new and hadn't done anything with the battery. They didn't charge me.

 

[Yupster Dog]

Had similar issue last year while battery still under warranty. Went to Autozone and their tester said "Bad battery". Took it to Ford dealer and they found a loose ground. No problems since. Weird the ground wire was loose; I bought it new and hadn't done anything with the battery. They didn't charge me.

Another example of Any power problems Check the battery and do a voltage drop test first to check the cables and make sure your vehicle is getting the power it needs.
It can save you time, money, and stress. Plus moving forward on your diagnosis you know that the power is not the problem.

 

[zak99b5]

Roughy the car in to the dealer. They said that the battery was fine, but the trailer brake controller was not letting the module go to sleep, causing a parasitic drain.

I had just installed one I bought off Amazon as mentioned above. So I ordered a genuine Ford part. Hope that one works normally.

 

[DWs-TTEB]

my ride is still waiting to be looked at in the Ford dealer. This evening I went and reverted it to stock tuning and pulled the DTC logs. This is the code that it has:

===ABS DTC U0146:00-EC===
Code: U0146 - Lost Communication With Serial Data Gateway 'A'

Status:
- DTC Maturing - Intermittent at Time of Request
- Malfunction Indicator Lamp is On for this DTC
- Test not complete

Module: Antilock braking system

===END ABS DTC U0146:00-EC===



I will FWD this (CAN bus issues) to my service advisor. This Dealer says they are short on mechanics & my normal advisor quit. He said I'd be lucky to have my truck back by the end of next week. Let the fun walking times begin.

 

[DWs-TTEB]

So this issue happened right after I topped of my gas tank after getting 18 gallons (3 clicks). I have always done this w/o issue. I have heard of the EVAP system on these being touchy. Also in 2019 a Costco in NJ had a bad batch of 93 octane fuel (to much detergent). Wondering if this may be the cause too. I drove maybe 250 yards post fill up. I miss my baby!!!