The "Auto Stop-Start" is so annoying!!!!

[aggiegrad05]

Why the heck are you guys talking about having to trickle charge brand new $50-100k vehicles...are they really that poorly designed? Wth??

After 2 years my battery seemed to not be keeping up with all the electronics. It has been surmised that there’s so much drawing on the battery that when you just take a lot of short trips (as I, and several others, do) the vehicle isn’t given enough time to charge the battery fully. So we’re batting around the idea of occasionally (once a quarter?) hooking it up to give it a nice full charge.

But no, I don’t think it’s a design flaw other than having a lot of high voltage whizbangery running. Hell, I’ve had batteries not even LAST two years in other vehicles. Mine is still going strong.

 

[Artie]

Why the heck are you guys talking about having to trickle charge brand new $50-100k vehicles...are they really that poorly designed? Wth??

I think my issue, if I even have one, is most of my trips are short and I don’t drive daily. The battery never gets a chance to get a full or long charge.

 

[Deadman]

The alternators typically output ALOT, so they charge the battery very fast. Maybe this one is different, I never looked at the specs.

 

[Artie]

So I ran the charger until the battery reached 100%... all the door handle locks are working as is the welcome lighting. I didn’t test the ASS since I don’t use it. Appears the lock issue was from low battery charge.

 

[MxRacer965]

Cute Ridgeback pup, StealthyBulldog!

Is anyone using the Version2 (Memorizer) A.S.S. Eliminator from 4Dtech? Sorry if I missed it perusing the prior 19 pages of this thread.

Yes, I am using that exact product. Works fine.

 

[Meeker]

I'm hearing on this forum that our batteries are AGM - so I looked around at what makes them different. One important difference from the old lead acid is that they cannot be charged at high amps! So the 15A quick recharge after starting the vehicle maybe doesn't happen, and you have to drive it longer to get back to full charge. This would be especially hard when all your heaters are on like this week where we've had 6 days of -30C.

This is all my guesswork but if this AGM limitation is real then it would explain some of the low battery voltage issues seen by some people. I've also experienced the scenario over the last few months where ASS hasn't activated even once, and every time I check it is "... vehicle charging".

Still the question "Why the heck are you guys talking about having to trickle charge brand new $50-100k vehicles...are they really that poorly designed? Wth??" is valid. Should Ford be looking at a better battery technology to avoid these issues?

 

[aggiegrad05]

This is all my guesswork but if this AGM limitation is real then it would explain some of the low battery voltage issues seen by some people. I've also experienced the scenario over the last few months where ASS hasn't activated even once, and every time I check it is "... vehicle charging".

Still the question "Why the heck are you guys talking about having to trickle charge brand new $50-100k vehicles...are they really that poorly designed? Wth??" is valid. Should Ford be looking at a better battery technology to avoid these issues?

Obviously I was one of the ones that had this issue (ASS didnt activate for about 6 months, always "vehicle charging", door handle unlocks not working, etc.). The dealer just "restarted" the system and now it works great; their guess was that the software just got hung up somewhere and it THOUGHT there was insufficient charge in the battery. I'm not suggesting that the battery was charging to 100% (given my driving habits I'm sure it wasn't) but I think it's a software issue not a hardware one.

 

[Grey ghost]

Agm batteries are much better but they do have a few idiosyncrasies. They generally last longer. But given Ford's performance or lack thereof with thier shocks at the first sign of trouble I'll head to my interstate battery store.i have AGM batteries in everything.

 

[John I]

Yes, I am using that exact product. Works fine.

Thanks for the feedback! I like the idea of having a device plugged into the diagnostic port vs wiring into the dash button.

 

[Ted Kramer]

I prefer the wired in version but both should work the same. Btw it’s awesome.