[jpohlman]

Just a reminder the 12v battery is actually the booting battery for the vehicle electronics.
It gets charged directly from the alternator, not the HVB and a 12v battery problem can be spotted real easily if you turn off the car and then turn on the radio (it should play for ~20 minutes).
Old school item to check is the electrolyte level in the battery, pop the caps and if it isn't touching the bottom of the black plastic at the top of the cell add distilled water or cheap bottled water. After that drive it for 20-30 miles on the highway to get a good charge in it since regenerative braking doesn't charge this battery and the alternator doesn't turn in EV mode.

A lot of batteries sat in cars and warehouses due to CoVid and the electrolyte does evaporate.

 

[fbov]

Your dealer is correct in saying the stop/start feature ...

I don't believe any of this applies to a 2020 Escape Hybrid. Post 15 is accurate.

 

[fbov]

Just a reminder the 12v battery ... gets charged directly from the alternator, not the HVB

My car does not have an "alternator." It has a DC-DC converter.

 

[null]

It is a Ford after all, and not a Japanese engineered Toyota RAV4...

You probably missed my post about Rav4 2020 having widespread issue with this as well. As a matter of fact Escape has had less issues then Rav4 overall.

 

[invader]

You probably missed my post about Rav4 2020 having widespread issue with this as well. As a matter of fact Escape has had less issues then Rav4 overall.

You mean 12V battery problems with hybrids? Oh well... It has since been rectified for 2021 RAV4 Hybrid, along with an ECU recalibration for previous models as per T-S-0095-20.

 

[null]

You mean 12V battery problems with hybrids?

Yes. Not sure I can post links to Rav4 forum but if you search you can find most popular forum that discussed that issue to death there.

 

[Gryffindor101]

Just wanted to remind everyone that this thread is not to compare the Escape with the RAV4. Please keep the Toyota out of this thread please.

 

[wiz043]

I don't believe any of this applies to a 2020 Escape Hybrid. Post 15 is accurate.

If you check my post #20 you will find that it was in answer to a different post by @LoonLove involving a 2019 Titanium petrol model which has now correctly been moved to the 3G forum.

 

[Toddster]

I recently purchased a 2020 Titanium Hybrid Escape and around 2000 miles I parked it for 8 days while I was on a trip. The battery was DOA. Jumped it and all seems ok and have an appointment on Monday to do some battery tests.

Another strange message came up while driving away form a parking spot. "Vehicle not in Park" or something similar came up twice. At a red light I shifted to PARK and back to DRIVE and haven't seen the message since.

 

[wiz043]

Another strange message came up while driving away form a parking spot. "Vehicle not in Park" or something similar came up twice. At a red light I shifted to PARK and back to DRIVE and haven't seen the message since.

You may have got this message because your battery was not fully charged yet and the message disappeared as you charged it with further driving.
All sorts of technology 'glitches' can occur if the battery is not fully charged..

 

[invader]

I recently purchased a 2020 Titanium Hybrid Escape and around 2000 miles I parked it for 8 days while I was on a trip. The battery was DOA. Jumped it and all seems ok and have an appointment on Monday to do some battery tests.

Another strange message came up while driving away form a parking spot. "Vehicle not in Park" or something similar came up twice. At a red light I shifted to PARK and back to DRIVE and haven't seen the message since.

While perhaps not as practical, it is much better to maintain the 12V battery by regularly keeping it charged up with an automatic battery charger via the battery jumper posts, rather than jumping/boosting it once it's DOA... Lead acid batteries deteriorate quickly from sulfation buildup when discharged. Battery may also be damaged from freezing whenever its state of charge has depleted.

 

[etbar8302]

More than likely it needs a tcm reprogramming or replacement. Also if you really don’t use hotspot turn WiFi off.

 

[Corski67]

At 3224 miles, my vehicle would not start one morning. After several day at the local Ford dealership, to await an appointment date, they determined that the battery (12 volt) was dead. Cleared codes, re-charged the battery without a clue as to why this happened.
Therefore, I am not confident that this will cure the issue for good.
Any thoughts?

I just had this same issue. The car was built in September and I brought it home in October. It has been driven pretty regularly but obviously not a lot of miles since bringing it home. Over this past week, it wasn't driven for exactly 6 days. There's no reason a battery should be stone dead (8 volts) after sitting only 6 days. The car has just over 3000 miles on it. I will be watching the voltage very closely over the next few days. If it shows further evidence of the battery draining, I will be testing for a parasitic draw. There really isn't any explanation for a brand new car killing off its battery that quickly. It has to be a defect of some kind. Of course the dealer will be fixing it if there is a problem but it's always good to let them know you've confirmed that there is a problem before you drop it off. I will report back here, regardless.

Update: I checked the car for a parasitic drain this afternoon. It showed a 280 milliamp (Ma) draw after a minute or two. I called the dealer to make an appointment to have it looked at. The service manager said the only accurate way to check for a parasitic draw was to wait 40 minutes... Uh... Wow, I said. That's a long time but apparently all the systems may still be doing their thing for that long so that's the only way to check it. I'm just going to see how the battery holds up overnight. If it's dead or too low, it's going to the dealer to be diagnosed.

 

[J dubbs]

I just had this same issue. The car was built in September and I brought it home in October. It has been driven pretty regularly but obviously not a lot of miles since bringing it home. Over this past week, it wasn't driven for exactly 6 days. There's no reason a battery should be stone dead (8 volts) after sitting only 6 days. The car has just over 3000 miles on it. I will be watching the voltage very closely over the next few days. If it shows further evidence of the battery draining, I will be testing for a parasitic draw. There really isn't any explanation for a brand new car killing off its battery that quickly. It has to be a defect of some kind. Of course the dealer will be fixing it if there is a problem but it's always good to let them know you've confirmed that there is a problem before you drop it off. I will report back here, regardless.

Update: I checked the car for a parasitic drain this afternoon. It showed a 280 milliamp (Ma) draw after a minute or two. I called the dealer to make an appointment to have it looked at. The service manager said the only accurate way to check for a parasitic draw was to wait 40 minutes... Uh... Wow, I said. That's a long time but apparently all the systems may still be doing their thing for that long so that's the only way to check it. I'm just going to see how the battery holds up overnight. If it's dead or too low, it's going to the dealer to be diagnosed.

I’ve put my 2020 escape hybrid to sleep for 60 min only to come back and hear the electrics motor coolant pump is running (it’s low on the firewall infront of the passengers feet) now it comes on constantly and runs the battery dead all the time within hours of shutting off the vehicle. Dealer can’t figure it out and it’s been out of service 40 days and on it’s 5th trip back to the dealer. Currently going back Monday as it sits dead in my driveway. I love the car and got 0% on the loan and would like to keep it but it does me no good if it isn’t ready to go when I am. I’m between a rock and a hard spot because my time is closing in on deeming the car a lemon and just getting something else.

 

[Corski67]

I’ve put my 2020 escape hybrid to sleep for 60 min only to come back and hear the electrics motor coolant pump is running (it’s low on the firewall infront of the passengers feet) now it comes on constantly and runs the battery dead all the time within hours of shutting off the vehicle. Dealer can’t figure it out and it’s been out of service 40 days and on it’s 5th trip back to the dealer. Currently going back Monday as it sits dead in my driveway. I love the car and got 0% on the loan and would like to keep it but it does me no good if it isn’t ready to go when I am. I’m between a rock and a hard spot because my time is closing in on deeming the car a lemon and just getting something else.

I just went back out and tested mine again after driving it yesterday. Voltage is already below 12.2 which means it will likely be below 12V by morning. Definitely a parasitic draw issue but not sure what circuit is causing it. It will be going in to the dealer ASAP for them to diagnose which circuit is causing the problem. It's not a complicated test to figure out which circuit is causing the power drain. If you're hearing the pump like that, that's a pretty obvious problem. If the dealer you've taken the car to can't figure this out, they're either totally incompetent or they are just trying to get you to go away. Don't oblige them. Be a total pain in their butts until they fix it. Document EVERYTHING.

I suggest also getting online to report the issue to Ford and if possible take it to a different dealer. I will not hesitate to make Ford buy the car back if this continues without resolution. I'm a long time Ford owner and have had great luck with my cars. If this thing spends more time at the dealer than in my driveway, it will be owned by Ford instead of me. I love everything about the car but problems like this are completely unacceptable. We buy a new car so that we DON'T have car problems. This might be the last Ford I own if they can't fix it. There are too many good cars out there to put up with crap like this.

 

[J dubbs]

I just went back out and tested mine again after driving it yesterday. Voltage is already below 12.2 which means it will likely be below 12V by morning. Definitely a parasitic draw issue but not sure what circuit is causing it. It will be going in to the dealer ASAP for them to diagnose which circuit is causing the problem.

If the dealer you've taken the car to can't figure this out they're totally incompetent. I suggest getting online to report the issue to Ford and if possible take it to a different dealer. I will not hesitate to make Ford buy the car back if this continues without resolution. I'm a long time Ford owner and have had great luck with my cars. If this thing spends more time at the dealer than in my driveway, it will be owned by Ford instead of me. I love everything about the car but problems like this are completely unacceptable. We buy a new car so that we DON'T have car problems. This might be the last Ford I own if they can't fix it. There are too many good cars out there to put up with crap like this.

I’m gonna give it a couple more try’s before I give up on it and as far as dealers go it’s been to 2 dealers both can confirm that the module is kicking on the pump but they can’t make it stop even with new modules. I work at the Ford factory and I’ve sent emails to people in Detroit hoping my diagnosis will land on someone’s desk and they’ll help find a fix for it. Basically this sounds software or network related, but I don’t have the equipment to test for that.

 

[Corski67]

Just an update since last week...

The car was looked over by my local dealer. They ran a full diagnostic on the battery and did a parasitic draw test. They found no issues. The draw was only 10 milliamps which is well within normal range.

For what it's worth, before I took it to the dealer I went into the system options and did a few things:
1. Disabled automatic system updates and turned off WiFi
2. Turned off Mobile Hotspot (Cellular)

I really have no conclusive evidence that these changes solved the problem but I do know that the battery is not draining anymore. Voltage has stayed static for several days whereas it was dropping daily by a quarter to a third of a volt.

I was suspicious of the Mobile Hotspot (cellular) because the 3 months "free" coverage had recently expired the week just prior to the battery going dead. The fact that others had reported having the same battery issue at the same mileage made me suspect that it could be software or system related. If the expiring cellular plan kept trying to validate my subscription (or whatever) via cellular, it's possible that it could run the battery dead over a period of 5 or 6 days not being driven. I know my previous cell phone would trash its battery when out of cell range because it kept trying to reconnect to the network.

It's a stretch... I know but these are the only things I changed on the car. If the computer is firing up WiFi or the mobile hotspot while the car sits, it would draw some power. I just thought I would put it out there in for someone else to try.

 

[wiz043]

@Corski67...as Jerry Seinfeld would say. " you might have something there". .
I have wifi and auto updates etc. set up in my car and it doesn't seem to draw power but your later model and battery setup is obviously different.

 

[Gryffindor101]

Since this thread is for 2020+ Hybrid Escapes, let’s leave the discussion to that please.

 

[fbov]

I have wifi and auto updates etc. set up in my car and it doesn't seem to draw power...

Me, too; wi-fi and auto updates on since the day after purchase, 1/18/2020, with no issues. It's gone to sleep and awoken without issue.

However, mobile hot spot has never been activated.