2020 Ford Escape Hybrid - replace 12 volt battery with larger Group 48 AGM

drunyon07 said:

Just posted this on another thread but figured I'd include it here. Thanks again Colorado_Al for the deep research and fix.


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First time I've ever joined an Escape forum in order to login and post a comment. I have been going down this rabbit hole for my wife's 2020 Escape Hybrid SE SPORT for about a year and a half now. Deep sleep is such a pain when the only way you can remote start is by using the app(SE Sport keyfob doesn't have the start button).

March 2021 the battery it came with(10/2019 build date purchased in 01/2020) had been in deep sleep on and off for awhile and finally got tired of it. The dealer replaced the battery because it was deemed a bad battery(drained too much over time). My wife works very close to home and with the pandemic we weren't doing long trips of driving.

Oct 2021 took it back in because it started deep sleep again and they charged the battery and returned it to us. Not even a day later deep sleep returned. Their so called fix to me was bs..."just drive it more". Not a real fix! So after doing a bunch of research I came across numerous threads, and the one that gave me my final decision was from Colorado_Al. I called the dealership up and after being bounced around between service, parts, and service talking with a technician, and many choice words later, they scheduled me to have the 48AGM installed(despite their numerous objections and statements that it could potentially cause damage).Ford does not want to admit blame with this because if they did, they would have to issue a recall and install expensive AGM batteries in thousands of vehicles at their expense. Rather than fighting with Ford any further, we foot the bill for the larger battery that is present in late 2020 production models and current 2021 models.

11/5/2021: Today is the day that they finally installed the battery for us. With how much of a pain it's been, I decided to get a new OBDLink cable since I couldn't find my old one. I'm glad I did. Yes, they did use Forscan to update the BMS battery type to AGM. But no, they didn't update the actual battery options away from factory name. Also I noticed SOC(state of charge) was showing 120(%). Most likely that was due to them having the AGM battery listed but still claiming it was the 45ah battery. I manually decided to change it to 80% when I switched the actual battery name over to the 70ah AGM.

Based on what I have seen in multiple threads, there hasn't been anyone that this didn't fix their issues with deep sleep. But just to be safe, when we go out of town tomorrow, i'm bringing the laptop and obd cable with. I want to thank everyone who's brought up these issues and giving it attention because we were close to just giving up and trading the car in for a gas version.

Moral of the story: Just pay out of pocket for the AGM battery...it'll be less hassle.
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