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

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147K views 264 replies 75 participants last post by  STRAUSJE  
#57 ·
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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Click to expand...
Actually the dealers use Ford FDRS, not ForScan so they don't set battery types manually all they would have done is a follow the service function to do a battery reset. The higher charge state showing in ForScan is more than likely due to the BMS system in the Hybrid expecting a nominal voltage of ~11.75 vDC and the AGM voltage out of the box being higher.
 
#79 ·
That's correct.
On the Hybrids the battery is used as the power supply for booting the electronics and to provide accessory power when the ignition is off. The BMS in this case looks at when the battery is consistently under 10.5v when the ignition is turned on rather than months in service like it does with the conventional engine.

The dead give away on a Hybrid needing a new 12v battery is when you get the system off to save battery screen less than 10 minutes after you've recently driven the car for 10+ miles.
 
#136 ·
It's much more than kicking a relay.
The 12v battery is the power source for booting all of the electronics up (PCM/BCM/BEMS/INVERTER), once those are fully powered up the PCM will start the engine.
 
#141 ·
The AGM is an H6 vs the conventional which is a T4.
T4 dimensions: 6 15/16" W x 6 7/8" H x 8 1/8" L
H6 dimensions: 6 7/8" W x 7 9/16"H x 12 1/16" L

Basically around 1/2" taller and 4" longer, the battery hold down is on the base, the top bracket is a shield.
 
#228 ·
Couple of things here:
1) IF you want to change the battery type in the BCM to reflect the H6 AGM using ForScan, you would change 726-02-01 from 0707-xxxx-xx (H4) to 0303-xxxx-xx
2) There's a firmware/calibration issue with the TCUs where they don't go to sleep like they should. The issue is resolved in calibration part number LB5T-14G087-SN (this updates the F188 and F10A to LB5T-14G139-SP/LB5T-14G144-SP). If the tech still sees a parasitic drain afterwards you need a new TCU.
 
#232 ·
It's a quick swap, takes all of about 30 minutes including the time to pull the plastic plug from the H6 hole and crack a beer.
Walmart has a 4 year AGM for $179.00 US, you'll want to get the BMS reset by someone with a scan tool or get a copy of ForScan and an OBDLink EX adapter.
Keep in mind that if you're still under the 3/36 warranty, if the car so much as farts the dealer can try to blame it on not using the recommended battery.
 
#234 ·
It varies by model, year and sometimes trim.
And it's not on just the Escape, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
The only true way to tell is to be able to look at the battery age with a scan tool.
 
#247 ·
Actually its pretty easy as long as you're not trying to modify module configs or firmware, so call it a 4/10.
To reset the BMS you'd go to BCM service procedures and change the battery age.

Where folks typically run into problems is when they consider the easy button module mods a gospel truth and when they try to do them by modifying a hex value without understanding addition/subtraction in hex. (hex is 0-9. A=10, B=11, C=12, D=13, E=14, F=15. so changing a value by adding 4 to an A is an E, a taking 4 off a B is a 7 etc).
 
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