Are you getting a door open warning if you open the door with the engine running?

 

JPohlman- Thanks. Yes, I am getting a door open warning.

Plugger

 

Your 12v battery has too low a voltage.
Your Sync is probably saying the car has gone into battery saver mode.
Does the lights come on when you turn on the truck?
i have the same problem.
Dealer has had my truck for 2 weeks because there are no escape batteries available in the US

 

Thanks pellegjo-

This car is only 4 months old. With a PHEV I wonder if the 12v is only charged by running the engine? We rarely do... almost 100% plug-in EV driving. I've been wondering whether the car will force the engine to run sometimes just to maintain that system.

How can I tell if Sync is in battery saver mode?

EDIT: just remembered that about 4 weeks ago (Thansgiving) we took a 200 mile trip, so the engine got lots of use then.

Plugger

 

Thanks pellegjo-

This car is only 4 months old. With a PHEV I wonder if the 12v is only charged by running the engine? We rarely do... almost 100% plug-in EV driving. I've been wondering whether the car will force the engine to run sometimes just to maintain that system.

How can I tell if Sync is in battery saver mode?

EDIT: just remembered that about 4 weeks ago (Thansgiving) we took a 200 mile trip, so the engine got lots of use then.

Plugger

This comes down to your everyday trip length, the car basically need 2-3 15+mile one way trips a week the keep the 12v battery going bad due to ongoing lack of minimum charge.
Easiest way to see if you're in this state, open the door on the car, don't start the engine and turn on the radio using the power button. You should get at least 15 minutes of play time before the screen says "turning system off to save battery".

 

It will tell you on the display when you shut the truck off
you will also get a message on your ford pass
if the lights work with the car is on its the battery.
the 12V battery gets charged from the high volt battery when the car is on, even if the engine doesn't run
there is no alternator on the truck

if u turn the truck on and have a voltmeter on the battery it will go up to 14 volts without the motor running

 

Thanks! Help me understand it a little better. Here is my likely flawed attempt to piece it together:

1. The 12v is charged during driving by the hybrid mechanisms
2. The engine is NOT required to charge it
3. The 12v is drained by
   1. starting up the EV motors on start up
   2. HVAC fans
   3. seat & steering heaters??
   4. radio
   5. lights
   6. other stuff even when the car is parked, such as key fob sensor?
4. item (1) above is a cost to starting the car. Short drives might not recharge this cost.
5. item (6) above is a cost to not driving
6. the other items are presumably pay-as-you-go. the charging must be greater than their cost, otherwise just using them would drain the battery.
7. the net charging while driving must be great enough to pay off the debt of starting the car, and it draining while parked.
8. the economics might be bad in winter:
   1. we use the seat and steering heater all the time
   2. charging rates are impeded by low temperatures

Conclusion: we do not drive the car much, and when we do it is short drives. Our battery is at risk of not getting charged enough.

Solution: a smart charger? I am thinking NOCO Genius5 might do it?

I will check the voltage with my multi-meter, and possibly bring the car to my mechanic for him to test.

Thanks,
Plugger

 

The 12v battery is only the booting battery for the electronics.
So, it's not so much that the other devices are on the 12v bus as it is the fact that the normal charge rate isn't that high compared to a conventional car where you have a 90+ AMP alternator who's first job after the car starts is to recharge the battery so that its ready for the next start.
A mechanic that doesn't have the necessary Hybrid experience should in this case do a load test on the 12v battery since it's still the same tech that we've have since the 1920s. What the mechanic should see is a battery at roughly 70-80% charge since a Hybrid typically charges the 12v battery at just a hair under 13v while a conventional car charges at 13.5-15v.

From what other folks on here have found the long term solution for the factory 99R/T4 battery running low when the car isn't driven a sufficient distance regularly enough for the battery to fully charge is to replace it with an 48/H6 AGM.
These are the factory battery in the MKC/Corsair, they seem to be better suited for the way the Hybrid charges and are 760CCA compared to 470CCA.

 

I drive 60 miles a day and i still got the battery saver message after about 9000 miles, and when it turned cold.
I think the battery is too small and gets burned out after a year.
When my Hybrid is in the on/run position (ICE off) the voltage in the battery goes up to 14.5v

 

I can confirm that after my wife drove the car round trip to a destination about 20 minutes away, the dome lights were back on. This supports the Battery Saver Mode theory.

Is there a diagnostic showing the charge level of the 12v battery? There should be!

I have a multi-meter coming tomorrow that has a 12v battery mode, to show the charge in precision.

Plugger

 

You can read the state of charge with a good code reader or by using ForScan with an OBDLinkEX.

 

Below is a picture I took of the battery I have.

From other posts on this forum it seems I could (ultimately) replace it with this one (70Ah 760A AGM)?? (backordered). Is that something a standard mechanic or dealership will do, given that it is not the stock battery?

 

You can, it takes all of 5 minutes more than a standard battery swap the whole procedure is elsewhere on here, all it requires is removing a plastic filer plug 2" from the other bolt hole and putting it in the original hole.
There are plenty of H6 AGMs out there, AC & Interstate are 3 yr batteries, Walmart's EverStart is a 4 year, the Motorcraft is a 3yr free exchange, 72 month prorated.
Any mechanic can go it, a dealer may or may not do it since it means they aren't replacing the battery with the size in the book.

2020 Ford Escape Hybrid - replace 12 volt battery with...

Here's a quick how to video that I made showing replacing the stock 12v 45AH lead acid battery with a 12v 70AH AGM battery. Some folks have had issues with the stock 12v battery running down and not being able to unlock the vehicle, or start it by remote, or some to even start it at all, as it...

www.fordescape.org

 

My dealer finally found a battery!!

It should be here sometime Monday, but i have a check engine light on which the dealer said came from a weak battery which makes no sense.
Hopefully i get my truck back Monday or Tuesday.
Meanwhile i had their loaner 18 days and 1000 miles

 

My local mechanic gave the battery a load test. It came back with "good battery" 65% CCA

How does that impact the theory Battery Saver Mode is the cause of our dome light not turning on when I open the door (car off)? (Reminder: sometimes the dome light does come on, and I can't see a pattern yet.)

Thanks,
Plugger

 

How long was the drive to the mechanics?
Had the car been driven other places earlier in the day?

 

Hi, thanks.

The car had driven about 6 miles that day (today). Mechanic is 1/2 mile from my house.

When I opened the door (car off) at the mechanic the dome lights did not come on... with the battery at 65% CCA.

(Just checked again, 3 hours after the 65% CCA, and no dome lights).

Reminder: the dome lights do come on when I open the door to leave the car, after it was on.

Plugger

 

Sorry. Another update.

I drove a mile to grocery store this morning.

As soon as I turned off the car the radio and screen turned off with a gray "Shutting down to save battery" message.

So it does seem to be a battery saver issue. But why does this kick in at 65%?

And why oh why isn't there a battery level indicator for the 12v if it so profoundly impacts the behavior of the car?

Plugger

 

It's caused by what the BMS thinks the condition of the battery is.
You're working with a Hybrid, some of the old rules are a bit different but if we were talking about the conventional version of the car 65% would be a car that turned over and started, but slowly.
The BMS is logic driven so it looks at battery voltage, the SOC, how much charge the battery accepted over X amount of time, etc.
Ford has never had a gauge for the 12v battery on any of their Hybrids, the difference here is that the system on the 2020MY+ Escape Hev/PHEV seems to be designed more for an AGM than a conventional flooded cell battery. The two charge in an entirely different manner (you can burn up an AGM by charging it with an older battery charger that lack the logic).

 

I'm having a similar issue in my '23 2.0 non-hybrid.

Dome light switch is in the middle position. It's a 3-position rocker switch - Left - ON, Right - OFF, Middle - auto.

Tonight was the first time I got into the car in a very dark parking space. As long as I've had this car, it's either been light outside, my lit garage, or a well-lit parking lot. So I noticed this for the first time tonight.

1) car is off, I'm not in it. Walk up to it, open the door, and the dome lights do not come on. I can manually turn them on and off. If I open and close the door, the lights stay off.

2) start the car, or put it into on/acc mode. Shut it off and the lights will come on. They stay on until I open the door, exit, close the door. Or, if I stay in the car, they stay on for a set time and then turn off. (I think this is what happens, I didn't pay very close attention. I was really trying to figure out why they didn't come on when I open the door.)

As long as the vehicle is off, and the dome lights are off, they don't come on automatically.

I honestly don't know if this has worked properly in the past and has just started acting this way, or if this has always been.

It's also been double digits below zero (F), so I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and hope that this is just a temporary cold weather behavior.

 

You might be in battery saver mode. If you have a voltmeter or multimeter, check the 12v battery voltage at the posts under the hood. If you're somewhere near 11.7 that would explain it. Or, anyway... that is how it was for my PHEV.

Another test is to have the radio playing, and turn off the car. See how long it stays playing. If you pretty quickly get a gray screen saying something like "Shutting system down to save battery" that's battery saver mode for sure.

Another symptom we had of battery save mode was fob didn't unlock the passenger side door.

Plugger

 

I don’t get any indication of battery saver mode. The interior lights and radio stay on until I open the door or there’s a timeout value that’s exceeded.

I’ll connect a voltmeter but the last time I did that, last month, it was 12.6V. Min voltage during start was 10.8V and then rose to 14.9V when it began charging.

 

Ok. Keep us posted about what you learn.

 

I’ll check voltage again in a little while. I put the car in the garage where it’s a little warmer, it was 6F outside where the car had been soaking for several hours.

 

I checked just now. The battery is sitting at 11.8V with no lights on. I think some parts of the displays may have been activate because I had to open the door to unlatch the hood.

11.8 seems way too low.

 

I checked my Ford app and saw this message from earlier today.

That was from this morning. I did drive for about 40 minutes this afternoon, but it was like 15+20+5.

I didn’t drive it yesterday.

Should be much warmer tomorrow and I know I’ll be driving it.

 

Yup, there you have it. Battery Saver hell. LIke you said, probably will return to normal when the weather warms up.

I am curious what size battery ford provides w/ a conventional 23 escape. Look for the Ah and CCA on the battery under the spare tire, if you get a chance. In the PHEV it is 45Ah 390CCA

(I usually come back to the car five minutes after opening the door/hood, to get a volt reading "at rest")

 

What the heck. Why, with all the battery saver bullshit I've been going through (requiring a new battery from dealer) didn't I get one single Ford Pass message like you did?

Actually, at one point I did get a message. It said "Plug in your vehicle. Your 12v battery is low" or similar. Weirdly that was after I had tried charging the battery with a smart charger. However, over the many weeks I was suffering with mysterious battery saver symptoms it otherwise never gave me any message... even up to the point where the dealer declared the battery kapoot.

Now that I have a new battery, all is well. Contrary to what people on this forum said, I believe the plugin charger does charge the 12v. I say that because yesterday morning the 12v was at 12.25 and today, after a night of being plugged in, it is at 12.45.