Battery Voltage

[Happy]

Our Bronco has always started but regularly goes into battery saver mode. I have been keeping an eye on the battery voltage and it seems low. The battery has never failed to start the Bronco. It just seems to not keep a full charge.

The factory battery has been charged with a latest model super smart AGM spec'd charger/maintainer. After setting overnight the battery voltage is 12.46 with zero load. Is this a concern? It did start without hesitation.

My charger has a "smart" restore setting that I have not yet tried. If the battery is still good I don't know that it should be ran through a repair cycle that is supposed to fix stratified and sulfated batteries. Any tips?

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[Tricky Dick]

I don't recall, were you dirt mountain? Mine shows a bit low sometimes and has gone into battery saver mode a couple times and I suspected it's farked from DM.

 

[Happy]

It was delivered within a month and a half of coming off the assembly line.
In another post there was discussion of the battery saver mode coming on ours as well.
Flip said to keep the Bronco on a maintainer.. So that is when I got my charger/maintainer.

We are trying to figure if it is a bad battery. A battery that I let go too low from not driving regular, or if it is "fixable" by the electronic whizbang

 

[jasonf]

I have the same issue - after parked for a few days bronco wont start - now i use a battery tender to maintain charge . It also has a clicking power noise that happens when not in use - most likely draining the battery- A lot of owners have this problem i am just waiting to see what solutions comes along .

 

[DEC]

FWIW, mine will go into battery saver mode after about 4 days of not in use too. Well start but the parking lights and info screen will not come on when opening the door. Voltage shows about 12.4 which I don't really consider to be all that low. Not sure what the threshold is for setting it off.

 

[flip]

That's not a big concern as long as it's starting fine and you are driving long enough daily/weekly to keep it fully charged. One thing we've found with the AGM is that it's a lot more difficult to recover after it's been fully discharged, like most never come back.

In FDRS there's a battery capacity function that is, IMO, a better indicator of state of charge/health. Once capacity drops below a certain point, certain functions don't work correctly. If F150 drops blow (don't quote me on this) 60%, the touch lock on the passenger door won't work but will on the driver's door. Don't know if bronco has any of these less desirable issues but I used the 150 as an example.

My suggestion, if you take your bronco in for a software update or something else they have to have FDRS hooked up for and have them see what it shows for battery capacity.

 

[Ksjrb03]

Our Bronco has always started but regularly goes into battery saver mode. I have been keeping an eye on the battery voltage and it seems low. The battery has never failed to start the Bronco. It just seems to not keep a full charge.

The factory battery has been charged with a latest model super smart AGM spec'd charger/maintainer. After setting overnight the battery voltage is 12.46 with zero load. Is this a concern? It did start without hesitation.

My charger has a "smart" restore setting that I have not yet tried. If the battery is still good I don't know that it should be ran through a repair cycle that is supposed to fix stratified and sulfated batteries. Any tips?

Curious, how exactly do you know it’s in battery saver mode. My Infotainment screen has been showing the message “Bronco Saved” some recently. Is that what your seeing?

 

[Happy]

Our connected Ford Pass shows it as a notice on our phone.
Usually says Remote features being shut down to save battery.

Also, have seen it on the dash screen sawing something about shutting down to save battery.
This was only once. The phone notice is regular if not driven or charged.

 

[Happy]

Flip, we received our Bronco last November. Has there been a software update that we can receive?
If so is this free?

I will take ours in for a battery capacity check.

 

[AZ_Liberty]

While I normally think of a battery as a "wear item" similar to tires, I do know lots of folks who have managed to receive a brand new battery under warranty.

Batteries don't exactly last a long time where I live anyway, I actually made the dealer swap out the battery on my wife's new F-150 before we left the lot.

Worth a try.

 

[Ground_zero298]

Use a trickle on mine too. Nothing but battery issues with any vehicle it seems now a days. Real bad with gm’s.
Noco genius 10 is my trusted go to. Have 13 or 14 of them. Can charge from zero volts. Have never let me down.

 

[DEC]

Also, one of the tricks I use on my BMW is locking the doors to put it in sleep mode. I will try the same on the Bronco and see if it makes a difference.

 

[Happy]

We use the Noco Genius 10. May try the repair mode and see what happens.
DEC, Sleep mode sure can't hurt.

 

[Rick Astley]

We use the Noco Genius 10. May try the repair mode and see what happens.
DEC, Sleep mode sure can't hurt.

Was going to ask what charger you're using. At least it's putting 3.6 amps out (peak), although from the bench testing I did on the units I had, Noco was not able to maintain peak output very long before thermal overload and throttled output.

I'll say this: There is a reason Batteries + Bulbs no longer carries the "Genius" chargers. When I took my third unit in for warranty replacement he just grabbed it and threw it in a rather large box that was filled with....... Other Noco chargers that were being sent back.

Those units are built to a rather low price point and sold at a premium. Sometimes they work great and you get a winner. But other times you have a unit that overheats and doesn't do it's stated job no better than those tiny 0.5 amp output Battery Tender units that folks buy at WalMart then wonder why their RV is dead.

I ended up with a drastically larger form factor Duracell unit that outputs 7 amps (3.5 for each of 2 lines) and it's been unflappable for years. I've bench tested it on dead AGM, lead acid and 6v batteries and it maintains an incredibly steady load before going into pulse modulation for maintaining after hitting load.

 

[Happy]

I noticed the Noco get fairly warm to the touch. Used to have a Schumacher but it was pretty old.
Is there a battery charger that you can recommend? Is the Duracell the brand?

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