mczajka

Well, after leaving MD for 6 days, when I returned, my 12 volt was dead. This is a new battery. I did not use FordFordMobile to access the car at all during those 6 days, and I did not get a text. It appears the car sent the text at 11 am today, but I only got it after I jumped the car. Back to square one I guess, but I think this only happens when the weather gets hot. A similar thing happened during one of those 95 degree days earlier in July, but within a 9 hour period sitting at work in a hot parking garage. I'm afraid now, again, it will cooler and I won't have these problems. I still can't believe nobody out there experiences their battery fans going on while the car is operating but standing, in hot weather or when the sun has beaten down on the trunk all day. My fans will continue to run, even after I power the car off, and will shut down only when I open and close the trunk. This is highly weird to me. Fortunately this time I kept a battery jumper in the car, but unfortunately it was in the trunk. Another fortunate thing was I had a car flag in the car and I was able to drop the back seat and reach the child safety handle in the trunk to open it. Is there another way to open the trunk when you have no power? Secret hidden key hole?

Eric4539, what was your vehicle build date? My problems have gone away (knock on wood), since they replaced my 12 volt battery. Apparently diagnostics did not test as a bad battery, although they were running their tests from the front initially, then changed to the back to do their draw testing, where the battery is located. I never got a check engine light or any other warnings. I would sometimes get the low 12 volt battery text, but the first time it happened, I did not get the text until I tried to plug the car back in. All these problems started when the weather got real hot (90 degrees plus) in my area. My fan would run in traffic, when stopped at a light. My fan hasn't been running since it has cooled down (75-85) here now.

My car has sat a few days now with no problems. So, it was probably a defective battery. Of course as soon as I say this...well you know what could happen. I have not connected the phone to it or used the MFM app. Frankly, I'm afraid to now, although it shouldn't be a problem when the car is plugged in. It's possible my battery was defective and the heat brought on all these problems. I didn't constantly keep the car plugged in because I don't like to charge it during the day in the extreme heat of my garage. I finally got the delayed charging working, but that limits you to start at midnight. I would prefer 3 AM. TX NRG...do you work for NRG in Texas? I've linked up with some great people in Maryland and they are putting a Level 3 about 7 miles from my house.

Great work! This kinda reminds me of the scene in the Apollo 13 movie when they were trying to figure out how much power the lunar module needed to get back up. We need some Ford engineers to start looking at this website and providing feedback.

Andre07 If my 12 volt were to die again, I will use this to get my car started so I'm not stranded: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XQ9MGE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

murphy, many of my EV friends say the same things you are saying. They've experienced similar problems with other early hybrid and EV models. I'm finally back on the road. The big test will be when I go on vacation and the car sits for 6 days, but I do have a battery jump device now.

You would hope that information gets back to the factory. I wonder if they could trace it right back to an employee. Good to know there is protection in place. Hope no damage was done. I was wondering about this if a fan was to ever go bad.

I don't think a Ford field engineer ever came out, but they were back and forth on the phone with them. No, they're going to turn it back over to me after doing some tests today. We shall see.

After 2 days of additional draw testing, they are finally going to replace the battery. I'm kinda surprised that they didn't do this earlier because it is probably one of the least expensive parts in the entire chain of things that could go wrong.

I'm going on day 9 with my problem. Haven't heard anything from the dealer yet today. Since the car has been there, I've gotten two low 12 volt battery texts, the last one at 9 am yesterday, which I told them about, and they were aware of. My fear is now that the weather is milder here, 80-85, the problem is going to somehow magically disappear and reappear when it gets hot again, or real cold this winter. And as the saying goes...Have you driven a Ford lately?...No, it's in the shop. I feel sometimes I'm just way too nice to these people. I can't imagine having a new car go bad after 3 days and having to deal with repairs. How did you handle it? I'm feeling like I need to put some heat on, but what's that going to accomplish? What adds to the frustration is that I keep getting calls (2nd one) from my dealer's telemarketing people asking me how my service was, when the car is still there. I basically told the person she was very insensitive and hung up on her. They're asking you how your last service was before you had to bring the car in again...all triggered probably from some database.

So then a few questions: 1) Should one assume then if you leave the car parked for a while (a few days or week), it's best to keep it plugged in if you can plug it in (lightning warnings aside of course)? 2) When the 12 volt was dead (in my garage), when I tried to plug the car in, there was no light ring test or initiation with the EVSE. It would be nice to know though if there is still a trickle charge going in, but I would think not, since no communication was made with the car. Someone let me know that battery problems like this cropped up in other early EVs, and I think even the Prius Hybrid. They recommended a very good battery called ODYSSEY and I contacted them. http://www.odysseybattery.com/ This is what they had to say: Hello Mark Unfortunately we do not have plans to offer the direct replacement battery size you need for your 2013 Ford Fusion Energi. We do offer the PC1200MJT which can be used but it will need modifications to fit in your vehicle. Thank you, Maria Orlando-Krick Marketing Manager

So the latest on this...I'm documenting so anyone else who has this issue might see it...they are testing the battery again. My local service rep. though just called me reading something back from what appeared to be a Ford database, saying that the battery should be tested from the trunk area. I think they were testing from the front of the car. So, they are going to run a long test again. Someone, Ford?, also disabled my password to MyFordMobile either last night or this morning without telling me. LOL. I was able to reset it though. I was checking the car once or twice a day, but I don't think Ford wants you to check your car multiple times if it's not plugged in. What do you think of that? Is this in the manual? They certainly don't want me checking it during their tests, but they never told me this. I now know. So, I guess don't use MyFordMobile if your car is sitting in a lot whilst you are on vacation. They really need to do something about this.

I also noticed during the first 3 months I had the vehicle that sometimes the auto window up would work, and sometimes it wouldn't. I don't know if this was me accidentally resetting it, or the beginnings of my battery woes.

How is it that my radio station presets are still there, but the clock gets messed up, after the 12 volt battery fails? What this tells me is that perhaps it is not completely dead, and I think what others have said is a relay goes off when it hits a certain threshold.

They electrician that installed my SPX Power Xpress recommended these batteries, but they don't have any for 2013 models. http://www.odysseybattery.com I'm not ready to go there. My car is still at the dealer.

This is a good question. I don't think so. It was only about 1 gallon of water and the wells that hold the air compressor and charger caught it, as well as the covering over them, which appears to be designed to capture liquid in the case of a spill. What a horrible design this would be though if this stuff wasn't protected. Wouldn't you agree? I've since contacted the dealer to let them know about this. Thanks for reminding me. The car was fine right after this happened and wasn't really a problem until a little over 3 weeks later. I immediately caught the spill and was able to dry out the top piece which can be removed.

And yes, the car is dead. This is good for me, because now I hope they believe what I am saying. Unfortunately, you have to use the car to get it to fail. If you use a charging station every night, you may not uncover this problem. This is all building up to me going on a flight in a few weeks. I hope it's resolved by then, otherwise when I return, my car will be dead in the airport parking lot, and I will have to use my new battery jumper. This brings me back to the Volt, which I really wanted, but due to my height, the comfort factor is nowhere near the Fusion. But I recall them driving Volts in the deserts and in the snow, testing it for years.

I guess they need to add a third well in the trunk for a battery jump charger, which could be a new feature...LOL. When I told the service dept. I went out and got one, as well as a digital battery meter, they said "you shouldn't have to do this with a new car." Well, what do you want me to do, get stranded? It's a shame, I really love this car, but when a car becomes undrivable, you start questioning the decision to drop $42K on it.

I agree Nherring. Hey, my car is still at the dealer. After two days of troubleshooting with no problems, I had them drive it around one more time then let it sit last night. I got a low battery notification and some strange info coming from the Ford App. Bet your Energi can't do 255 miles on the battery like mine can! LOL...Waiting for service to call me back after they try to get into the car, which I think it dead. At least I got this alert this time. I haven't been getting any notifications.

Are the battery fans very noticeable on your car when you stop at a stop light? Yes. They only go on when the car has stopped. They will even kick on when I get near the car with my keyfob and touch the doorhandle. I'm surprised they go on before I push the start button. I think these fans have a few modes, and the one I appear to be hearing is the higher mode.

Really would appreciate it if any of you running in 80 degree plus temps. can tell me if your battery fan goes on when you a driving? Specifically when you stop at a traffic light or stop in traffic. Thanks! One said it doesn't, but I want to get more feedback.

Interesting. This could be part of the problem which I mentioned to the dealer. Perhaps some kind of temperature sensor in there is bad. The fans go on everytime I stop at a light or I stop in traffic. These are the same fans you hear when the car is charging.

Yes, I couldn't figure it out last night. After reading the online manual, it was still confusing, but I figured it out this morning, charged the 12 volt for 1/2 hour, and I was off and running back to the dealer. My battery jumper is coming tomorrow. It should be interesting when I go on vacation next month and leave the car sitting in the airport lot. Perhaps I should get a solar trickle charger.