2017 Fusion Energi Dead Battery Issues

[expresspotato]

My 2017 Energi Platinum 12v battery continues to die despite two trips to the dealer, a supposedly new battery, and a software update. This car has serious, fundamental design problems. It's the last Ford I will ever buy/lease. Four jump starts in last six months. 

 

I hear you Bob! It's insane to keep coming home to a dead car with no lights and you can't even get inside. How embarrassing to drive a Ford.

[expresspotato]

Update: removed battery and installed new interstate battery. Found a TSB for TCU under all bulletins in Alldata, we were searching for charging issues and the bulletin was listed under “all” bulletins not specific to charging or battery issues. The patch has been out there since April 2017 and as noted in the bulletin this is a no charge fix for folks with our issues. Doesn’t matter your mileage. Ford knows this is an issue and there is a solution!!! Replacing the defective battery is step one - flashing the car is step 2

 

Shame on the ford dealership for telling me all tsbs were up to date in my car... they clearly weren’t.

 

My car has never been so responsive- I will report back if this changes- message me

If you want more details !

 

Any link stating no charge? 3 Ford Dealers close to me say it's $$$

[luckyleo]

 Started having issues with my battery. It is about 3 years old and made in Mexico, like the car.  I will not buy another made in Mexico vehicle or battery.

Anyway....     I bought an AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) battery at Sams Club for $90.85  ($98.36 after taxes and fees).   The battery is 75DTAGM.  MADE IN USA. I do not see it online, but I did find it in the club.

It was on sale with $20 off.  So now it is more like $110.     I read in several posts that they needed to cut the battery tray to get an AGM battery to fit.   This one fits without having to cut the battery tray.

The battery posts are on a different side from the original battery.   I just needed to undo the clip for the positive cable to give it a little more length and it was able to connect fine.   No overflow tube, so it does not need to be reconnected.   The top hold down strap fits snugly.   I reversed the screw in bottom brace and it acted like a wedge and holds the battery nicely.  

A little bit of a hassle to remove the trim to get to the battery compartment.   Some trim holders are screw off, some need a trim clip puller/remover.

 

 

 

[drgslayr]

On 9/16/2019 at 2:46 PM, luckyleo said:

 Started having issues with my battery. It is about 3 years old and made in Mexico, like the car.  I will not buy another made in Mexico vehicle or battery.

Anyway....     I bought an AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) battery at Sams Club for $90.85  ($98.36 after taxes and fees).   The battery is 75DTAGM.  MADE IN USA. I do not see it online, but I did find it in the club.

It was on sale with $20 off.  So now it is more like $110.     I read in several posts that they needed to cut the battery tray to get an AGM battery to fit.   This one fits without having to cut the battery tray.

The battery posts are on a different side from the original battery.   I just needed to undo the clip for the positive cable to give it a little more length and it was able to connect fine.   No overflow tube, so it does not need to be reconnected.   The top hold down strap fits snugly.   I reversed the screw in bottom brace and it acted like a wedge and holds the battery nicely.  

A little bit of a hassle to remove the trim to get to the battery compartment.   Some trim holders are screw off, some need a trim clip puller/remover.

 

 

 

 

 

I know this post is old but I just bought the same battery and it fit perfect. Thank you for the find.

[stevon]

On 4/3/2017 at 9:43 PM, prott69 said:

 Hello all,

 

So I'm curious to know if anyone else has experienced what I'm going through?

 

So the care was purchased about 4 months ago and here's my story...

 

 

• 3/18/17 - Go out to leave on a Friday night for a date with the wife and battery is dead.
  • I originally tried to put a cooler in trunk and when I hit the hidden button on the underneath by the trunk area the lights blinked once.
  • Opened door and orange light on rotary gear shift knob was on, tried push to start button and key FOB. Orange light went off around that time and car was completely dead.
  • Put car on battery charger so I could get it out of the garage since you can’t put the car in neutral to roll it out because it’s dead. You also can’t get in the trunk to where the main battery is. Figured out you could charge it from under the hood.
• 3/20/17
  • Take car into dealership. 2:45 hours later service advisor David Hoppel states the load tested the battery and it was dead, so they replaced it. No mention of a diagnostic, and nothing shows they did one on paperwork. I noticed reading up on customers with the exact same model and year, that the following items had been replaced, or updates done. A ACM (audio control module) replace, and in one instance the whole radio system replaced. An ACM software update. TCM (transmission control module) randomly illuminating tranny control dial LED. I believe this is the blue light that surrounds the rotary shifter dial. It illuminates the same color as the background lighting. 
  • One thing I noticed that the vehicle had never done since I took ownership of it was how responsive the system was with for example the door handle actuators. When you place you hand in the door handle the car doors unlock and lights flash. This was sluggish since day one, and it was noticeably different and quicker after battery change. Only difference was I was driving the vehicle with much more regularity then. 
  • When I asked about others having issues like this I was told that the dealership will go for some time with little to no battery replacements, and then over the last 6-8 months it’s gotten to where their replacing a battery at least once a day according to him. Says only two manufacturers make batteries for Ford, and they must be getting bad batches of them.
• 3/31/17
  • 11 days later and the car has been driven 4-6 times with no issues until tonight. Again, on a Friday. I go out, decide to get something out of the car, and then it dawns on me no lights came on when I opened the door. I try all the usuals only and get nothing this time with the exception again of the orange light on the rotary shifter knob, which again is slowly blinking, and then goes out completely. (Note: like some in the “Car Complaint” forum I have noticed that shortly after I bought the vehicle I indiscriminately get a “system off to save battery power” message on the Navigation screen as I go to turn the car off. This message only displays at random times, there is no consistency. 
• 4/3/17
  • Car will make it’s second trip in for the same issue. Problem is I start back with Walmart in a few weeks and can’t afford to have a car that won’t start with the driving distances I will have to both training and final store in South Gate, Ca..
  • wSo I go out to check the charging of the car from the battery charger, so within about 7hrs the battery is showing 100% charged and was in trickle charge mode. I disconnected everything. I then walked to the car with key FOB in hand, touched the door handle and entered the car. At that point I decided to do my own test based off what I'd read from the forum. I figured at that point, I’ll get out and take the FOB out of range of the car, which I did, then got back in the car. All the lights and accessories were lit up. About 30seconds later everything went off except the rotary shift knob, (orange indicator light and backlight LED ring remained on along with the USB port underneath in the center dash. 3-4 minutes later they go off. 5-6 minutes later for no reason the rotary shift knob only comes back on, and you can hear relays cycling under the dash/steering wheel area. The knob stays lit for about 3-4 minutes, then goes back off. Another 5-8 minutes go by and the knob lights back up, and this time you can hear the CD player cycle like it’s trying to kick out a CD/DVD. The knob remains lit for another 4-6 minutes and goes back off. At that point I gave up, It was getting late, and got out of the car. I took someone else’s advice from one of the forums and locked and alarmed the car from the FOB when I was away from the vehicle. We’ll see what the morning holds.

 Prott69,

 

Yes I have a similar problem

2017 Ford Fusion Energi Manufacture date 03/17 Vin: 3FA6P0SU2 HR329791

I just purchased this used 2017 Fusion Energi and have had immediate battery problems, even before I purchased the car! this Fusion has 13k miles and we paid 18,000 for it. Was that a good deal? well when we looked at the car it has a  flawless appearance but it was odd that the salesman had to jump start the Fusion to demonstrate the car. We traded in our old car, did the paperwork and drove the Fusion home. Charged Hybrid battery overnight and used the car the next day. Problems commence! it took my wife a half hour to get inside the car with the remote key Fob and then 20 minutes pushing the start button to get it to turn over. She got the car home and we drove it to the nearest Ford dealer as this was authorized by the Gosch dealer we bought it from (45 miles away). Today at work I looked into this issue and found out that the 2017 has a long full history of dead battery problems! We arranged to get the car to another Gosch dealer (only 20 miles away) and dropped it off there. Is there anything I should tell the dealer to check? They sold it to me as a certified car with a quoted " has a full factory warranty" When we talked to local Ford dealer checking out the car they said the car is not under factory warranty and demanded 169 bucks! Today when we picked up the car at Pearson Ford (local), the car was dead and required the key to get into the car. Push start button did nothing, couldn’t open the trunk and we tried to get to release handle in the trunk via back seat but could not reach the manual release. Finally a worker at Pearson helped us out and jumped started the car from under the hood, he said to us “the dead battery happens quite a lot on these cars, I jump them all the time” Having a constant parasitic drain on any battery will eventually destroy it, also loading the alternator to 100% performance will shorten it’s life too. What a fiasco! no wonder a car with that low mileage was traded in in the first place! 

 

Stephen

Edited October 1, 2020 at 04:24 PM by stevon
2017 Fusion

[murphy]

The car does NOT have an alternator so I would take anything that guy says with a grain of salt.  It has a DC to DC (350 VDC to 15 VDC) converter to charge the 12 volt battery.

It also does not have a starter motor.  The engine is started by one of the two electric motors that propel the car.

If the car is driven every day you should not have a problem. 

If it sits for a week without being driven you need a smart 12 volt battery charger to connect to the terminals under the hood to keep the battery charged.

There are a lot of microprocessors in the car that are never turned off.

Get a piece of small diameter rope and attach one end to the emergency pull handle in the trunk.  Feed the other end up to the cabin behind the right rear fold down seat back.  Attach that end to the steel bar that the seat back clamps to when in the upright position.  Pull the rope to open the trunk.

 

A wet cell lead acid battery is the wrong battery for the car.  It's in there because it is cheaper than an AGM battery and works fine if the car is driven a lot of miles every day.

I put an AGM battery in my 2013 about 6 months after I got it.

 

I carry a standard jump box in my trunk.  In over 7 years I have not had to use it.

 

[stevon]

44 minutes ago, murphy said:

The car does NOT have an alternator so I would take anything that guy says with a grain of salt.  It has a DC to DC (350 VDC to 15 VDC) converter to charge the 12 volt battery.

It also does not have a starter motor.  The engine is started by one of the two electric motors that propel the car.

If the car is driven every day you should not have a problem. 

If it sits for a week without being driven you need a smart 12 volt battery charger to connect to the terminals under the hood to keep the battery charged.

There are a lot of microprocessors in the car that are never turned off.

Get a piece of small diameter rope and attach one end to the emergency pull handle in the trunk.  Feed the other end up to the cabin behind the right rear fold down seat back.  Attach that end to the steel bar that the seat back clamps to when in the upright position.  Pull the rope to open the trunk.

 

A wet cell lead acid battery is the wrong battery for the car.  It's in there because it is cheaper than an AGM battery and works fine if the car is driven a lot of miles every day.

I put an AGM battery in my 2013 about 6 months after I got it.

 

I carry a standard jump box in my trunk.  In over 7 years I have not had to use it.

 

Murphy,

 

Yeah the Fusion Energi model is a unique animal without a  regular starter and alternator. With the new battery and reprogram of modules, we should be OK at least for now. I think a cell went bad in the old battery and voltage was too low for the computers to do their job to enable driving the car. Might look into a lithium replacement battery for the car eventually. I ordered a jump device, a STANLEY P2G7S Simple Start Lithium Ion Portable Power and Vehicle Battery Booster for 30 bucks open box that I'll keep in the car just in case. Thanks for the feedback!

 

Stephen

Edited October 1, 2020 at 05:51 PM by stevon
unique animal

[ClaveMan]

A large number of Mexican made Ford Fusions (across the board of models variants) were released with defective batteries in 2017 (a few had bricks of Marijuana where the spare tire goes).

 

There are also drains on the electrical system on the 2017 that are covered under 3 service bulletins you can find on this forum,

 

But forget most of that..  What you really need to focus on is one fact..

 

For any potentially electric or computer issue on a Ford electric vehicle you must make an appointment with a Ford EV Certified Technician (Mechanic).

 

I took my hybrid in 3 times for the electric fix.  On the third visit I asked for the EV Tech.  

"Oh this is Friday BBQ lunch day.  Glenn [their 1 ev tech] is here cooking some brats.  I'll have him take a look."

Glenn sat in the passenger seat pushing buttons on the plug in computer box and taught a regular mechanic how to install a replacement battery.  

This included a process he called "marrying the battery to the [hybrid or ev] car".

 

The point is for better or worse you bought an exotic vehicle.

1. Find a dealer with a certified EV technician.

2. Assert you want an appointment exclusively with their "EV Certified Technician".

 

Find the nearest EV Certified dealer by going to this web page and check the box Certified Electric Vehicle Repair

https://owner.ford.com/service/dealer-locator.html#/?gnav=footer-owner

 

Of course if you are getting your tires rotated it doesn't matter.  

Edited October 1, 2020 at 06:07 PM by ClaveMan

[stevon]

ClaveMan,

 

That is some good information for the next time this happens

 

Cheers!,

 

Stephen

[alphaman]

I’m not a Sams Club member, and as mentioned, Costco doesn’t have anything. We’ve been nursing the MotorCraft battery along for a few months now, occasionally having to throw a trickle charger on it when it starts to display the infamous “shutting down to preserve battery” messages. All kludgy hacks must come to an end...

I went to AutoZone last night, when systems started doing things too weird for my wife. (Too weird for me, actually -- an electrical engineer, and way too disconcerting for her!) Their website said they had 2 batteries for the FFE-T in stock (though not an AGM), so it seemed like a good enough option. They brought out one, a T4, and I knew it wouldn’t fit. I asked if they’d install it, and they declined, saying it was corporate policy not to do swaps on hybrids! (?) I asked if they had a socket set I could borrow, and they were happy to oblige me.

I pulled the old battery, and sure enough, their model was like an inch or more too short, way too small to be locked securely in the tray. The sales guy said that my battery looked like an H5, and that they did have that in an AGM.

Long story short, 20 minutes later my new Duralast Platinum H5-AGM battery with 3 year warranty was in the trunk and the Energi was good to go. CCA's are 680, up from the 590 on the MotorCraft.

Two notes:

1. The hold down strap barely fits, as the H5 is a bit taller than the MotorCraft. A little fiddling and I was able to get the two straps to interlock.
2. The door over the battery compartment has an odd piece of plastic that looks like a clip sticking out of it that blocked latching the door correctly. I snipped off the lower part of the clip and it fit perfectly (see linked pics for the before and after).

Because I had to install the battery myself, the sales guy gave me 10% off the price; nice guy.  YMMV.

Photos available on my iCloud "Car Stuff" album.

Edited January 27, 2021 at 02:38 PM by alphaman
typo

[jsamp]

Looks like that clip on the back of the door was designed to hold a tool, but your taller battery interfered with it.  Good solution.  

 

The Duralast is a bit pricey, compared to the stock Ford battery that also has a 3 year warranty, but I'd bet the stock battery will die before your AGM does.

[Desert bandit]

I drove to the airport and back which is a good 30 miles and parked the car but when I went to get into the car 24 hours later the battery was dead and I just had the battery place 3 months ago. Roadside assistance were able to jump start me. If it happens again I'm going back to the dealership because it shouldn't do this.

[jj2me]

On 1/27/2021 at 9:35 AM, alphaman said:

I’m not a Sams Club member, and as mentioned, Costco doesn’t have anything. We’ve been nursing the MotorCraft battery along for a few months now, occasionally having to throw a trickle charger on it when it starts to display the infamous “shutting down to preserve battery” messages. All kludgy hacks must come to an end...

I went to AutoZone last night, when systems started doing things too weird for my wife. (Too weird for me, actually -- an electrical engineer, and way too disconcerting for her!) Their website said they had 2 batteries for the FFE-T in stock (though not an AGM), so it seemed like a good enough option. They brought out one, a T4, and I knew it wouldn’t fit. I asked if they’d install it, and they declined, saying it was corporate policy not to do swaps on hybrids! (?) I asked if they had a socket set I could borrow, and they were happy to oblige me.

I pulled the old battery, and sure enough, their model was like an inch or more too short, way too small to be locked securely in the tray. The sales guy said that my battery looked like an H5, and that they did have that in an AGM.

Long story short, 20 minutes later my new Duralast Platinum H5-AGM battery with 3 year warranty was in the trunk and the Energi was good to go. CCA's are 680, up from the 590 on the MotorCraft.

Two notes:

1. The hold down strap barely fits, as the H5 is a bit taller than the MotorCraft. A little fiddling and I was able to get the two straps to interlock.
2. The door over the battery compartment has an odd piece of plastic that looks like a clip sticking out of it that blocked latching the door correctly. I snipped off the lower part of the clip and it fit perfectly (see linked pics for the before and after).

Because I had to install the battery myself, the sales guy gave me 10% off the price; nice guy.  YMMV.

Photos available on my iCloud "Car Stuff" album.

 

This worked perfectly.  I think this is the current best answer for those wanting a replacement 12V AGM battery.

 

Here also is a detailed step-by-step YouTube video, altered only by alphaman's two notes.  The only slight differences (which you can't miss) that I encountered with the YouTube instructions for my 2017 Energi was for pushing the side panel aside: 1) my 2017 had a push clip to be removed, and 2) my 2017 had the green fuel door pulltag that has to be pushed through a ready-made slit for that purpose in order to push the side panel out 90 degrees.

 

For those who prefer text or want to do a hot swap, here's murphy's text instructions.

 

I did nothing special in purchasing the battery, but also found a 10% courtesy discount was applied.

 

I didn't do a hot swap, and was without a 12V battery for about an hour 10 minutes.  Since nav destinations and radio selections are intact, those must be stored in flash, at least in the 2017.

 

Thanks very much, alphaman, for finding and trying this solution and for the detailed post and pics.  Great stuff!

Edited November 29, 2022 at 04:45 AM by jj2me

[bayareaford]

 

Anyone know if SSM 46433 firmware update for the ACM issue resolves this?

 

Edited July 30, 2023 at 03:55 PM by bayareaford
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