2019 Fusion Energi fails at traffic lights

[Mark H]

I have had four occurances in the past week where I am sitting at a traffic light, car in D, foot on the brake, in EV only mode, where the car will not move and the battery light comes on (see below). Car is 18 months old, 15k miles.  I drive the majority of time in EV only mode, but occasionally need the engine.  In all occurances the engine had not been on during the trip.  On one occurance, the plug indicator showed up briefly, and for a split second it asked me if my car was plugged in (yes or no).   Restarting the car twice seemed to solve the problem, but this a big issue (safety issue?) as I'm stuck in the middle of the street for 30 seconds trying to get the car to move.

 

My two thoughts are that either the 12V battery has gone bad (which is odd given the short time I've owned the car - I am original owner) or there is something wrong with the plug-in switch and the car thinks it is plugged in.  Car is under warranty, however this is difficult to reproduce at the dealership.  

 

Thoughts or experience from anyone on this issue?

 

 

[murphy]

That symbol is for the 12 volt battery.

Have the 12 volt battery load tested.  That means put a 100 amp load on it for 10 seconds and watch the voltage drop.  If it goes below 11 volts the battery needs to be replaced.

Have you ever let the car sit long enough for the 12 volt battery to go dead?  If so, that caused internal damage to the 12 volt battery.

They did get a batch of defective 12 volt batteries back in 2013.

There could be a problem with the DC to DC converter.  It converts 300 volts DC to 14 volts DC to charge the 12 volt battery.  The car does not have an alternator or a starter motor.

[Mark H]

1 hour ago, murphy said:

That symbol is for the 12 volt battery.

Have the 12 volt battery load tested.  That means put a 100 amp load on it for 10 seconds and watch the voltage drop.  If it goes below 11 volts the battery needs to be replaced.

Have you ever let the car sit long enough for the 12 volt battery to go dead?  If so, that caused internal damage to the 12 volt battery.

They did get a batch of defective 12 volt batteries back in 2013.

There could be a problem with the DC to DC converter.  It converts 300 volts DC to 14 volts DC to charge the 12 volt battery.  The car does not have an alternator or a starter motor.

 

Thanks much - The car sat for about 2.5 weeks while I was on vacation, but that was a month ago, and it started up fine.  I've pluged in a volt meter into the 12V cigarrette lighter port and have tried to replicate - unfortunately it hasn't yet.  While the car is on, the voltmeter is reading 14.3V, when off it is reading 12.3V.   If the problem comes up again I'll look at the voltmeter.  Your load test method makes sense - if it arises again, and the voltage drop does not show 11 on my readout, I'll take it in to NAPA and have that done.  Will post results when I fgure it out. 

[Mark H]

So I think I solved the problem.  Attached is a video that shows the car thinking it was plugged in and then immediately having a 12V battery fault and not being able to move.  The car was not plugged in.  I believe dirt must have been caught in the plug port latch and the plugged in sensor got stuck.  I took a vacuum to the charge port and the issue has not reappeared in the past 2 weeks.

is a video 

[muzicman61]

How did it get so dirty?  You been 4 wheeling in that Fusion?  ?

[Mark H]

No four wheeling, just a few gravel roads nearby.  I'm a very boring driver.....at least in this car.  I'm wondering if the problem might be a high voltage problem with the 12V battery - I'm getting readouts as high as 14.9V when I come to a stop.  Does anyone know the error trigger on high voltage?