Plug in to maintain 12v battery

[Mike G]

Don't forget you can do the BMS Learned Values Reset procedure to make sure your 12V battery charges up properly. Might be a useful thing to do if you've left the truck sitting for a long time.

Sponsored

 

[Lightning Rod]

That's why I never turn truck OFF until I exit. If listening to radio or anything else, I have the truck ON so I won't drain any of the LVB. Hopefully, during updates or events like that, my LVB will always be up to the task.

 

[jerock]

So I've received the low LVB warning a few times. & it's usually while it's plugged in to the FCSP. Received the warning I should have it checked at my dealer. It was due for the 10,000 mile checkup so I mentioned the warning I'd received. They should be able to look it up also.
The lowest I've seen with my OBD scanner is 14.3 volts at 60%,, that's what is was when I unplugged at home & it charged up to around 68% on the way to the dealer.

I was a little surprised when the dealer told me that Ford recommended a new light switch because the lights were randomly turning on. I was surprised & said I thought that was a proximity thing when you walk by the vehicle which, it's always done, especially after recently driving it. From what I've learned on this Forum it seems really common.

Guess I'll see after a new light switch how things work.

 

[KennyB123]

That's why I never turn truck OFF until I exit. If listening to radio or anything else, I have the truck ON so I won't drain any of the LVB. Hopefully, during updates or events like that, my LVB will always be up to the task.

Ahh, but those things DO use the LVB. It's just the truck will charge up the LVB at a certain point when the truck is on.

The truck is not continuously keeping the LVB battery charged, nor is it taking over for powering items that use the LVB when the truck is in accessory mode.

 

[Mike G]

So I've received the low LVB warning a few times. & it's usually while it's plugged in to the FCSP. Received the warning I should have it checked at my dealer. It was due for the 10,000 mile checkup so I mentioned the warning I'd received. They should be able to look it up also.
The lowest I've seen with my OBD scanner is 14.3 volts at 60%,, that's what is was when I unplugged at home & it charged up to around 68% on the way to the dealer.

I was a little surprised when the dealer told me that Ford recommended a new light switch because the lights were randomly turning on. I was surprised & said I thought that was a proximity thing when you walk by the vehicle which, it's always done, especially after recently driving it. From what I've learned on this Forum it seems really common.

Guess I'll see after a new light switch how things work.

You know about Welcome lighting right? When you get within a certain distance from the truck with your keyfob or your phone with FP on it the lights come on cause your truck thinks it's time to go for a drive? You can turn that off in the settings. See if that helps. I turn that off for both my car and truck cause it's annoying to see the lights come on outside when I'm just walking around the living room with my phone.

 

[Mike G]

Check out the very top of page 4 for a good explanation of when and how the 12V battery gets recharged when you're NOT driving and just plugged in at home. Also, I've seen 12V battery SOC at around 50% first thing in the morning on multiple occasions, and I don't have aftermarket gadgets of any kind attached. You gotta remember that this 12V battery is only 35AH. That's it. It doesn't take much to drain it in short order.

 

[jerock]

You know about Welcome lighting right? When you get within a certain distance from the truck with your keyfob or your phone with FP on it the lights come on cause your truck thinks it's time to go for a drive? You can turn that off in the settings. See if that helps. I turn that off for both my car and truck cause it's annoying to see the lights come on outside when I'm just walking around the living room with my phone.

Yes I'm well aware of the welcome lighting, that's why I'm surprised my dealer is changing the switch & recommended by Ford according to them.

 

[jerock]

I took my vehicle in for the 10,000 mile service & told them that was the main reason for the appointment. I mentioned the alerts in my app for the battery & it notifying me to check with the dealer. I didn't think I had a problem with the battery.

 

[JL13]

Hello everybody,
I don't have my F150 Lightning yet (build should start 08/08/2023) and seeing all the issues related to the 12 volt battery state of charge or discharge, for my Platinum truck I'm planning to install right away a bluetooth battery monitor like the one that I'm currently using on my RV to monitor the two 12 V batteries ( one chassis battery and one house battery, so you need two separate bluetooth battery monitors).
This little device allows you to use your smartphone with an app thru a bluetooth connection to monitor and record the 12 V battery historical charge and discharge cycles recorded with a 2 minutes interval. The 15 days collected data in then visible in form of a continuous graph on your phone. This unit only draws 1.5 mA under 12V which is very low consumption, and I think that this 12 V historical data would help better understand the charging behavior while the truck in plugged in to a level 2 power source or even to a DC fast charger.... Hope that this device can be of some help.
This is the device that I bought on Amazon: https://a.co/d/cZzWCKj

 

[MM in SouthTX]

I asked this once before on a different thread, but did not get an answer. Any reason that we can't replace the 12V battery with one that has more amps? I have definitely drained 12V batteries just by playing the radio or leaving the doors opened while at the beach or a park all day. The 35A battery in the Lightning would seem to make this far more likely.

 

[Maquis]

I asked this once before on a different thread, but did not get an answer. Any reason that we can't replace the 12V battery with one that has more amps? I have definitely drained 12V batteries just by playing the radio or leaving the doors opened while at the beach or a park all day. The 35A battery in the Lightning would seem to make this far more likely.

Not necessary. It’s not like an ICE where you have to run the engine to keep the battery charged. The Lightning will keep the 12V battery charged from the HVB. Unless there’s a malfunction.

 

[On the Road with Ralph]

This is an example of bad engineering. The Li battery has plenty of juice that COULD be used to keep the 12v charged/trickle charge the 12v battery when the car is idle and off, but they didn't think of that, or had some reason not to do it that escapes me.

Actually, the Lightning will automatically dispense 300 watts of power from the HV battery if it detects that the 12v battery's SoC has dropped below 40% (waits 48 hours) or 30% (does so immediately).

While I am happy to be critical of Ford's software engineering, they did in fact cover this base.

 

[Audiolover]

So I got a notice in my Lightning yesterday after driving for an hour that the 12 volt battery was depleting and I should plug in to charge. It also said this could be caused by aftermarket accessories and they should be disconnected (I am paraphrasing a bit) anyway, plugged in and it seemed to go away. Now for the weird part - had a look at my security cameras for the previous night and at about 3:30am they were triggered by lights flashing inside the cab of the lightning! I kept an eye on it last night and after dark (when the cameras switch to IR mode) there is was! Looked like a disco in the cab! Lights flashing like strobe lights! Went outside and of course, don’t see anything. Zoomed in on the camera and see its
Coming from the dash camera locations for the Blue Cruise. Totally nuts considering the truck was off and parked for several hours. It’s going in today to see what’s going on. I am planning a major upgrade to the B&O leashed sound system and don’t want them pointing at that if this battery issue continues.

 

[bmwhitetx]

So I got a notice in my Lightning yesterday after driving for an hour that the 12 volt battery was depleting and I should plug in to charge. It also said this could be caused by aftermarket accessories and they should be disconnected (I am paraphrasing a bit) anyway, plugged in and it seemed to go away. Now for the weird part - had a look at my security cameras for the previous night and at about 3:30am they were triggered by lights flashing inside the cab of the lightning! I kept an eye on it last night and after dark (when the cameras switch to IR mode) there is was! Looked like a disco in the cab! Lights flashing like strobe lights! Went outside and of course, don’t see anything. Zoomed in on the camera and see its
Coming from the dash camera locations for the Blue Cruise. Totally nuts considering the truck was off and parked for several hours. It’s going in today to see what’s going on. I am planning a major upgrade to the B&O leashed sound system and don’t want them pointing at that if this battery issue continues.

Others have noticed this with those terms. So might search for infrared or disco. Was the truck locked? I think some determined it was the intrusion alarm monitoring.

 

[Audiolover]

I showed the video to my Ford dealer today and they said they haven’t seen anything like it. They are pushing it up the chain but want to do full diagnostic to see if something else causing it.

Sponsored