Preconditioning battery for L3 charging

[mb0220]

We know the battery is supposed to precondition to optimize charging when you have a charging stop programmed as your destination in FordNav. But is there any way to verify that this is happening? Like an indicator or a message on the screen? If not that, then what about monitoring battery temp with OBD2 telemetry? Does anyone know what is the optimal battery temp for L3 charging so I could see if it's warming or cooling toward that target?

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[RickLightning]

OBD2 adapter and CarScanner.

Optimum battery temp is 77 degrees. When it works, you can see the heater on taking juice, and the battery temp climbinng.

This is for navigating to a DC fast charger, not level 2.

 

[mb0220]

OBD2 adapter and CarScanner.

Optimum battery temp is 77 degrees. When it works, you can see the heater on taking juice, and the battery temp climbinng.

This is for navigating to a DC fast charger, not level 2.

Thanks Rick - is 77 the optimal temp for charging or for driving? And do you know if there would be active cooling in the same way like if you were driving to a DC charger on a hot day?

 

[mparz00]

This feature is only in the MachE, not the Lightning

 

[RickLightning]

77 is the optimal battery temp, period.

It does not raise, or lower, to 77 when driving. If it's really cold, and you start out cold, you'll see it slowly rise. It usually hovers around 60 when it's colder out. Rises into the 90s when DC fast charging. I have never seen it actively cool, but I don't live in a very hot climate.

 

[RickLightning]

This feature is only in the MachE, not the Lightning

You're the only one that believes this. When you made this point previously, others pointed out that they believed you to be wrong. Someone asked for proof, and I posted something Ford had put out ABOUT THE LIGHTNING:

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/a2z-tesla-and-charge-fault.18671/post-383938

 

[mparz00]

I have not seen anyone post any obd scanner data to back this up. In all my testing over the past winter, I never saw any change in battery temp. When I reached out to Ford directly, they told me this feature is only in the MachE and pointed me to this: https://www.ford.com/support/how-to...-mustang-mach-e-battery-for-dc-fast-charging/ . I wish this feature worked on the Lightning but I have not seen any hard evidence to support that.

 

[mr.Magoo]

Unless it's a part of a more recent update, MY truck did not precondition on the way to the charger.
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...ioning-for-dc-fast-charging.17941/post-362646

There might be 20 reasons as to why not, but I thought the general consensus in that thread was that it's either MachE only and/or whatever they did on the Lightning ain't working.

 

[TaxmanHog]

whatever they did on the Lightning ain't working.

My opinion is a recent update broke the process.

 

[RickLightning]

My opinion is a recent update broke the process.

That is also my opinion, as it stopped working on my Mach-E also. Last October in very cold weather, nada.

 

[bmwhitetx]

My opinion is a recent update broke the process.

Agree, I took a trip a year ago (Apr 23) and had CarScanner going. I remember that it did seem to start changing one of the temps as I got close to the EA station I had set in Nav. Unfortunately I didn't take notes or screenshots. Or I could be dreaming the whole thing .

 

[RickLightning]

Agree, I took a trip a year ago (Apr 23) and had CarScanner going. I remember that it did seem to start changing one of the temps as I got close to the EA station I had set in Nav. Unfortunately I didn't take notes or screenshots. Or I could be dreaming the whole thing .

I believe you didn't dream your trip if that makes you feel better...

 

[Newton]

Well of course I didn't save the screen for the coldest test that I did on my most recent trip but here it is on a chilly morning before plugging in with a Tesla magic dock station selected as the destination. With climate control off I could see the coolant heater was taking 2kW. I have seen it take 7kW. Now is it doing it for pre-conditioning or something else I'm not sure.

Unfortunately I did not happen to take a screen shot for exactly the case that we want which is before plugging in, but I did look a couple of times and it seemed to me like it was on based on the numbers that I was looking at.

It was a very short drive to the magic dock so it did not have time to warm up much. I'm also pretty sure that when I didn't put it in as a destination I did not get pre-heating, and it took between five and ten minutes to get up to "full" charging speed.

 

[Newton]

Here is a photo of the truck at a magic-dock equipped charger, just to let Tesla know what a truck is supposed to look like.

 

[Newton]

Here is a chart of a charging session. Top line is the kW used by the coolant heater. Middle is battery coolant inlet temp and bottom is state of charge. This was at about 8:00 am in the morning in Forks with the temps in the high 30s. I can't swear that I had the cabin temp off for this one (the one that I know I did had a bad recording) but that is what I usually do. I did select the charger as a destination.

Pre-Tesla supercharger update which happened the next day (but the station shows up because it is a magic dock.)

Edit: this is an unusual case for pre conditioning because it was such a short drive to the charger. You will use more energy in the normal case.

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