12V Battery Health Alert in FordPass App Coming Soon

[MAhauler]

Reposted from @mach-lee's post at MacheForum The following are his words:

Finally, Ford is implementing a 12V battery health monitor that will trigger an alert in FordPass when the 12V battery needs replacement. Based on connected vehicle health data, the owner will receive a "Check 12-volt Battery" message in FordPass instructing them to visit their dealer to have their battery tested for possible replacement.​

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Dealership technicians will also see the alert show up when they run the vehicle's VIN and vehicle health report. If still under warranty, they will test the battery with a specific battery tester, which will determine if the battery qualifies to be replaced under warranty or not. (If the battery is past the 3yr/36k warranty period, then you would pay for replacement.)​

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This feature is currently enabled for 2022+ Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator vehicles only, but the team expects to expand this capability to other vehicles. I assume it will be coming to the Mach-E and F-150 Lightning eventually, where it is badly needed. As per usual, Ford's "soon" applies here.​

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As far as I can tell, the battery health monitor will use the detected battery capacity from the BMS (battery management system) to trigger the alert, not just voltage or state of charge. Generally you want to replace an AGM battery when its capacity had declined to 40-60% of new. To clear the battery health alert, the 12V battery should be replaced and the BMS must be reset, which will set the battery capacity back to "new".​

Check 12-volt Battery

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What is happening?​

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Your vehicle's battery monitor indicates that soon your battery may not be healthy enough to start your vehicle.​

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What should I do?​

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Have your 12-volt battery tested at your dealership now. It may need to be recharged or replaced.​

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Personally I'm happy to see this starting to be implemented—it's something I strongly suggested a while ago. It's helpful for ICE vehicles, but almost necessary for EVs since it's much less obvious when the 12V is going bad.​

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[COrocket]

Wonder if the truck will eventually have a dash message as well for people like my parents who like a good old fashioned key fob and don’t use the FordPass app regularly.

Either way this’ll be good news if it comes to the Lightning. The only time I’ve had an undrivable EV was when my Tesla’s 12V battery died without warning and the car wouldn’t wake up. Tesla also seems to have implemented a 12V early warning which now works - so it’s cool Ford is trying to figure it out as well.

 

[TomB985]

Very interesting. My app yells at me whenever I’m parked for more than a couple of days because it finds my dashcam offensive. I wonder if it’ll start telling me to replace the 12v when this warning comes to the Lightning.

 

[Lytning]

Very interesting. My app yells at me whenever I’m parked for more than a couple of days because it finds my dashcam offensive. I wonder if it’ll start telling me to replace the 12v when this warning comes to the Lightning.

I have never seen either of these messages in my FordPass app for iPhone, although I also have a dashcam. Are these messages from an Android or iPhone app?

 

[TomB985]

I have never seen either of these messages in my FordPass app for iPhone, although I also have a dashcam. Are these messages from an Android or iPhone app?

These are on my iPhone.

I drive a lot of miles, so I bought an old Prius for my daily running around. My truck rarely moves unless it’s hooked to something, so it commonly sits for several days. It enters battery saver mode and shuts off app connectivity after 2-3 days.

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