LVB lifespan?

[Green1]

So I've been looking at the drain on my LVB. And I'm seeing frequent drawdowns into the 40%s and 50%s which has me a little worried. These are lead acid batteries, and I know one of the worst things you can do for a lead acid battery is deep cycles. Any experience with how long these batteries last? And any good ways to figure out the health of one? Is this even normal?

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[carys98]

The batteries are AGM (absorbed glass mat) so they are better at deep cycle performance than a standard lead-acid battery. The battery manufacturers have perfected the life prediction of their batteries. Every battery I’ve ever bought seems to have died within 3 months of the warranty running out so by 39 months you should plan to replace it.

 

[Adventureboy]

I've had to replace mine already at about a year (under warranty). The charging profile was poor on our Lightnings initially with some bad BMS sensors that didn't monitor the drain properly. Ford has fixed some of this with updated charge profiles and CSP on the Battery Monitoring Sensor (BMS).

How are you tracking your battery SOC? If you are using a OBD II monitor, you are probably keeping many modules alive causing the 12v to drain faster than without the OBD II monitor. I tracked with an independent monitor and found it to drain much slower after a couple of hours of shutting off the truck.

To @carys98 's point, AGM are designed for deeper cycles, hence why they are used. It probably won't last much beyond the warranty but they are cheap and easy to replace.

 

[John Becker]

Mine was replaced (free by the dealership) after only seven months.

 

[ciferguson37733]

Mine is getting worse after 7 months. Have the 20k mile checkup coming up and will ask that it be replaced under warrantee.

“Getting worse” as indicted by the frequency of the truck going into “battery saver” mode.

Haved moved my fob far away from the truck at nites - helped for a bit, but it’s back.

changed the home charging profile to minimum rate on the charger (1.5kw) to extend the time the truck is charging - helped some, but it’s back.

Took the battery out and put on a 2A charger for 2 days - still doesn’t get fully charged.

Tested with a cheap battery tester and it passed the 330cca test - so who knows..

 

[Green1]

How are you tracking your battery SOC? If you are using a OBD II monitor, you are probably keeping many modules alive causing the 12v to drain faster than without the OBD II monitor. I tracked with an independent monitor and found it to drain much slower after a couple of hours of shutting off the truck.

I'm tracking through the home assistant integration, using the Fordpass API. originally I thought I might be polling it too frequently keeping it awake and causing the drain, but on further investigation that can't be the case, because the polling interval doesn't change, and sometimes it will go for many hours at a steady state of charge, and other times it will lose more than half the battery in an hour. It's very random when it happens, but it definitely happens a lot more than I would expect.

 

[RocketGhost]

Any aftermarket batteries out there that are better than OEM?

 

[Green1]

Any aftermarket batteries out there that are better than OEM?

Ohmmu is making an LFP battery specifically for the lightning but at $480 USD, plus $60 USD shipping, plus customs clearance, plus taxes. that's a lot of money to put down. I was pretty happy with the Ohmmu battery I had in my Tesla, the warranty on the battery was about 6 times the average lifespan of the lead acid battery from Tesla, at only 4 times the price as the Tesla one (but mostly it was a one time hassle instead of a hassle 1-2 times every year)

There are many other good battery options, though all the other ones I've found require modifying the battery tray, so depends what you're comfortable with. There's tons of room in there, it's just not designed for any other size/shape. (Seems the Mach-E has a tray with room for a larger battery and you can find AGM batteries for dirt cheap that are nearly twice the capacity we have, but not the Lightning)

 

[duncanmaio]

Just replaced mine after 62,000 miles and 26 months (May 2022 build). Big FDRS session last night was probably the last straw - around four hours with pretty good draw on the external power supply. Today (after a 45 mile commute and a HVB charging session) I got a bunch of random idiot lights and then a "stop safely now" warning. Everything returned to normal about 45 minutes later, but I recognize the symptoms of a failing battery, so now there is a new Diehard EV battery in the frunk.

 

[Green1]

Just replaced mine after 62,000 miles and 26 months (May 2022 build). Big FDRS session last night was probably the last straw - around four hours with pretty good draw on the external power supply. Today (after a 45 mile commute and a HVB charging session) I got a bunch of random idiot lights and then a "stop safely now" warning. Everything returned to normal about 45 minutes later, but I recognize the symptoms of a failing battery, so now there is a new Diehard EV battery in the frunk.

Care to share which battery you went with?

 

[duncanmaio]

Diehard H3-XEV

 

[Whammy Bar]

I'd assume the standard new vehicle warranty covers the battery for 3y/36k mi. Sounds like duncan was under the years but over the miles...

 

[chl]

The batteries are AGM (absorbed glass mat) so they are better at deep cycle performance than a standard lead-acid battery. The battery manufacturers have perfected the life prediction of their batteries. Every battery I’ve ever bought seems to have died within 3 months of the warranty running out so by 39 months you should plan to replace it.

I kept my last truck's 12v battery, a Motorcraft 100 month batter, "alive" for nearly 11 years by keeping it on a dashboard solar trickle charger, even though I did not drive it every day or very far, all local short trips.

Caveat: it was a 2001 Ford Ranger with no on-board computer etc. to eat up electrons like the Lightning does.

Still, a dashboard solar trickle charger might help? They only trickle charge when the sun is out so unlikely to over charge the battery, esp with all the drains from the electronics.

My 2012 Nissan Leaf (bought Dec 2011) still has the original battery (basically 12 years old). Because it is in my garage, the little solar panel on its roof for trickle charging the 12v battery (a Nissan feature) gets no sun most of the time. I have it on a plug-in trickle charger. It has protection circuitry to prevent overcharging.

The Leaf has an on-board computer with charge timer and telemetrics using battery when off so more of a drain when off than the Ranger.

So my conclusion is that trickle chargers can extend the life of 12v batteries. They have for me anyway. Individual results may vary.

For what it is worth.

 

[johnnyonetime]

Any aftermarket batteries out there that are better than OEM?

I went with Ohmmu after 8 months.
Bluetooth enabled app to monitor and no issues since. OEM battery is a weak link.

 

[Green1]

I went with Ohmmu after 8 months.
Bluetooth enabled app to monitor and no issues since. OEM battery is a weak link.

Their website is a little short on detail, to know what the capacity is of their battery? I'm assuming more than the stock one, but I don't know by how much.

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