Truck battery not fully charging

[CarolinaJet]

Hey all, I’m having an issue with my truck that I could use some ideas/guidance

it’s a 2018 f150 3.5 eco boost. It has a factory AGM battery

the main symptom is that the auto stop/start quits working. The truck tells you why, it says it’s disabled due to vehicle charging. The best I can tell is this means it’s below a certain voltage threshold. The problem is it stays that way. Long road trips don’t ever get it to the point it considers the battery charged.

ok so it just needs a new battery right? Well, when I hook up my 4 amp smart charger, it shows the battery at less than 50% and charges it for hours to get to 100%. Then, auto start/stop works like it is supposed to. A few days go by and it goes back to being disabled.

Lastly, if I don’t do the supplemental charging there are no other issues. It has sat at the airport for a week and still started right up, driven around for a month, no problem. So there is some charging going on for sure but not enough to keep the battery fully topped off.

Where would you all start? Thanks in advance

 

[Neutron]

Start with A new battery for sure. 5 years is average life expectancy.

 

[fatboyroy]

I’ll start checking alternator output, check connection etc make sure it’s working before buying new battery. If it charges using smart charger it’s not likely battery issue

 

[MrBubbaGump]

Hey all, I’m having an issue with my truck that I could use some ideas/guidance

it’s a 2018 f150 3.5 eco boost. It has a factory AGM battery

the main symptom is that the auto stop/start quits working. The truck tells you why, it says it’s disabled due to vehicle charging. The best I can tell is this means it’s below a certain voltage threshold. The problem is it stays that way. Long road trips don’t ever get it to the point it considers the battery charged.

ok so it just needs a new battery right? Well, when I hook up my 4 amp smart charger, it shows the battery at less than 50% and charges it for hours to get to 100%. Then, auto start/stop works like it is supposed to. A few days go by and it goes back to being disabled.

Lastly, if I don’t do the supplemental charging there are no other issues. It has sat at the airport for a week and still started right up, driven around for a month, no problem. So there is some charging going on for sure but not enough to keep the battery fully topped off.

Where would you all start? Thanks in advance

I have the same year truck and engine. Had the exact same issues to include when doing remote features like start / unlock from the fordpass app. Replaced the battery, no more issues.

 

[CarolinaJet]

ok thanks, I’ll try the battery first.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

ok thanks, I’ll try the battery first.

Charge the new battery with a charger that has more than 4 amps of charging power first.

Then put a meter on it to see what the alternator output voltage is at the battery, turn on each electrical device one at a time at idle to see if there is a drop off in voltage.

Disable that engine auto stop start thing… that puts a lot of wear on the battery, as well as the starter and the engine.

 

[adrianp89]

Factory battery? 100% the issue. Lucky to get three years out of one in Florida.

 

[MrBubbaGump]

Factory battery? 100% the issue. Lucky to get three years out of one in Florida.

Facts also there is a heat wrap on the battery from the factory… when you replace the battery throw it out that is for northern trucks.

 

[Dixemon]

You should be careful about charging a battery while it is hooked up to the vehicle. Lower amp chargers and maintainers are not a problem, when you get a fast charger with greater than 10 amps or so you could be frying sensitive electrical components in the system. If there is any concern of this, just remove the leads from the battery when charging. In addition, when metering for an alternator output, Take in consideration that todays alternators are not a constant output. What that means is that you may not get the 13.5-14.5 v your used to when metering the battery with engine on. I like to turn all the vehicle accessories on, ie. lights stereo, a/c ect..., to try and get the ECU to force a current flow to the battery from the alternator. Then meter the battery and read the voltage. Just a few tips, But yeah, like everyone else said, it most likely time to get a new battery.

 

[Thermobrett]

Start with A new battery for sure. 5 years is average life expectancy.

I get about 3 years to the month out of my battery here in central Florida. Go to Walmart and get you the top of the line EverStart Maxx with the 3 year warranty. No questions asked replacement. Worth the extra money.

 

[CarolinaJet]

New battery is in. Will post if it fixes the issue. I know lots of people hate the stop/start but I love it and I want it to work.

 

[Thermobrett]

New battery is in. Will post if it fixes the issue. I know lots of people hate the stop/start but I love it and I want it to work.

First car I ever drove that had auto start/stop was me rental car (Volvo) in England a few years back. Never seen or heard of such a thing before that. Like the feature, just not sure how much fuel it really saves.

 

[Neutron]

Toyota offers Lifetime warranty batteries now but it isnt available for the start/start vehicle batteries because those batteries dont last at all and they would be replacing them every few years for free, no prorate.
Cant imagine its good for the life expectancy for the stater as well

 

[212s]

A friend regrets buying his RAM with the E-Torque start/stop system. It cost over $1200 CDN to add it and in 10 years it's estimated to save him a mere $1000, that's $100/yr or a tank of gas. So it cost him over $200 to get a feature that will likely cost him a battery and maybe a starter during the life of the vehicle, so possibly another $500 = $700 to get the "green" start/stop feature.

Seems it's just a "green friendly" marketing tool so people can feel warm and fuzzy about their purchase. In reality it doesn't make any appreciable difference to the environment or fuel savings, and only saves him the value of 3 tanks of gas in 10 years. Go figure.

 

[212s]

Hey all, I’m having an issue with my truck that I could use some ideas/guidance

it’s a 2018 f150 3.5 eco boost. It has a factory AGM battery

the main symptom is that the auto stop/start quits working.

I tend to agree with the others - likely a bad battery from the factory.

 

[MrBubbaGump]

A friend regrets buying his RAM with the E-Torque start/stop system. It cost over $1200 CDN to add it and in 10 years it's estimated to save him a mere $1000, that's $100/yr or a tank of gas. So it cost him over $200 to get a feature that will likely cost him a battery and maybe a starter during the life of the vehicle, so possibly another $500 = $700 to get the "green" start/stop feature.

Seems it's just a "green friendly" marketing tool so people can feel warm and fuzzy about their purchase. In reality it doesn't make any appreciable difference to the environment or fuel savings, and only saves him the value of 3 tanks of gas in 10 years. Go figure.

Yeah I disabled my start/stop with a tuner.... More because I thought of it as an annoyance than any other reason.

 

[CarolinaJet]

Battery seems to have fixed it. Thanks y’all.

 

[Danielmailin]

Sorry for the late reply, but I work in the automotive manufacturer area of the business, AGM batteries were supposed to be the best thing after slice bread, but after years of tryng them out in the field they do not last any longer then the original flooded batteries. One of the first symptoms you will have the the auto stop and go will stop working, even if the battery passes the manufacturer battery test. Auto stop and go will not work if the SOC is below 70% (field experience shows anything below 80% will cause an issue) other issues would be an intermittent radio reset or black screen due to cranking voltage dropping less then 10v and audio unit going into protect mode.
The issue comes in when you want to replace the battery under the vehicle manufacturer warranty and their response is that it passes the test and the SOC of the battery is within specs.

If you ask me, I would love to live without the Stop and Go feature, I rather save $300 on a starter then 0.012 cents of fuel on MPG. But there are the treehuggers out there that would debate the difference!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Battery seems to have fixed it. Thanks y’all.

Thanks for closing the loop!

 

[212s]

Battery seems to have fixed it. Thanks y’all.

How much did that cost?
Or was it a warranty issue?