11-20-2019, 01:33 PM
Glad Ford replaced your battery under warranty.
While a new battery should be delivered to Ford fully charged, it was not.
While Ford should put their stock of replacement batteries on a charger regularly, they do not.
While the vehicle's charging system should be able to take the battery back to full charge, it will not.
The lesson is, put the battery, new or old, on a charger regularly, if one does not want to deal with having to warranty a starting battery.
If one just assumes the vehicle will perfectly recharge it quickly, or come anywhere close to what the battery wants to live a good long healthy life, they are overwhelmingly deluded, and living in the past when integrity and honor once had value.
3 weeks of a modern vehicle sitting undriven, the paraistic loads of engine comuter, body control computer, door locks ect, is enough to drain a battery below 50% charged. Starting batteries hate being discharged this low.
As far as a battery with a longer warranty being a better built battery, or the extra money is simply going towards the longer warranty, it is impossible to say for sure without comparing the two batteries, not just their exterior casing, but their weight and performance. If they have different specs, such as weight and CCA, and reserve capacity or Ah if it is so rated, then one is perhaps buying a better built battery, but they could simply fudge the specs too.
If the only difference appears to be the price and warranty and sticker color, gold vs platinum or whatever, then one is likely buying the same battery but with a different more or less expensive warranty.
As far a a battery with higher CCA rating being better than the same size battery with lesser CCA, the lesser CCA battery is likely to have slightly thicker, less porous( and fragile) plates. It might weigh more too, which is a good thing with lead acid batteries, heavier is better. Higher CCA ratings does not mean a better battery, and only near the end of the batteries life in a cold blast would actual higher CCA ratings be of any benefit to the purchaser.
As far a parasitic drains killing your battery, one solution is to pull the negative cable off when storing it, or using a cut off switch so no tools are required. On Some vehicles, the computer does not simply quickly relearn the engine, and should not have this done. The owners manual will have a procedure for when battery replacement is required so as to save the settings and no 'reflashing' the ECM is required. Usually it is to parallel a battery in place while the main battery is replaced.
If I disconnect my battery and reset the computer, it runs crusty as it warms up initially, and then through the next cold restart, and this is a 1989 van. The MPGs and power also suffer until the second cold start and warmup.
Other solutions to parasitic drains are of course find what is causing the parasitic draw and neutering it, by pulling its fuse or some other method. If the draw lies inside the Body control module, or some other computer driven bell or whistle, good luck. A Nerd on a ford transit specialist forum would be the best place for info.
Modern new cars have all sorts of bells and whistles, and all of these noisemakers do put a harder load on the battery, and the vehicle's charging system is also not shiving one git about the battery health and returning it to full charge.
Your complaints of MPG'S being well below rated could indicate that Ford has also employed the modern strategy of sacrificing battery life for tiny gains in MPG's, but you would have to monitor a voltmeter going down the road to see what the charging system is doing.
Such vehicles usually take 99% of the load off the charging system when they are most likely to be racking up miles using the least fuel, such as straight line highway driving, and then tell the alternator to make more juice when braking or slowing down when mpgs take a dump anyway. Each 25 amps the alternator makes sucks up one engine horsepower, so keeping the battery at low enough state of charge so it can accept 25+ amps when voltage regulator demands mid to high 14's, is a very poor 'regenerative braking' method, but if applied across a manufacturer's entire fleet of vehicles, can raise their combined mileage and save them many millions in C.A.F.E. fines/ penalties.
The CAFE requirements are also driving the thinner oil recommendations in North America. The same exact engines in Australia or Asia or Europe, do not recommend the super lightweight 0w-20 oils. The super thin oils might not cause engine failure within the vehicles lifespan anyway, but those buying new and intending to rack up 300k plus miles would likely be better off with a 5w-30 instead of 5w-20, especially if driving the vehicle hard.
Vehicle Manufacturers today basically gamble the battery will last the warranty period. When too many batteries fail within warranty, cutting into profits, only then would the voltage regulation of the vehicles charging system( on future models) be updated, and only if it is not eating into profits to do so.
Vehicles still under warranty, it is the dealer's job to deny anything is wrong ever, and send you off , while hoping and praying total failure occurs out of warranty.
Maximum profit and all.
In Vandwelling usage, a failing engine starting battery is a good time to inspect and measure the battery tray, to see if a larger footprint and taller marine/dual purpose battery can be shoehorned into the battery tray. More capacity also means that parasitic draws will take much longer to drain the battery to 'it wont start' levels, and the same durations of parasitic loads drain the battery to a higher level than on a lower capacity battery. A marine battery will have a lower CCA rating than a starting battery, but if the battery is bigger it will still likely exceed the minimum CCA rating the manufacturer calls for.
While secondary/house/leisure/Auxiliary battery systems give a lot more warm and fuzzy capacity, a secondary battery has many considerations and expenses involved. After once carrying a total of 345Ah of battery capacity, I now personally use just one high quality dual purpose 90Ah AGM battery for house loads and engine starting, and always have a fully charged jumper pack battery, should I drain it too low.
Which has not occurred, yet, but should soon as the battery is 6 years old and its voltage during engine cranking is falling into the low 9's.
While a new battery should be delivered to Ford fully charged, it was not.
While Ford should put their stock of replacement batteries on a charger regularly, they do not.
While the vehicle's charging system should be able to take the battery back to full charge, it will not.
The lesson is, put the battery, new or old, on a charger regularly, if one does not want to deal with having to warranty a starting battery.
If one just assumes the vehicle will perfectly recharge it quickly, or come anywhere close to what the battery wants to live a good long healthy life, they are overwhelmingly deluded, and living in the past when integrity and honor once had value.
3 weeks of a modern vehicle sitting undriven, the paraistic loads of engine comuter, body control computer, door locks ect, is enough to drain a battery below 50% charged. Starting batteries hate being discharged this low.
As far as a battery with a longer warranty being a better built battery, or the extra money is simply going towards the longer warranty, it is impossible to say for sure without comparing the two batteries, not just their exterior casing, but their weight and performance. If they have different specs, such as weight and CCA, and reserve capacity or Ah if it is so rated, then one is perhaps buying a better built battery, but they could simply fudge the specs too.
If the only difference appears to be the price and warranty and sticker color, gold vs platinum or whatever, then one is likely buying the same battery but with a different more or less expensive warranty.
As far a a battery with higher CCA rating being better than the same size battery with lesser CCA, the lesser CCA battery is likely to have slightly thicker, less porous( and fragile) plates. It might weigh more too, which is a good thing with lead acid batteries, heavier is better. Higher CCA ratings does not mean a better battery, and only near the end of the batteries life in a cold blast would actual higher CCA ratings be of any benefit to the purchaser.
As far a parasitic drains killing your battery, one solution is to pull the negative cable off when storing it, or using a cut off switch so no tools are required. On Some vehicles, the computer does not simply quickly relearn the engine, and should not have this done. The owners manual will have a procedure for when battery replacement is required so as to save the settings and no 'reflashing' the ECM is required. Usually it is to parallel a battery in place while the main battery is replaced.
If I disconnect my battery and reset the computer, it runs crusty as it warms up initially, and then through the next cold restart, and this is a 1989 van. The MPGs and power also suffer until the second cold start and warmup.
Other solutions to parasitic drains are of course find what is causing the parasitic draw and neutering it, by pulling its fuse or some other method. If the draw lies inside the Body control module, or some other computer driven bell or whistle, good luck. A Nerd on a ford transit specialist forum would be the best place for info.
Modern new cars have all sorts of bells and whistles, and all of these noisemakers do put a harder load on the battery, and the vehicle's charging system is also not shiving one git about the battery health and returning it to full charge.
Your complaints of MPG'S being well below rated could indicate that Ford has also employed the modern strategy of sacrificing battery life for tiny gains in MPG's, but you would have to monitor a voltmeter going down the road to see what the charging system is doing.
Such vehicles usually take 99% of the load off the charging system when they are most likely to be racking up miles using the least fuel, such as straight line highway driving, and then tell the alternator to make more juice when braking or slowing down when mpgs take a dump anyway. Each 25 amps the alternator makes sucks up one engine horsepower, so keeping the battery at low enough state of charge so it can accept 25+ amps when voltage regulator demands mid to high 14's, is a very poor 'regenerative braking' method, but if applied across a manufacturer's entire fleet of vehicles, can raise their combined mileage and save them many millions in C.A.F.E. fines/ penalties.
The CAFE requirements are also driving the thinner oil recommendations in North America. The same exact engines in Australia or Asia or Europe, do not recommend the super lightweight 0w-20 oils. The super thin oils might not cause engine failure within the vehicles lifespan anyway, but those buying new and intending to rack up 300k plus miles would likely be better off with a 5w-30 instead of 5w-20, especially if driving the vehicle hard.
Vehicle Manufacturers today basically gamble the battery will last the warranty period. When too many batteries fail within warranty, cutting into profits, only then would the voltage regulation of the vehicles charging system( on future models) be updated, and only if it is not eating into profits to do so.
Vehicles still under warranty, it is the dealer's job to deny anything is wrong ever, and send you off , while hoping and praying total failure occurs out of warranty.
Maximum profit and all.
In Vandwelling usage, a failing engine starting battery is a good time to inspect and measure the battery tray, to see if a larger footprint and taller marine/dual purpose battery can be shoehorned into the battery tray. More capacity also means that parasitic draws will take much longer to drain the battery to 'it wont start' levels, and the same durations of parasitic loads drain the battery to a higher level than on a lower capacity battery. A marine battery will have a lower CCA rating than a starting battery, but if the battery is bigger it will still likely exceed the minimum CCA rating the manufacturer calls for.
While secondary/house/leisure/Auxiliary battery systems give a lot more warm and fuzzy capacity, a secondary battery has many considerations and expenses involved. After once carrying a total of 345Ah of battery capacity, I now personally use just one high quality dual purpose 90Ah AGM battery for house loads and engine starting, and always have a fully charged jumper pack battery, should I drain it too low.
Which has not occurred, yet, but should soon as the battery is 6 years old and its voltage during engine cranking is falling into the low 9's.
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