Maximizing Battery Life

[got3fords]

Installed the desulfator on the Ranger tonight and had a huge scare. I went to loosen the nut at the negative battery post, it loosened then after a turn or two it got really tight again. It was like the bolt was staked at the end to prevent the nut from coming off. Well I forced it off, put the desulfator negative teminal over the bolt and could not get the nut started. At one point I dropped the nut but it didn't go out of reach of needle nose pliers. It was starting to get dark and I am starting to freak out. I did not want the wife to yell at me for needing to borrow her car tomorrow. I finally got the nut started, but it was tough going for the first couple of turns. Thought sure I was going to strip it. Then it got loose and was able to turn it and tighten it back up. Positive side went flawlessly.
I sure hope having the negative cable somewhat loose while fighting that stupid nut didn't confuse the ECM. I'll find out in the AM.

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[AzScorpion]

Installed the desulfator on the Ranger tonight and had a huge scare. I went to loosen the nut at the negative battery post, it loosened then after a turn or two it got really tight again. It was like the bolt was staked at the end to prevent the nut from coming off. Well I forced it off, put the desulfator negative teminal over the bolt and could not get the nut started. At one point I dropped the nut but it didn't go out of reach of needle nose pliers. It was starting to get dark and I am starting to freak out. I did not want the wife to yell at me for needing to borrow her car tomorrow. I finally got the nut started, but it was tough going for the first couple of turns. Thought sure I was going to strip it. Then it got loose and was able to turn it and tighten it back up. Positive side went flawlessly.
I sure hope having the negative cable somewhat loose while fighting that stupid nut didn't confuse the ECM. I'll find out in the AM.

Hopefully it's fine in the morning. But I'm surprised you were worried about your wife yelling at you when all you had to do was tell her..... ?

 

[got3fords]

Hopefully it's fine in the morning. But I'm surprised you were worried about your wife yelling at you when all you had to do was tell her..... ?

Of course, but I would have to endure an ass chewing to go along with it.

 

[TJC]

Hot temperatures kill batteries, and cold temps expose them.

I’m at 4 years now (Jan ‘19 build, March 14th ‘19 bringing her home).

- Original battery
- I manually turn off AS/S when I start’er up
- I go between 2 vehicles- the truck and a ‘17 Escape. Varies in usage, but neither goes more than 3 days without usage. Then they get driven a bit more.
- If I’m on day 3 or so and it’s been warm enough, I’ll see if AS/S can activate and sure enough it does.

I’m perfectly fine with my baby after 4 years ?

You are blessed with very mild summers! Avg high of 80F in the heart of summer! WOW! I grew up south of Miami, and our nights were in the upper mid 70's.

Dead of winter 76F. Last time I visited the Everglades camping it was 78F on Christmas Day

 

[TJC]

Let my ranger sit for 5 days. This morning I checked the battery.

• 12.7v
• 3.34 mOhms
• 824.4 CCA

That's a good reading and it is still improving (was 770 CCA a week ago, but resistance went up 0.4 Ohms).

I then took it for spin running errands with 2 stops, not more than 20 miles. It bumped 14.3V for a second, then dropped to 14.2v, then settled at 14.1v on the way home.

Remember, I am adding .2v to the actual readings in the cab as I know there is a 0.2v drop between the cab 12v outlet and the battery terminals. Actual reading on the LED monitor were 13.9v - 14.1v.

I put it back on the BatteryMinder 8amp Charger/Desulfator in an attempt to get the resistance down below 3 mOhms. I'll let it sit desulfating until I need to drive it again.

 

[TJC]

Installed the desulfator on the Ranger tonight and had a huge scare. I went to loosen the nut at the negative battery post, it loosened then after a turn or two it got really tight again. It was like the bolt was staked at the end to prevent the nut from coming off. Well I forced it off, put the desulfator negative terminal over the bolt and could not get the nut started. At one point I dropped the nut but it didn't go out of reach of needle nose pliers. It was starting to get dark and I am starting to freak out. I did not want the wife to yell at me for needing to borrow her car tomorrow. I finally got the nut started, but it was tough going for the first couple of turns. Thought sure I was going to strip it. Then it got loose and was able to turn it and tighten it back up. Positive side went flawlessly.
I sure hope having the negative cable somewhat loose while fighting that stupid nut didn't confuse the ECM. I'll find out in the AM.

Where did you connect to? I connected to the points in red circles in the image below. I did not loosen the battery post connections. Since disconnecting the BMS sensor, I charge via the pigtail on the onboard desulfator, not the points circled in green. Click on image to enlarge.

If you secured your desulfator where I did, be sure to tie down the ground lead to avoid the hood hinge damaging the wire. Note the blue zip ties just above the battery negative attachment point.

 

[dtech]

Let my ranger sit for 5 days, and then took it on errands. Voltage started out at 14.2, and dropped within 20 miles to 14.1 and stayed there.

This morning I checked the battery.

• 12.7v
• 3.34 Ohms
• 824.4 CCA

That's a good reading and it is still improving (was 770 CCA a week ago, but resistance went up 0.4 Ohms).

I then took it for a spin with 2 stops, not more than 20 miles. It bumped 14.3V for a second, then dropped to 14.2v, then settled at 14.1v on the way home.

Remember, I am adding .2v to the actual readings in the cab as I know there is a 0.2v drop between the cab 12v outlet and the battery terminals. Actual reading on the LED monitor were 13.9v - 14.1v.

I put it back on the BatteryMinder 8amp Charger/Desulvator in an attempt to get the resistance down below 3 Ohms. I'll let it sit desulvating until I need to drive it again.

Good info esp regards the voltage observations with the bms disconnected. The smart charging system is conceptually good but clearly isn't effective for many driving scenarios, in my case high percent of my vehicles use is for short trips - use of the bms would undoubtedly shorten battery life, Ranger is garaged and I don't use a lot of high demand accessories. So I would concur any fuel savings gained by the bms would likely be offset by the cost of battery replacement. When my AGM gives it up I will likely switch to good ol wet cell lead acid - from Wally Mart to boot, I like that you can add H2O to Wally Mart batts.
Now I bought a Yonhan 10 amp batt charger with desulfation mode - cheap at $29 , it would be interesting to compare it's desulfation vs the higher priced units that use high frequency pulses, the cheaper units I believe just rely on high voltage pulses. If you look on Amazon there are gaggles of low cost battery chargers many with desulfation modes. The Yonhan I purchased appears to be a Chinese copy of the NOCO Genius, not suggesting that the Chinese would ever do such a thing.

 

[got3fords]

Where did you connect to? I connected to the points in red circles in the image below. I did not loosen the battery post connections. Since disconnecting the BMS sensor, I charge via the pigtail on the onboard desulfator, not the points circled in green. Click on image to enlarge.

If you secured your desulfator where I did, be sure to tie down the ground lead to avoid the hood hinge damaging the wire. Note the blue zip ties just above the battery negative attachment point.

Looks like the same on the positive side, but I wanted to be connected directly to the negative post so I connected it below the nut that keeps it tight to the post. I couldn't decide where to put the unit, so for now I just zip tied it to the strap directly on top of the battery.

 

[Big Blue]

Looks like the same on the positive side, but I wanted to be connected directly to the negative post so I connected it below the nut that keeps it tight to the post. I couldn't decide where to put the unit, so for now I just zip tied it to the strap directly on top of the battery.

Just to clear up a few things about the picture.

On the negative side both circles are basically the same other than a length of wire. Both on the body ground side of the BMS sensor.

On the positive side. The green circle is showing the charger clamp on the batteries positive post. The red circle is showing the wire connect to the non-battery side of the large fuse shown. Not sure if it makes a lot of difference, just a point of clarification. If you want a direct connection to the positive post the large screw to the right of the clamp is a good place.

Just be sure to disconnect the negative battery post when making any of these connections. To avoid making any sparks which could fry some of the electronics in your truck.

 

[TJC]

Looks like the same on the positive side, but I wanted to be connected directly to the negative post so I connected it below the nut that keeps it tight to the post. I couldn't decide where to put the unit, so for now I just zip tied it to the strap directly on top of the battery.

I suspect that the nuts on the post clamps are designed to be captured and are only meant to be loosened, not removed. The resistance you felt was the stud threads misaligned slightly to keep the nut from ever backing off. I connected to the nut on the BMS output. It is connected directly to negative battery post electrically speaking.

 

[TJC]

Just to clear up a few things about the picture.

On the negative side both circles are basically the same other than a length of wire. Both on the body ground side of the BMS sensor.

On the positive side. The green circle is showing the charger clamp on the batteries positive post. The red circle is showing the wire connect to the non-battery side of the large fuse shown. Not sure if it makes a lot of difference, just a point of clarification. If you want a direct connection to the positive post the large screw to the right of the clamp is a good place.

Just be sure to disconnect the negative battery post when making any of these connections. To avoid making any sparks which could fry some of the electronics in your truck.

Re: Negative Connection
I agree with you.

I am assuming the BMS sensor measures current using a Hall Effect Sensor. If that is the case, the negative cable simply passes through the Hall Effect sensor, but never physically makes electrical contact with anything inside the BMS Sensor. ( I use this method to dynamically measure and balance loads on both 120v electrical busses in my home when running off my Honda EU7000 generator. )

Unplugging the BMS Sensor simply disables that capability ( I don't know if the BMS sensor monitors voltages and temps, but I suspect it does as well.

Electrically speaking, the closer to the battery post, the lower the resistance (however slight).

A quick question ... Which is the better way to disable the BMS, via ForScan, or simply unplugging the BMS sensor cable?

 

[Big Blue]

A quick question ... Which is the better way to disable the BMS, via ForScan, or simply unplugging the BMS sensor cable?

I have no idea, you and airline tech have dug into this system more than I have. I know enough about basic electrical circuits to be dangerous. All I know is my battery failed a month before my warranty ran out and Ford replaced it. I recently bought a battery maintainer and connectors setup for both my truck and my wifes car. I had to replace her battery 6 months after the warranty ran out. As we both drive relatively short trips, I put to maintainer on every couple weeks overnight to top up the battery. I've had my ASS disabled in Forscan since shortly after getting the truck. Whether that totally disables BMS I do not know, there has been some conflicing info on that. Mine is a late 2019 build XLT and my battery SOC was set at 75% from the factory.

 

[TJC]

I have no idea, you and airline tech have dug into this system more than I have. I know enough about basic electrical circuits to be dangerous. All I know is my battery failed a month before my warranty ran out and Ford replaced it. I recently bought a battery maintainer and connectors setup for both my truck and my wifes car. I had to replace her battery 6 months after the warranty ran out. As we both drive relatively short trips, I put to maintainer on every couple weeks overnight to top up the battery. I've had my ASS disabled in Forscan since shortly after getting the truck. Whether that totally disables BMS I do not know, there has been some conflicing info on that. Mine is a late 2019 build XLT and my battery SOC was set at 75% from the factory.

If my vehicles are going to sit for a month or more, I plug them in. Less than that and the onboard desulfator handles the job well enough. A week sitting unused does not affect my cars batteries very much at all. I usually try to drive each of them at least once a week.

 

[airline tech]

I have no idea, you and airline tech have dug into this system more than I have. I know enough about basic electrical circuits to be dangerous. All I know is my battery failed a month before my warranty ran out and Ford replaced it. I recently bought a battery maintainer and connectors setup for both my truck and my wifes car. I had to replace her battery 6 months after the warranty ran out. As we both drive relatively short trips, I put to maintainer on every couple weeks overnight to top up the battery. I've had my ASS disabled in Forscan since shortly after getting the truck. Whether that totally disables BMS I do not know, there has been some conflicing info on that. Mine is a late 2019 build XLT and my battery SOC was set at 75% from the factory.

I'm not sure either, I just disconnected for my testing, I do know that with my ASS deleted from factory, I have the hex-code still enabled for BMS, and the only change is (No Switch for ASS and both the IPC and Switch are disabled (Hex-Codes) for ASS

I dug into the Forscan disable- some but did not find any clear answer as what (in full context) is actually being disabled other than BMS system, which will also kill the ASS system, now the unknown is it fully disabling the whole system or only part of it.

I may have to try out the desulfator since you are getting good results, so far, my battery is good and would like to get a comfortable feeling that my battery will not fail me, one less worry for down the road, and then still have the Transmission on my mind, all is good now, but others are reporting issues.

 

[got3fords]

I suspect that the nuts on the post clamps are designed to be captured and are only meant to be loosened, not removed. The resistance you felt was the stud threads misaligned slightly to keep the nut from ever backing off. I connected to the nut on the BMS output. It is connected directly to negative battery post electrically speaking.

Agree about the captive post screw, but I could see no other way to physically bypass the BMS and get a direct connection. Maybe I missed it.

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