Well - I broke down and scheduled a visit to the Ford dealer for Monday. The 12 volt battery continues to fight me. It must be really weak. When the break system pumps up, it knocks so much life out of the battery, it can barely pull in the high voltage system. I will keep you posted.

 

You didn't say how many miles are on the car. since it is an 07 it should be covered under the OEM warranty.


Question for anyone out there. Would the purchase of the FORD extended warranty plan be worth it to buy since these vehicles are totally different from regular cars? Since these cars, as with the battery problem with this thread, are so complicated, I was thinkning that maybe I should purchase the plan. Please any thoughts would be helpful.

 

I have been using a Battery Tender (floating trickle charger) on my 12V battery since September 2008 with excellent results.

The extended warranty question can not be answered easily due to a variety of factors including what is the retail price of the warranty? As for issues with the vehicle, I am aware some owners have had the small cooling pump for the electronics fail. I am aware some owners have sprung "leaks" in the airconditioning tubing going into the hybrid battery pack. The blend door for the hybrid battery pack sometimes fail. I am not aware of "hybrid" components failing and these have a "long" warranty.

 

My Monday appointment morphed into a Saturday visit on my confirming email, no matter. The problem is now resolved. The 12v battery was replaced under warranty in short order. I want to thank everyone for their help. The Billky reminder that it should be under warranty was the push I needed to get me back to the dealer.

There were a few questions left to answer. The truck has 27K miles and no, I did not get the extended service warranty. I have a pretty light touch with equipment usage, so figure to pay as I go.

The trickle chargers look interesting. For the time being, I will use the scan gauge to keep an eye on the new battery. It will be nice to get in and know it will start.

 

"The problem is not resolved"

Did you mean to say "The problem is now resolved"?

Billy, I thought you used a trickle charger since your battery was starting to fail?

 

Yes - must not have been awake. Now is correct and updated.

 

I developed a "drain" on my 12V system. I had my local Ford Dealer look at it and they could not determine where the source was. A local battery shop, recommended using a trickle charger which has proven to be a wise move. It is interesting to note, since my engine block heater "wire" was replaced, my 12V battery on the trickle charger reaches fully charged "quicker". I'm going to take my vehicle back to the local battery shop in late April 2009 for a recheck. It will also be the 4th birthday for the vehicle and after 48 months, it might be wise to switch to a new 12V battery.

 

As with Ford parts, you can shop around on the Internet for a good bargain on a Ford ESP warranty plan from a Ford dealer who also has an online business. If you don't want to pay a lot, you can pick a high deductible so you're covered only if something really bad happens.
The price goes up as the vehicle ages, so it's good to get one ASAP.

 

Last winter, I had close to the same problem teichra is talking about.
When you would first start the FEH, it would roll-over very slowly and start very hard.

When serviced, the Service Department found my 12V battery weak. They replaced the battery and all has been fine since.

Good Luck,
Rich
05 FEH 4WD, 103K + miles

 

I wanted to chime in on this thread, too. I'm relatively new to hybrid ownership, but my previous vehicle was an Escape. All in all, I am very happy.

Throughout the past couple weeks, however, I noticed an intermittent dead battery. At first, I had left the lights on. I was used to the old Escape, which would depower the lights after 30 seconds. I knew that wasn't something the new car did, but it was a hard habit to break. A jump start later, and I was on my way.

Now, if I leave the car for a few days, usually over the weekend when I don't need to drive, I come back to a dead battery. During the past week when we've had below-zero temps, it wasn't unusual to come out of work to find it dead also.

I read through the forums, but I was reluctant to purchase a new 12v battery after reading that it was only responsible for powering the electronics up, not the heavy starting.

I have a few of the symptoms here: unlocking the doors leads to the car trying to charge the regenerative brakes, and there's not enough juice left over to power anything else. Advance's load tester was broken, so they couldn't check the battery; and of course Ford wants a mint to do it. I was gonna have Advance replace the battery, but the 96R they had didn't fit properly. (I expected this, after reading. At least I knew enough to tell him that the group 40 really wouldn't fit.

After reading of the successful resolutions above, I supposed I'll head down to the parts department and shell out the $119 for the Motorcraft replacement. Sigh. At least it will be nice to know my Escape will start!