My battery keeps draining to 0 almost every night and it started after the weather got cold. Today I started a new job and needed my car and had to take a different one cause I wasn't sure what was wrong. It did the whole "stop safely now" thing. I read a lot on here and I'm wondering, if my 12v is very low (they told me I needed a new battery before winter), could it cause my DC/DC converter to drain while the car is OFF!? It happens a lot of nights but seems if I start it up and let the ICE charge the HV then it gets up to full again. It's not uncommon to dip to 0 for it during cold months. I just bought it in July last year and I had the stupid coolant pump go bad and the actuator too all within a month of buying it. It spooks me wondering whether it will work when I need it. I am not sure if I trust it anymore. Is it possible the HV is draining because of the 12v being very low? If so I would rather just buy a good battery for $100 or so than to take it in and pay to have it looked at. It has an ESP for a long time and the BAT pac has until June/July or so left. But if anyone knows that the DC/DC converter or some other reason is draining it then I would love to know!

On a separate note my nav DVD broke at beginning of winter. It seems it got "fogged" or something. It stopped showing stuff and said "dirty disc" or something similar. It won't work any longer. Is that a problem with cold weather? Or do I need a new DVD? I can get one at ford for like $450, but I can buy one on eBay for around $100 or at least it used to be on there. Anyone have any ideas to fix the nav? This car is used, but I saw the sticker price, and if the nav doesn't work in cold weather then it's like $3K spent originally on an option that's not good 9 months of the year.

Thanks anyone for the help!!

 

Cold weather is never good for lead-acid batteries. Weak batteries can cause all types of weird problems. Car should start instantly at all times even subzero temps. Check your 12V again and then go from there would be a way to go. If there are still issues then definitely get it checked out.

 

It terms of the Nav error, is the disc damaged? Try burning a copy of it and see if the unit can read it.

If the disc is damaged try this:

https://recoverytoolbox.com/cd.html

 

The 12v might be a little low, but it was the Hybrid battery that made the car not work right.

 

Just curious how you know the main battery is "at 0"? The car is designed to run between 40 and 66% of SOC, and should not get that low. Do you have a scanguage?

The 12v is generally the culprit in starting, since it charges up the electronics that allow the high voltage battery to turn the engine. The 12v is not used to start the FEH, since it has no starter motor.

 

The hybrid battery is at basically 0 from the display. I don't have a scangauge. It seems fine in the summer, but in the extreme cold the hybrid goes so low that it has to "warm up" before I drive it. A couple times it refused to drive because when i did it said "pull safely over" and had the red triangle. I've never had a hybrid vehicle, so this winter was my first. It just seems that the cold is why, cause it starts up fine and then slows to a crawl the couple times it happened. Even when it doesn't do that, it still takes forever to "charge" the battery and I got TERRIBLE gas mileage in the winter. I get great mileage in the summer and even about now it's doing great. It gets better than my Mustang, but it sucks the hybrid battery keeps discharging overnight in extreme cold. Is that a problem for anyone else?

 

I didn't have the Nav, but zero on the power display means that the battery is at 40 or so. The car won't even work if it were actually at zero charge; it wouldn't even start. The HVB (High Voltage Battery) should not discharge at night since there is no draw. Does it show a higher percentage in the evening, before turning off?

As to the "Stop Safely" message, have you had the vehicle in to check for the MECS pump recall? That will periodically cause electronics overheat.

It won't get nearly as good mileage in the winter, due to the cold battery temperature.

If your car is early 2008 (or earlier years), it is fairly easy to install a heater for the battery. That will help in winter. Later FEH were not wired for it.

EDIT: One thing to note is that if the battery is warm when shutting down, it will appear to lose charge when it fires up cold the next day. That is because a cold battery is less efficient. That is not an error, just chemistry.

 

the battery physically has LESS charge in the morning. i don't know how much, if it's zero or 40, but it goes down a lot just sitting there.

 

OK, that is most likely the battery cooling down. A battery puts out charge based on the temperature - it is more efficient when warm. When you finish at night, the battery is warm because of the charge/discharge. After it sits all night, it is capable of putting out less energy because it is cold. I don't think that is an error.

I'd get the MECS checked ASAP, that is a nasty problem. I had to have mine replaced after it shut the car down on the freeway a couple of times. Not pleasant.

 

Jess, what's happening?
Your Escape Hybrid is TOTALLY different than other cars, and is difficult for people quite familiar with traditional ICE cars to understand. Really man, and some of Ford's techniques and engineering decisions seem to totally defy logic anyhow.

On the battery and starting thing, if there's ANY doubt on your 12V battery, get a new one. Been there, done that.

If you've determined that absolutely the problem is traction battery related you've got 2 things to determine before going any further:
1- are all connections and cables perfectly solid and undamaged? ANY loose or corroded or damaged connector or connection is a killer. Any damaged cable the same.
2- is there any electrical or chemical leakage? either of those could only come from some sort of damage.

Ford was so ridiculously, insanely conservative with their engineering decisions about battery use that I have NEVER heard yet of a traction battery "wearing out". That battery will only go too low to start the car if something else is draining it or overloading it due to damage. Seriously. I'm pissed with Ford for their paranoid underutilization of the traction battery. I'm unspeakably disappointed that nobody has "chipped" these cars yet, because I'D LIKE TO GET SOME GOOD USE OUTTA THAT BATTERY I OWN AND PAID SO MUCH FOR AND CARRY EVERYWHERE I GO!!!

Only one situation comes to mind that could affect your traction battery AND your NAV DVD: the car sat unused and unstarted for like a year or so, and in climate that got near or below freezing. If that's the case you may need to get a traction battery out of a fairly recent wreck, or a new Ford replacement part.... which might be too expensive.