Jeff, I have gotten under 30% a number of times. I did it by opening and closing the doors, playing the radio with the engine off. One of the first times I tried this was to test the theory that the plug in engine block heater would cause an increase in the hybrid battery SOC if it was below 30%. A poor man's PHEV test and no, it did not work. I'm not conviced that repeated behavior like this is good for longetivity of the hybrid battery but it can be done. They may be a photo in the photo share section of this. BTW, I just had a 26% SOC reading this week.

 

I watch stuff like this closely on my car.
I have never seen lower than 32%, but mid-30's is common right after a cold start-up.

Maybe different cars just have slightly different personalities?
Maybe your battery is in different "condition" than mine?

I won't go so far as to say yours is "worse" since your MPG is not worse!
It may simply be different.
One theory is, maybe your data is "noisy" so while the battery is good, the data isn't? I can understand Bill getting to the twenties once in a while, but I can not explain why you saw a 6% once. I have parked my car for 21 days or longer. SOC of the 330v hardly changed at all. My 3.5 year old 12v was kinda low after 21 days ( 11.6v ).
Good Luck!
-John

 

Something to ponder:

How is the SOC calculated?

IF the car counts amp-hours in and out, or coulumbs in-out, then it should not be counting anything when the car is parked key-off? Correct?

Does it follow a look-up table for self-discharge and "guess" or what?

 

This is something I have wondered about also - unless something is keeping the computer "awake" while the key is off, in that case, I would think it would only lower the SOC to a point then start draining the 12v, per your's and other's experiments with that.

My gut feeling is that I have a "weaker" battery pack than normal, and when it sits, it doesn't hold it's charge as well as it should, so when I re-start, the voltage of the pack is lower than expected, and the car recalculates the SOC based on the voltage? or something, totally guessing at this point. Which is why then I key on, the SOC reads just slightly less than where I left it, but after starting, the SoC jumps much lower - if the feh has been sitting for 6-10 hours.

We are taking it into the dealer next week for a couple other repairs (back carpet anyone? and brakes) and I will try and talk to the tech about what I am seeing, see if they have anything to say about it.

 

"We are taking it into the dealer next week for a couple other repairs (back carpet anyone? and brakes)"

Insist you get the back flimsy carpet replaced for free.
I did, just recently, for my 2005 with 60,000+ miles on it.
The new carpet is more like a mat, with rubber backing.

The dealer would not blindly do it.
So I called Ford Customer Service Hotline and nicely, complained there.
The CS agent did research for 2 or 3 days, and called me back saying SHE was going to ship the new carpet from Ford directly, and I could pick it up at my dealer in a week or so.
So that really by-passed the local dealer altogether.

There was a TSB about the carpet issue, but the letter says the customer must complain and request a new carpet within 3 yrs / 36k. I was right at 3 yrs, but way past 36k and they honored it. I was nice to them and they were nice to me.
-John

 

Well it finally got bad enough a service code registered (P0A1F - "Battery Energy Control Module has Internal Errors") - had to use the Jumpstart to get the FEH to start and drove it over to the dealer. We will see what they have to say.

The shop manual list possible causes as 1) bad service disconnect plug or 2) bad HVTB or 3) bad connection on the 6 and 40 pin connectors.

I told them they needed to replace it, it is falling apart and sliding everywhere. I told them to research it, Ford has a TSB about it, and it is still under warranty. (33,000 miles, still under 3 years) - we will see. The service manager was very nice about it, I just hope they figure out what is going on and get it fixed.

 

The story gets better, I just got a call from the dealership that Ford had canceled the warranty on this truck, so any repairs are at my cost. ???? WHAT?

 

Find a new dealership. I have one personally blacklisted in my local area due to incompetence and shady dealings.

 

Was your scangauge still attached when you took it in? If so they may try to say that affected the vehicle. Other than that, the only reason they could deny warranty service was if it had a salvage title at some point. I know many years ago Texas used to be a title-laundering state for salvaged titles, but I assume that is no longer the case. Also, are they talking about the carpet, or anything that is wrong with the FEH not being covered?

 

Yes - I didn't even think about disconnecting the SG.... But this seems beyond that, I am on the phone with Ford, they are saying there is not any explanation or details in their system, but the warranty had been canceled previous to today. Both the dealer and the ford rep say that anything that would cause this should show up on the title, but we have a clear title and the title searches before I purchased it came back clear also.

Not sure where to go from here.