I hope you're not referring to me in this post. My frustration is with the dealership! That is why I'm looking for help here. My experience shows that someone actually using a product is more knowledgeable that someone who simply reads service bulletins. My f150 went in to the Ford dealer at 8:00 yesterday morning to diagnose the problem and so far they have come up with a couple of guesses and done nothing. I'm currently waiting for a return phone call. Thanks,
Grant

 

I would strongly encourage you to look at a ESP, you are still under mileage and within the 41 month grace period.

 

You really need to do both.
Let truck sit 8 hours with the doors LOCKED for the PCM to determine SOC.
AND reset the the BMS to reset the days in service and charging history.

 

Yes! As per the FSM this is correct!

 

Is this still an option to help with this issue when the vehicle is already being worked on at a dealership? Or for future problems? I'll probably trade it in on a 2021 this summer. Thanks,
Grant

 

I have a 2019 5.0 that I have been dealing with charging issues also. 18K miles on it currently, it had the battery replaced around 3K miles due to going in to deep sleep issues.

A week or so ago it started doing the same thing, this time it sent me a quick fix guide via FordPass on my phone. Drive the vehicle at speed for an hour to fully charge the battery or to use a battery charge to fully charge the battery. If the problem persist visit my local dealer service dept.

I drove the truck for an hour and a half to fully charge the battery, but 2 days later it started with the sleep issue again. This time I fully charged the battery on a slow charge to full, then locked the truck and allowed it to sit over night. I also installed my ScanGaugeII so I could monitor the voltage while driving. In the past while driving at highway speeds I would see a reading of 12.5v to 13.2 as a normal range. Now I was seeing a reading of 14.6v to 15.6v as a new norm.

It was dropped off at the dealer service dept. on Tuesday afternoon. I was told that it was going straight back to be looked at, however, it would most likely be end of the week by the time that the Ford service guideline was completed unless something jumped right out as the culprit or gremlin that is causing the problem. On the upside they did put me in a new fully loaded Bronco Sport with only 135 miles on the odometer.

If you find an answer to your problem and a fix I would appreciate hearing what it was. In return I will do the same.

 

14.6 on the road wouldn't bother me, that's what you want. 15.6 sure would. Unless maybe it was -30F below zero or something like that.

 

Two easy solutions to fix it, the BMS needs to be reset after the battery is replaced and do not charge the battery with the negative cable connected. Both are covered in the FSM.

 

Sorry to hear your having similar issues. I was hoping this was something that had been corrected by the time a 2019 was on the road. The dealer is still working on mine and has now involved the Ford Hotline to get their guidance. I'm a little jealous of getting a Bronco, I got a Nissan Rogue and now fully understand why I don't own one. I'll let you know if they get this figured out.
Grant

 

OK Update Time:
Talked to the service advisor yesterday and was told that after doing the proper test as prescribed by Ford that the Batter tested below the proper specs. So the battery was replaced and BMS was reset. However, the truck still showed to be not charging properly and the next step would be to start digging in deep looking to locate the fault causing the drain and charge issue.

I have my truck set up to be towed behind a motorhome which includes the rear tail/turn/brake lights being wired to activate in conjunction with the motorhome. I was told that any and all aftermarket wiring would be removed as part of the process of tracing down and searching for any parasitic electrical draw. But that Ford warranty would not reattach any of the aftermarket wire connections, which I can understand. So I asked if I could come pick up the truck and remove the wire harness myself in order to take a few photos and draw up a wire diagram for reattaching it correctly. In my effort to locate any issues before taking it into the dealership I had already figured that the tow wire harness may come under question and checked the wires visually and via a multimeter for any feedback electrical draw.

I did reconnect my Scan-Gauge and noticed that the voltage is back to reading 14 to 14.1volts rather than the 15+v that it was reading prior to taking it in for service. I need my truck for a few days so I will keep a close on the the SOC of the battery and proceed as required.

 

Interesting. You left out the part about the factory wiring being tapped into. How did they do it? The proper way would be to use an inline trailer harness connector that simply plugs in where the harness junction is. The bad way is to tap in using scotch locks or, worse yet, cutting the wire and then splicing it all back together then wrapping with tape. Hopefully the RV dealer didn’t butcher the wiring harness on your truck. On these CANBus trucks, I would use stand alone lights instead of tapping into the truck.

 

Here's my update that's basically not an update. Last week the Ford dealer decided they needed help and reached out to the Ford Hotline. They have been given tests to run and so far Ford has not been able to determine what is causing the problem with my 2016 f150.
Grant

 

The latest update I received from the Ford service manager is the tech from Ford Hotline is having them work on wiring issues. They are thinking this may have caused the alternator to have problems. They are finding too much resistance in the wiring and did an overlay for a wire from the junction box to the pcm. They are saying that caused the over charging. They reverted the overlay back to stock and now it shows resistance from the junction box to the alternator. Bottom line is they still haven't figured it out.
Grant

 

I am just following. I worked professionally on electric forkllifts and wire resistance often caused problems.
TJ

 

Hopefully this will be my last update on the charging problems I've been having. I got my pickup back late this afternoon and the Charging System Service Now message is gone. When the Ford dealer ran the scan several codes came up. They replaced the alternator and still had the message come up. A Ford tech on Ford Hotline had them do a wire overlay from the alternator to the PCM and that didn't fix the problem. The next step was to replace a connector in the harness and do another overlay and that fixed the problem. An odd thing I learned was on the service report I got, Ford refers to the alternator as a generator. That sounds like something from a few decades ago. This was one of those challenges where no one wins. My pickup was in the dealers shop for 9 days, the total bill was $1,124.13. The labor was $254.48. The dealer provided me with a rental car at no expense to me. I'm sure the dealer wishes they had never seen this problem. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions on this. Hopefully this info can help someone else sometime.

Grant