I have been getting a low 12v battery warning on my 2023 Powerboost Lariat instrument panel. Took it in to the Ford dealership and they did a full check on it and a full charge. They told me the battery checked out fine and could find nothing wrong. 2 days later I started getting the warning again. Then I started getting a notice on the 12" screen when I turned the truck off saying "Please turn ignition off or start engine" acting as if it is in ACC mode. Now I'm not getting either warning and everything seems fine. Any ideas?
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Low 12 Volt Battery Warning
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Kurtv
21 - 40 of 118 Posts
My 1rst gen has intermittently displayed the same for years. Nothing is wrong w/ any of the batteries. A lot is wrong w/ the BMS engineering. If you open a door or open the hood don’t expect to read the battery’s true state of charge. Don’t expect a dealer to be able to fix it.
BMS needs to be reset when you install a new battery. Otherwise it thinks it has a old old battery.
Fully aware of the options of resets. Does not affect the false warning & radio kill. Thanks though.
Fixed the issue on our 2013. If it doesn’t you probably have some corrosion or a bad connection somewhere.
Since day 1; new, the batteries have exhibited symptoms of being overcharged. Wet acidic deposit on top, corrosion of the + terminal. You can’t diagnose the ridiculous BMS system nor the state of the battery w/ a volt meter. I clean the terminals & the battery every 3 months. I gave up as WM will replace the battery under warrantee.
Similar issue with my 2022 PowerBoost Lariat. Started getting the hibernation message for the 12V battery being too low. Bought a smart charger and charged it for several hours. I suspected this was because it hadn't been driven and only for short trips. But it started happening again after a week or so. Charged it again but noticed the voltage would drop after charging from 12.7-ish to 12.3-ish simply by opening the door which turns on the running lights for a bit. Tried 2 other smart chargers and this is consistent with them all. question is, is this normal behavior for an AGM battery?
It's normal for a LOT of the oem batteries on the Gen14 trucks.
Lots of frustration for the owners because the battery will "check" as good at the dealership. Yet replacing it with an aftermarket AGM, and resetting the BMS, solves the issue for most.
I didn't say "all" because some trucks aren't driven often enough to keep the battery at 80% SOC. So the new battery may very well eventually trigger the battery management to go into battery save mode.
I have a 2022 Powerboost and my oem battery recently reached 600 days. But I monitor it like a hawk and intervene with external charging when I see it dropping below 12.3V while sitting static and undisturbed.
This is 1 minute ago:
![Image]()
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Lots of frustration for the owners because the battery will "check" as good at the dealership. Yet replacing it with an aftermarket AGM, and resetting the BMS, solves the issue for most.
I didn't say "all" because some trucks aren't driven often enough to keep the battery at 80% SOC. So the new battery may very well eventually trigger the battery management to go into battery save mode.
I have a 2022 Powerboost and my oem battery recently reached 600 days. But I monitor it like a hawk and intervene with external charging when I see it dropping below 12.3V while sitting static and undisturbed.
This is 1 minute ago:
Bluetooth battery monitor he has installed. Like so, he owns a Powerboost which is hard to monitor battery voltage because when you get close to the truck it wakes up everything. The hybrid battery will start charging the 12v battery through the dc to dc converter. But you don’t know how the battery is if that happens.
Battery Monitor BM2 BM3 12V Automotive Battery Tester Charging Monitor Digital Analyzer for Android & iOS Amazon.ca
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13,310 Posts
I have two of these and bought two more for FIL’s boat batteries. Look here if your shopping from the US market:
Battery Monitor BM2 BM3 Bluetooth 4.0 Wireless Battery Tester 12V Automotive Battery Load Tester,Automotive Charging and Cranking System Monitor Digital Battery Analyzer for Android & iOS https://a.co/d/2yR5NCl
Battery Monitor BM2 BM3 Bluetooth 4.0 Wireless Battery Tester 12V Automotive Battery Load Tester,Automotive Charging and Cranking System Monitor Digital Battery Analyzer for Android & iOS https://a.co/d/2yR5NCl
Edit: I was typing while my good friends were answering your question.
***
There's an inexpensive ($25) Bluetooth voltmeter that you can install directly on the AGM battery.
![Image]()
It's weatherproof enough under the hood that I haven't seen a single glitch in the past year or so.
![Image]()
The Bluetooth app affords you the ability to get your real-time voltage reading without triggering the F150 "Approach Functions", thus not getting a FALSE reading. (believe me, the approach features drop voltage by as much as .5V)
The app also downloads the 24/7 logs from the device and allows you to look back at exactly what has been going on while you thought your truck was sleeping.
So you can verify if/when a parasitic draw took place.
You can also view a single days voltage map to review the charging strategy of Ford's F150 while the truck was in use.
Here's a couple of days ago for my daily commute to and from the office:
(vertical axis = voltage/horizontal = 24 hour clock. Where you drag your finger will show numerical value for both)
![Image]()
Considering how anemic the battery charging strategy is for the Powerboost, I found it fascinating to log the 12V battery conditions. Especially for events like overnight OTA updates and such. These trucks are absolutely amazing technology platforms and I'm still smitten by the Powerboost after 2.5 years of combined ownership. But dang if you aren't watching out for that low voltage health. These trucks can go Jekyll/Hyde on you when you drop below a certain voltage threshold.
***
There's an inexpensive ($25) Bluetooth voltmeter that you can install directly on the AGM battery.
It's weatherproof enough under the hood that I haven't seen a single glitch in the past year or so.
The Bluetooth app affords you the ability to get your real-time voltage reading without triggering the F150 "Approach Functions", thus not getting a FALSE reading. (believe me, the approach features drop voltage by as much as .5V)
The app also downloads the 24/7 logs from the device and allows you to look back at exactly what has been going on while you thought your truck was sleeping.
So you can verify if/when a parasitic draw took place.
You can also view a single days voltage map to review the charging strategy of Ford's F150 while the truck was in use.
Here's a couple of days ago for my daily commute to and from the office:
(vertical axis = voltage/horizontal = 24 hour clock. Where you drag your finger will show numerical value for both)
Considering how anemic the battery charging strategy is for the Powerboost, I found it fascinating to log the 12V battery conditions. Especially for events like overnight OTA updates and such. These trucks are absolutely amazing technology platforms and I'm still smitten by the Powerboost after 2.5 years of combined ownership. But dang if you aren't watching out for that low voltage health. These trucks can go Jekyll/Hyde on you when you drop below a certain voltage threshold.
FYI
Typical Powerboost 12V AGM voltage fluctuations for a single key cycle:
Parked. Undisturbed.
![Image]()
You approach the truck with a FOB and proximity trigger launches approach features: (a considerable tax on a weak or average health AGM/Aux combo)
![Image]()
Although you will usually get away with starting a Powerboost at 11.99V, it's possible to throw some soft DTCs that you won't be aware of unless certain modules aren't happy about it. Regardless, if you get the green "Ready" on the Powerboost instrument cluster, you will see the voltage nice and healthy now that the digital alternator is running and supplying plenty of voltage to the low voltage side of the Hybrid
![Image]()
After 30 minutes of the truck running, even though the 3.5 Ecoboost ICE only ran about 3-4 minutes, you shut the truck down and walk away.
Static voltage for the 12V battery has now been increased ~.15V
An increase in SOC from 62% > 80% đź‘Ť
![Image]()
Typical Powerboost 12V AGM voltage fluctuations for a single key cycle:
Parked. Undisturbed.
You approach the truck with a FOB and proximity trigger launches approach features: (a considerable tax on a weak or average health AGM/Aux combo)
Although you will usually get away with starting a Powerboost at 11.99V, it's possible to throw some soft DTCs that you won't be aware of unless certain modules aren't happy about it. Regardless, if you get the green "Ready" on the Powerboost instrument cluster, you will see the voltage nice and healthy now that the digital alternator is running and supplying plenty of voltage to the low voltage side of the Hybrid
After 30 minutes of the truck running, even though the 3.5 Ecoboost ICE only ran about 3-4 minutes, you shut the truck down and walk away.
Static voltage for the 12V battery has now been increased ~.15V
An increase in SOC from 62% > 80% đź‘Ť
I ordered one of these today. Will help with monitoring and making sure I have a truck that starts this winter after sitting for a while.
I think you will enjoy KNOWING with almost zero effort.
When most days all I've been doing is staring out the window and its cold outside I already know I'll love it. Although it's been extremely mild compared to other winters this year.
That's a lot of useful data! I have a 2021 PB and would love to see that information. Could you share the components you're using? It's obviously an Android screen cap. But what is the app? (Torque?) And which OBD2 module are you using? And, if you wouldn't mind, could you share the configuration file for that particular graph arrangement?
It is Android
The app is from the manufacturer of the Bluetooth OBD adapter.
App is OBDlink with the Ford/Lincoln/Mercury enhanced PID library
Adapter is OBDlink MX+
No way would I unplug the BMS on a Powerboost. There's way to much dancing going on between the DC-DC Converter (digital alternator) and the low voltage /high voltage side of the truck.
But yeah, if it was just a 12V AGM in play, it might be something to try?
Could someone (looking at you @snakebitten) please clarify which app (presumably using OBDII) is producing this data?
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