Getting dealer to replace battery

[roadPilot]

Ford won't reimburse the dealer for the cost of the battery if it doesn't fail completely. If it's low but recharge they will tell you to drive the truck.

My truck was a month old and I went through the same drama. After the 3rd visit, I went to the sales manager and he made a call to service. 20 minutes later I was out the door with a new battery. I can only assume that the cost of the battery was billed back to sales.

Good luck.

Your dealership likely paid for the battery as a show of good faith.

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[Spiffy]

Well it was my lucky day. At the advise of my service adviser I called ford customer service. I got a super nice lady and explained that my dealer and I are at an impasse against ford's restrictions.
She put me on hold and called Boris. He is the head service manager at stivers ford. She gave him a confirmation number to replace the battery.
Now the only thing left is waiting for a trailer break modual .
I ended up only with one phone call. But I was supper nice and didn't throw the dealership under the buss.

 

[Spiffy]

Hate to break it to you, but they don't have to spend a single minute upgrading firmware on ANY of the modules in your truck unless (a) you're paying them or (b) the upgrade(s) are required to address a warranty claim that Ford is paying for. No, they don't have ot update 18 different modules because your battery went/is low. It doesn't work that way.

They do have to resolve the reason the truck is not updating

 

[roadPilot]

They do have to resolve the reason the truck is not updating

That means they would update the firmware for the TCU and/or GCM, but nothing else.

 

[National Superbike]

I had my truck in for the battery issue last week and I saw my mechanic friend over he weekend and he asked if I had any further troubles. Not so far... He said if it continues to be a problem and still tests OK they might have to "make it fail". Apparently, this is a common scenario. Dealers can't lose customers over something as simple as this. Ford is stupid for saving 10.00/truck by using undersized batteries but risk losing a customer at trade in time.

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

Personally, my time, and my patience is worth more than the cost of a damn battery. Once you factor in taking time off, driving to the dealer, waiting. It will only wouldn’t be worth my time of going back more than once to deal with this battery bullshit.

 

[GrandpaD]

I know I'm old...but this (not specifically the OPs issue) PB 12v battery issue is perplexing. I visit this site and read various threads regarding battery "sleep" issues and it seems pretty much it's the PB. I don't read other manufacturers forums so I haven't any idea if newer Chevy, GM and Toyota owners are forced to trickle charge their trucks. I doubt it.

I had a 22 PB (traded in with special "insider" deal) and first winter I was doing the trickle charge dance and then said F it and bought a Walmart battery. My new '24 was a manager truck with 1K miles. When we went to pick it up the sales manager had us wait- "we have a 12 volt problem". Ok. Recently I got the "turning off to save battery" msg. Even after an 80 mile round trip (with a 2 hour break halfway) same "saving" battery crap. So, off to Costco and put in a new Interstate h7 and did the reset. No issues at all since then with 20-30° nights.

I agree with folks that are pissed off having to resort to new batteries. I'm not dragging my ol' gray butt into the cold to trickle charge an $80k truck. And don't give me that "you gotta drive it more" BS. My wife's Venza has more tech in her Toyota (save for the pro-power) and she drives less than me and never gets any "save", "charge" or "massage your battery" message (unless it's in Japanese and we missed it).

Ford needs to recognize the battery issue...

Old man rant over...now what channel is Matlock on?

 

[Sig Oris]

I know I'm old...but this (not specifically the OPs issue) PB 12v battery issue is perplexing. I visit this site and read various threads regarding battery "sleep" issues and it seems pretty much it's the PB. I don't read other manufacturers forums so I haven't any idea if newer Chevy, GM and Toyota owners are forced to trickle charge their trucks. I doubt it.

I had a 22 PB (traded in with special "insider" deal) and first winter I was doing the trickle charge dance and then said F it and bought a Walmart battery. My new '24 was a manager truck with 1K miles. When we went to pick it up the sales manager had us wait- "we have a 12 volt problem". Ok. Recently I got the "turning off to save battery" msg. Even after an 80 mile round trip (with a 2 hour break halfway) same "saving" battery crap. So, off to Costco and put in a new Interstate h7 and did the reset. No issues at all since then with 20-30° nights.

I agree with folks that are pissed off having to resort to new batteries. I'm not dragging my ol' gray butt into the cold to trickle charge an $80k truck. And don't give me that "you gotta drive it more" BS. My wife's Venza has more tech in her Toyota (save for the pro-power) and she drives less than me and never gets any "save", "charge" or "massage your battery" message (unless it's in Japanese and we missed it).

Ford needs to recognize the battery issue...

Old man rant over...now what channel is Matlock on?

Same one as The Golden Girls ?

 

[GrandpaD]

Got it! He drove a Ford (but never had a battery issue ?)

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

I know I'm old...but this (not specifically the OPs issue) PB 12v battery issue is perplexing. I visit this site and read various threads regarding battery "sleep" issues and it seems pretty much it's the PB. I don't read other manufacturers forums so I haven't any idea if newer Chevy, GM and Toyota owners are forced to trickle charge their trucks. I doubt it.

I had a 22 PB (traded in with special "insider" deal) and first winter I was doing the trickle charge dance and then said F it and bought a Walmart battery. My new '24 was a manager truck with 1K miles. When we went to pick it up the sales manager had us wait- "we have a 12 volt problem". Ok. Recently I got the "turning off to save battery" msg. Even after an 80 mile round trip (with a 2 hour break halfway) same "saving" battery crap. So, off to Costco and put in a new Interstate h7 and did the reset. No issues at all since then with 20-30° nights.

I agree with folks that are pissed off having to resort to new batteries. I'm not dragging my ol' gray butt into the cold to trickle charge an $80k truck. And don't give me that "you gotta drive it more" BS. My wife's Venza has more tech in her Toyota (save for the pro-power) and she drives less than me and never gets any "save", "charge" or "massage your battery" message (unless it's in Japanese and we missed it).

Ford needs to recognize the battery issue...

Old man rant over...now what channel is Matlock on?

for me, it’s a winter thing. Last winter, I had Toyota plugged in all winter. For me it’s nothing new for me. It’s a little bit of effort and a lot of peace of mind.

 

[flasch192]

Your dealership likely paid for the battery as a show of good faith.

Guess i got lucky also , my battery got replaced last week , wouldn't fail on there fantasy tester but was having multiple issues battery related , i know mine wasn't good willed, lol

 

[Hans Moleman]

the Ford dealer just replaced my 12v battery because the window module software update killed it. all I told them was my truck kept trying to update the window module and failing which killed the battery.

 

[m_bt54]

My thought was if it was a batch of bad batteries, I would go through the hassle and try to get it replaced under warranty. However, everything points to that not being the case. Because of this, I would likely be back in the same position in a year and a half. I ended up spending $200 on a new battery, but if it fails in the next 4 years, I get a free replacement. Seemed like the best choice for both my time and my sanity.

This was my exact reason for replacing out-of-pocket. But honestly, if a couple hundred bucks could save me a trip to the dealership I probably would’ve spent it either way

 

[Spiffy]

Personally, my time, and my patience is worth more than the cost of a damn battery. Once you factor in taking time off, driving to the dealer, waiting. It will only wouldn’t be worth my time of going back more than once to deal with this battery bullshit.

I already had my truck there for trailer brake module failure and stuck 4x4 shifting, rear camera not working and inner door handle not working. You guys might be pushovers and go out of your way to justify spending your own money fixing an issue that Ford needs to step up to.
In my case I made one 15min phone call to ford , was super nice and explained that the system is broken over the battery issue. I also said I don't blame my dealership. They are stuck with regulation.
The nice lady from ford put me on hold and called the service manager and authorized a new battery. Now I have a brand new battery that I can put in my 2016, 2011,2007 f150.
After picking my truck up it was a joy to have everything working again.

 

[2.7tugger]

I had trouble with my battery from new. I call the dealership and they said the truck must be driven every sec0nd day for more then an hour, then refused to do anything for me. At that point I installed a permanent tickle charger. It helped for another year. I got all my ota updates. The following winter the truck started to go into deep sleep again.
I called another dealership explained what I had done and they replaced to battery under warranty at 2 years old.

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