I've been keeping a secret.

[Davexxxx]

Not really a secret, just hadn't mentioned it, unless and until there was cause.

On our western trip last summer, someone did a hit and run in a parking lot, damaging the drivers rear fender, just under the PPOB.

Just barely creased it and broke through the finish paint, about 1/8" x 3/4". I immediately looked at and took pics of the back of the PPOB. I don't think it ever touched it and it functioned normally, the rest of the trip.

Too long of a story about why I'm just getting it fixed now but both estimates required the outer skin, be removed and replaced with new. There are apparently a jillion special rivets holding it on and requires a special $8K rivet gun to do it. Not all shops have this gun and farm their work out. I decided I wanted a shop certified by Ford to work on aluminum and owning their own gun.

Anyway, the initial time estimation, was about a week and a half. Then the shops rivet gun had damaged parts and that put things off a few days for delivery of said parts for the gun. Parts came in and the next time estimate was for late this week.

Called yesterday and was told next week, with no explanation other than "We're blessed with being busy". Gave me a drop dead time of the 19th.

In the mean time, I have gotten some warnings via Ford pass about the battery. This doesn't really surprise me, as it has been really cold (teens) at night, throughout a bunch of this time and has been on their lot since Jan 27.

But yesterday, I got a warning about PPOB, needing service. When getting the estimate, I pointed out to them that this was a Powerboost and all that meant. They assured me it would be no problem.

I didn't anticipate that they'd need to mess with the PPOB at all but I may have been wrong about that.

The several times I've checked Ford Pass, it says the truck is at their location. This is a small, non chain shop, in a small town but came highly recommend by several people I know. One of their specialties is custom work.

Think I'm gonna swing by, just to nose around today.

Anything anyone can think of, that I should be sure to notice?

Sponsored

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

Long story short, you’re getting the message because your battery is going dead. It’s below 11v, it’s most likely the auxiliary battery.

 

[Davexxxx]

I stopped by, they gave me the grand tour.

The PPOB warning was because they unplugged it to take the bed off.

I really didn't expect that but whatever. They say they have a guy to recalibrate the sensors, camera etc and they know its going to ford the next day for the recall and will know if something isn't right so ...

 

[Davexxxx]

A couple pics from yesterday. Wish I'd taken some of the actual body work.

 

[Davexxxx]

They must have started the truck to bring it inside for reassembly, Just got a Ford Pass warning, about the PPOB needing service.

When I was there last friday, they said the truck started fine. With it not being driven for so long, coupled with the cold temps, sort of surprised. Pleasantly.

 

[Davexxxx]

They must have started the truck to bring it inside for reassembly, Just got a Ford Pass warning, about the PPOB needing service.

When I was there last friday, they said the truck started fine. With it not being driven for so long, coupled with the cold temps, sort of surprised. Pleasantly.

Well, so much for the pleasantly surprised part.

Picked up the truck. The work appears to be fine, no codes, checked PPOB, it turned on without throwing a fit. Thats as far as I've gotten re testing. Hybrid cycles on and off as normal. seat memory was fine. The only thing I had to re-enable was synching the homelink button for the backup beeper delete.

But, they said it wouldn't start today. Jumped it, brought it into the shop. Wouldn't start again. Put it on a charger, said it wouldn't take a charge. Replaced the battery. The old battery would have been under warranty. They gave me a really good deal ($170) on the exact replacement but ...

I don't know if it'll even worth the trouble, to try to get Ford involved.

They are going to get the old battery back and I'm gonna try my magic machine on it, see if I can get it to come back to life. We'll see.

 

[Davexxxx]

Well, I'm almost certainly screwed out of the warranty on the original battery. Just a bad case of inopportune timing.

Went back to the shop with my charger. It didn't note any battery failure but starting voltage was 8.7V. Started a charge cycle. The charger took it to 16.25A and more or less stayed there for ~3 hrs. while I did a separate project, which just so happened to require the use of PPOB. All good there.

After that period, I checked the voltage at the battery terminals, while the charge was on and read 12.4, rather than the 16.25. Disconnected the charger and the batt started slipping in voltage to 12.07.

Under different circumstances, I'd have kept trying but didn't want to wear out my welcome at the shop, paid for the new battery and moved on.

Once home, put the charger on the truck, directly to the battery posts and let it do it's thing. Initial Amps were 16.25. This held for several hours, later dropping to 2.15A some time before 9:00pm ish and at the float stage, by some time before 6:00am.

They said they had not reset the BMS. I'll do that this morning, before taking it to Ford, for the recall on the PCM and Cats.

I'm hoping whatever ate the under hood batt, didn't also lunch the one under the seat but at least it got a full recharge, as soon as I could give it one. Fingers crossed.

FWIW, I have not noticed any systems not working as normal, nor anything settings being disturbed, or lost.

Sponsored