Worried new owner

[Wendy Shinyo Haylett]

First post... Bought our new 2013 Ford Edge SEL on September 11 and we're worried about the fact the we may have one of the battery drain issues I've read complaints about by Googling.

 

Got the display message "Battery Saver Start Ening or Turn Ignition Off" after turning off the ignition, when arriving at a destination yesterday. Took it to the dealer when I was done with my appointment. They checked the battery and said it reported good, but it was discharged a bit. They also mentioned something about rebooting the battery control module.

 

It didn't seem right to me, so I scheduled another service appointment for 12/20/2013... asking them to do a more thorough investigation on what might be causing the drain.

 

We are very worried about this, since it seems there are horror stories about this problem. Should we be? We were so in love with this car, but now we feel jilted. Does anyone have anything reassuring to report about this problem?

 

[ls973800]

Did the engine crank slowly when you started it after seeing the warning and after your appointment? How often and how much do you drive the Edge? Short trips? Frequent starts and stops? Only several times a week? Has the weather been cold in your area?

 

These are all reasons your battery may run down without fully recharging. If the dealer checked it and had to recharge it, you should be OK if they tested some of the other mechanical aspects (alternator, battery cells, etc).

 

I haven't seen or read too many complaints like yours regarding the Edge. You can find anything you want on the web doing a search to make you worry unnecessarily. Give your dealer a chance to make sure there is nothing wrong, or if there is, that they fix it.

 

Good luck and let us know.

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

Do you know when the Edge was manufactured? Could have been sitting on the dealer lot for a while. Some dealers are good at keeping the battery fresh, most are not.

 

Has the dealer installed any electronic options? May need to recheck connections.

 

If everything checks out, and you still continue to experience problems, you may have a bad battery. Should be covered under warranty if so.

[Wendy Shinyo Haylett]

Thanks for your reassurances! You are right, you can find a lot to worry you by searching the Internet and I know I am guilty of that now. Thanks for the reminder.

 

Here are the answers to both of your questions:

 

* The car never had any trouble starting

 

* Driving patterns: We don't drive every day (we both work from home), generally 3-5 times a week. When we do drive it is mostly short trips and, yes, frequent starts and stops.

 

* Yes, the weather has been cold.

 

* Car was manufactured on 7/29/13 which was traded to our dealer from a rural dealer in the southern tier of NY. It was delivered to us on 9/11/13. It looked like it was never driven before, so you're probably right about keeping the batttery fresh.

 

* One option installed: remote start.

 

I made the additional appointment so that they could check connections, alternator, etc., to be on the safe side. I took it to the dealer's "quick lane" so they didn't do anything thorough, but they did say they checked the battery and there were no bad cells.

 

I'll keep you posted ... thanks for the replies!

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

Hope everything checks out a-ok. Definitely take the Edge for a highway cruise once in a while, that really helps in keeping the battery charged.

[akirby]

When you crank a vehicle, especially in the cold, it drains the battery. You need to let it run for a bit so that it has time to fully recharge. If you're doing a lot of 2-3 mile jaunts without long drives in between to recharge it can slowly drain.

 

There is also a normal drain from the onboard electronics which doesn't help but by itself should not be a problem.

 

And again - your battery may be bad, even if it's new and even if it "tested ok".

 

An easy solution (if you park in the garage) is to use a simple battery minder to keep it charged - or just drive it a few extra miles every other day or so. Or crank it and let it idle for 15 minutes every now and then.

[Wendy Shinyo Haylett]

Thanks for your responses ... easy enough to crank it and let it idle. We were taking longer drives in the fall, when we first got it, but since the weather has gotten bad we haven't done that much.

 

Great answers, thanks everyone!

 

I'll report in after the 12/20 service appointment, to let you know if they found anything else. Or before, if (knock on wood, hopefully not) it happens again.

[Edgieguy]

I had this issue one time with my 11 Sport when it was only weeks old. It was re-charged sent to the dealer and I never had the problem occur again. I do often rotate a batter tender / maintainer / charger through all my vehicles which is especially important in the winter weather. It usually tops off the batteries in about 6-8 hours and then you know they're at full charge. $20 from Walmart

[Limited59]

Do you park in a garage?

 

I only drive on average once per week and have for years. Heck, if there was a decent grocery store between my house and office I would drive even less. I have never had any issues with cranking or low battery messages.

 

Two things might influence that and they are that it never gets below freezing in my garage and I don't lock the car so the perimeter alarm is never set.

[Edgieguy]

Im parked outside, alarm always set, but I do drive more than the OP, even though in 3 years im just over 22K miles.

[stechols]

Hi!

 

Newbie here. Thought I would chime in on this topic because I had the same exact issue that Wendy had this week.

 

Monday when I got in my car to go to lunch I got the Battery Saver On message (it cranked fine). I immediately stopped by the dealership to have them check the battery. He said it tested good, 12.something volts.

I then went home and after pulling key out but before opening the door, I got the same message Wendy did. So now I was freaked out...is it going to start again??

I then went back to Ford dealership and they wanted to keep it and test all electronics (all tested fine) and to crank it fresh the next morning (since we were getting lows into the teens that night/morning).

Dealer called me the next morning and said that it was parked outside all night and was slow to start that morning, so they pulled it inside and the battery tested low; they charged it and kept it half the day to recrank later after the charge.

 

After my morning talk with dealer, it hit me!! My driving patterns! I drive less than 3 mi to and from work from my house and every other stop I would make )i.e. grocery store, etc) are within that same distance. Well, the previous Friday I had drove 2 min up the road to get lunch, then came back to work and sat in my car parked, with seat heaters on for a solid 30 min. Then I only made one very short trip to the grocery store on Sat, and did not drive it all on Sunday.

All this while, it was cold outside. BUT, my car is parked in a garage at home.

So I called the dealer back to inform him of this and he said that very well could have been the trigger, short trips and running seat heaters!!

 

I guess now I will be making a longer trip once a week to get a good charge and see if that helps. I hope to not see that message again!!

 

~Stephanie

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

What year/level of Edge do you have? If it's still the OEM battery, typically 3 years is on the outside the max life the battery is good for.