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I have a 2019 Nautilus that is used about every 9 or 10 days for a 6 mile round trip for groceries.   I get a message on the center stack screen telling me it's not going to go through the normal Lincoln start up "video" to conserve battery power.   I occasionally receive messages through the Lincoln app about some functions being disabled to conserve battery power.  So i decided to charge the battery, when i attached the charger it showed the battery fully charged.  Question,  am i receiving these messages due to non usage vs the battery being discharged?  Thanks in advance. 

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Your battery is bad.  Bad batteries will often indicate fully charged on some chargers because the charger only looks to see if the voltage is increasing on the battery.  A bad battery will only accept a minimal amount of charge before peaking at some voltage lower than a healthy battery.  The problem is that as soon as you put any load on that battery, the voltage will quickly drop.  A healthy battery should be around 12.7 volts and peak around 13 when you take it off the charger.  It should stay around 12.5 or higher after daily use.  If it is around 12.2 or 12.3, it has some life but it definitely won't pass a load test.  Below 12 volts and the battery won't reliably start a vehicle.  I would guess your charger is getting it to about 12.7 and as soon as you pull it off it drops to 12.5 and after 1 day or leaving it overnight it will be around 12.3.  Take it to an autoparts store or the dealer and have it load tested. 

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7 hours ago, T hawker said:

I have a 2019 Nautilus that is used about every 9 or 10 days for a 6 mile round trip for groceries.   I get a message on the center stack screen telling me it's not going to go through the normal Lincoln start up "video" to conserve battery power.   I occasionally receive messages through the Lincoln app about some functions being disabled to conserve battery power.  So i decided to charge the battery, when i attached the charger it showed the battery fully charged.  Question,  am i receiving these messages due to non usage vs the battery being discharged?  Thanks in advance. 

 

Hi T hawker. Your minimal driving/usage of ~6 miles once every 9-10 days could be the problem. And/or your battery could also be failing, since it may be ~3 years old now with minimal charging. Add to that the fact that 3-4 years is about the usable lifespan of a battery in today's electronic/computer/electrically intensive vehicles, you need to have your battery properly tested.

 

There are usually coupons for a free battery test (a proper load test, as Flying68 advised) on the Lincoln and Ford Owner websites. Also, most Lincoln/Ford Dealer websites will have the same offer.

 

Have the battery tested and go from there.

 

Let us know how you make out and good luck.

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5 hours ago, akirby said:

You need to check the CCAs using a digital tester (Solar has some good ones).  Voltage means nothing


You need a battery tender if you’re not driving it every 3-4 days.  

Voltage is an indicator of state of charge.  A healthy Pb-Acid battery should peak around 13 v and maintain 12.7 at 100% charge.  If it doesn't that means the battery has lost capacity and by corollary its ability to provide the rated amps.  If a charger indicates fully charged and a couple hours later the voltage is around 12.3 your battery is pretty much toast.  Around 12.5 it would be on its last legs. So your statement that "Voltage means nothing." is not correct.  This is also why a load tester checks first to see if the batteries state of charge.  If the voltage is below a given threshold it won't test.

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1 hour ago, Flying68 said:

Voltage is an indicator of state of charge.  A healthy Pb-Acid battery should peak around 13 v and maintain 12.7 at 100% charge.  If it doesn't that means the battery has lost capacity and by corollary its ability to provide the rated amps.  If a charger indicates fully charged and a couple hours later the voltage is around 12.3 your battery is pretty much toast.  Around 12.5 it would be on its last legs. So your statement that "Voltage means nothing." is not correct.  This is also why a load tester checks first to see if the batteries state of charge.  If the voltage is below a given threshold it won't test.


I should have said just because the battery has 12 volts doesn’t mean it’s good.  I’ve personally seen dozens of people post that their battery tested good either with a voltmeter or an old style tester when in fact it was bad and had to be replaced.

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4 hours ago, akirby said:


I should have said just because the battery has 12 volts doesn’t mean it’s good.  I’ve personally seen dozens of people post that their battery tested good either with a voltmeter or an old style tester when in fact it was bad and had to be replaced.

Yes, that is very true.  Most of the time, if it is only at 12 v, especially after having been driven or on a charger, it is bad.  We limped our MkC along for a couple of weeks on a bad battery, only once when I checked it was it below 12 v, but I knew it was bad because I could leave it on the charger all night and it would only peak out at 12.5 and would be at 12.3 after the wife's daily commute.  Before they changed it, they load tested and it failed, as I knew it would.

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When I had my '16 MKX, the battery was dead after six months in service.  At the time the fleet salesman who ordered the car for me said "Lincoln said you were getting a battery, but they didn't say how good it was"  If you weigh the factory battery vs the Motorcraft replacement you see that the replacement is far heavier because it contain more plates. The replacement in my '16 lasted about two year and then that one went bad.  AS for my current '19 Nautilus that battery lasted two years then went south.  

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I had battery problems with my 2016 MKC and had to call Lincoln roadside assistance twice or maybe three times in the nearly 3 years I had it.  However, I will have had my 2019 MKZ-Hybrid 3 years next month (got it in December 2018) and I haven't had a single problem with its battery or anything else, really (knock on wood!).

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Update:  As akirby suggested i purchased a Solar BA9 tester.  I received "ok's" across the board with "recharge" notation meaning "the battery is good but needs to be charged".  The battery test had a result of 12.32v and 869 CCA.  The cranking/starting test without loads registered 14.60 to 14.70v, with load 13.4v and a "ripple" of 0.14.  Again everything showed "ok", tomorrow i will take it on a 120 mile round trip to Las Cruces and then test it again in a couple of days.  Thanks for the help everyone.

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On 11/28/2021 at 1:07 PM, T hawker said:

Update:  As akirby suggested i purchased a Solar BA9 tester.  I received "ok's" across the board with "recharge" notation meaning "the battery is good but needs to be charged".  The battery test had a result of 12.32v and 869 CCA.  The cranking/starting test without loads registered 14.60 to 14.70v, with load 13.4v and a "ripple" of 0.14.  Again everything showed "ok", tomorrow i will take it on a 120 mile round trip to Las Cruces and then test it again in a couple of days.  Thanks for the help everyone.

 

There are a lot of electronics that stay alive.  I get the same message on my 2020 Explorer and 2018 gt350.  Neither battery is bad.  I have a dash cam on both that uses very minimal draw but when it sits for days, I get the message.  

 

On the Explorer, even without the dashcam,the message will trigger after 3-5 days.  For someone to just say the battery is bad off that basis rubbish.  

Edited by blwnsmoke
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14 hours ago, blwnsmoke said:

 

There are a lot of electronics that stay alive.  U get the same message on my 2020 Explorer and 2018 gt350.  Neither battery is bad.  I have a dash cam on both that uses very minimal draw but when it sits for days, I get the message.  

 

On the Explorer, even without the dashcam,the message will trigger after 3-5 days.  For someone to just say the battery is bad off the batis rubbish.  

blwnsmoke, I'm hoping that's all it is, just a warning that i need to charge the battery.  I will continue to test it over the next few weeks and see how it looks.  I've never had a starting problem, in fact this 2.7L turns over the fastest as any car I've had, so no "drivability" issues.

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  • 1 month later...

Update: So after a few 120 mile trips the battery would drop to 12.2 volts in less then 24 hours.  I purchased a battery tender/charger for AGM batteries and it would bring the battery back to 14.6 volts within a few hours.  Again, within 24 hours the battery would drop to 12.2 volts. I replaced the battery with an Optima DH7 Yellow Top yesterday, connected the trickle charge adapter,  I'll put it on the charger after each short drive and see how that works for my driving conditions.  

20211231_142446.jpg

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