deewan
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- January 11, 2012
- Messages
- 300
- Reaction score
- 15
- City, State
- Cedar Rapids, IA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2012 Explorer Limited
I'm having a very strange issue. My battery has been draining and causing some start issues over the past couple days. But SYNC and user settings were acting up before the ignition issues. Here is the breakdown of what is happening and when...
Sunday: Car started normal. 5 minutes into an hour drive I attempted to use the steering wheel controls to switch from Sirius to BT Audio. The right dashboard display changed to the Bluetooth audio, but Sirius radio continued to play over the speakers and the main touchscreen continued to display Sirius touchscreen. I could switch Sirius channels while the dashboard display continued to show BT audio information (number of tracks and song progression). Not until I used the touchscreen to switch to BT could I get the system to switch over to BT. Everything else seemed normal on my return drive.
Monday morning: Leaving for work and the battery is nearly dead. Explorer barely is able to turnover but does start. I notice my driver seat moves each time I open the driver door. I conclude the Easy Entry feature is operating, however I've had that feature turned off since day 1. While the Ex is running I check settings and confirm the Easy Entry option is turned off. I turn off the Ex and the seat moves back away from the steering wheel. I also notice that each time I open the driver side door, the dashboard and interior lights flicker instead of staying on or turn off. Not sure if that is due to low battery or something else. Ex starts each time Monday but really struggles to turn over each time. I have a local auto shop check the battery and they said the charge was at 10%. That night I hook the Ex up to a battery charger for about 2 hours and try charging it a bit. I get the battery up to 25%.
Tuesday: Continued problem starting. Now each time I shut the Ex off SYNC and the audio system shut off before a door is opened and the touchscreen displays a progress bar and a sentence stating something like "Due to low power, SYNC is shutting down. Start ignition to power system." Ex continues to start each time I try, and SYNC continues to shutdown each time I shut the Ex off. Tuesday night I decide to hook up the battery charger again. I charge the battery for about 6 hours and when I unhook the charger the charger said the battery was at 75%.
Wednesday: Get into the Ex and the engine won't turn over at all. Nothing. Dashboard lights are lit, but nothing else is operational. I hook up the battery charger and jump the car. Once started, SYNC shows the reboot and maintenance screen. I let the Ex run for 3 minutes, shut it off and restart. It started without the help of the battery charger and actually started faster and better than it had since Sunday morning which shocked me since the battery was basically dead 5 minutes earlier.
I called my local Ford service department and explained the problem. They want me to bring the car in for a battery check which I agree with. But it still seems odd to me that SYNC and other car features are acting up before the battery was failing.
Anyone else have an issue like this? My battery was just checked about a month ago and was said to be in very good condition so it would surprise me that it went that bad that quickly. I've read on some of the Escape forums that SYNC was actually killing the battery. And then I also saw this YouTube video, but it doesn't explain what the fix was. I'm assuming something like the APIM was replaced.
Sunday: Car started normal. 5 minutes into an hour drive I attempted to use the steering wheel controls to switch from Sirius to BT Audio. The right dashboard display changed to the Bluetooth audio, but Sirius radio continued to play over the speakers and the main touchscreen continued to display Sirius touchscreen. I could switch Sirius channels while the dashboard display continued to show BT audio information (number of tracks and song progression). Not until I used the touchscreen to switch to BT could I get the system to switch over to BT. Everything else seemed normal on my return drive.
Monday morning: Leaving for work and the battery is nearly dead. Explorer barely is able to turnover but does start. I notice my driver seat moves each time I open the driver door. I conclude the Easy Entry feature is operating, however I've had that feature turned off since day 1. While the Ex is running I check settings and confirm the Easy Entry option is turned off. I turn off the Ex and the seat moves back away from the steering wheel. I also notice that each time I open the driver side door, the dashboard and interior lights flicker instead of staying on or turn off. Not sure if that is due to low battery or something else. Ex starts each time Monday but really struggles to turn over each time. I have a local auto shop check the battery and they said the charge was at 10%. That night I hook the Ex up to a battery charger for about 2 hours and try charging it a bit. I get the battery up to 25%.
Tuesday: Continued problem starting. Now each time I shut the Ex off SYNC and the audio system shut off before a door is opened and the touchscreen displays a progress bar and a sentence stating something like "Due to low power, SYNC is shutting down. Start ignition to power system." Ex continues to start each time I try, and SYNC continues to shutdown each time I shut the Ex off. Tuesday night I decide to hook up the battery charger again. I charge the battery for about 6 hours and when I unhook the charger the charger said the battery was at 75%.
Wednesday: Get into the Ex and the engine won't turn over at all. Nothing. Dashboard lights are lit, but nothing else is operational. I hook up the battery charger and jump the car. Once started, SYNC shows the reboot and maintenance screen. I let the Ex run for 3 minutes, shut it off and restart. It started without the help of the battery charger and actually started faster and better than it had since Sunday morning which shocked me since the battery was basically dead 5 minutes earlier.
I called my local Ford service department and explained the problem. They want me to bring the car in for a battery check which I agree with. But it still seems odd to me that SYNC and other car features are acting up before the battery was failing.
Anyone else have an issue like this? My battery was just checked about a month ago and was said to be in very good condition so it would surprise me that it went that bad that quickly. I've read on some of the Escape forums that SYNC was actually killing the battery. And then I also saw this YouTube video, but it doesn't explain what the fix was. I'm assuming something like the APIM was replaced.