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New forum member. Bought a 2014 MKZ Hybrid in Nov 2019 with 94.5K miles, now has 104.5K miles. Three weeks ago the 12volt battery died. Luckily the car was unlocked. Popped the hood and tested the voltage at the jump starting bolts and it read 2.5 volts (yes, two point five volts). Trunk would not open with buttons or fobs, so put down the back seats, crawled back a bit into trunk and pulled the emergency release. Voltage at the 12volt in the trunk was 2.5 volts. Bought the new specified 12volt Motorcraft battery at the Ford dealer and installed that in trunk. Car now started and ran fine, but trunk would not fully close, nor open automatically. Bought the new Rear Gate Trunk Module (RGTM) from a Ford dealer and installed that ( online videos have been very helpful with this process!). Trunk now locks and cinches down, and unlocks. The RGTM should be reprogrammed with updated codes, but dealer would not do this as I installed module myself. That's OK, I can live with some reduced functionality, but I still had a problem with finding parasitic electric draws. Car 12volt battery was not charging properly, battery voltage would drop overnight to low 12 range. Did a lot of web searching and reading, including in this forum and the Ford Fusion Hybrid forum. I have 3 different OBD2 readers (cheap, Autel MK808, and Forscan). I have used all three to check and turn off DTC codes, and see into as many relevant systems as I could. I have used Forscan to turn off as many nonessential electric draws as I could, to test/set a new battery "type", and to test/observe results with BMS on and BMS off. One observation I have from this project is that the 12volt battery can and does get charged from the HVB. One way to see this is to pop open the hood and check the voltage (with multimeter) with car totally off, then turn on the car BUT don't start it (push the start button without your foot on the brake). With car totally "off" I had readings of 12.2+ volts, but with KOEO (key on engine off) I had readings 14.2+ volts. (Some of the cars many systems start drawing electricity when you open the car door, and it takes a while - minutes - for them to go back to sleep after your shut the car door.) This makes sense to me. The gas engine can power the car and charge the HVB. The HVB is getting about 300+ volts from the engine's generator. The HVB assembly includes a DC to DC inverter that steps down the HVB voltage to the 14+ range for the 12 volt battery. This is what I think is going on, in very simplified terms. At present, with the reduction in interior lights and other nonessential draws, and with BMS off, I finally had the 12volt battery up to 12.8 volts after a long afternoon drive yesterday and it settled down to 12.6 volts overnight - which is right where I want it to be. Matt

Hi all, New to forums--and have a 2017 black reserve AWD 3.0 with all packages except moonroof--which I didn't want. I looked long and hard for it--found it with 8,000 miles, and had been driven by a female Lincoln exec based in Detroit. Got an AWESOME deal..... (sticker was just under $60K). Anyway, I'm wondering if others have experienced short battery life with their vehicles? I recognoze that there's a lot of drain inherent in this car, butit's only 3 years old, at 38k miles..... Dealer says since it can still hold a charge, he can't replace it under warranty. Which I think is ridiculous! Another question: I have the Revel Ultima sound dydtem. I've been in and out of serious music during my 65 years of life, and to me----the sound stinks on XM/Sirius. It's "ok" on HD radio, etc. Anyone else notice a lousy tinny sound with XM?? Thanks for reading this! JRW

So all of us MKZ hybrid owners who are unfortunate have come to the realization that the OEM 12v battery that came with our cars were too small and underpowered to survive the rigorous demands of our heavily electronically focused cars. I'd like to refer to the Fusion Hybrid forums because they discuss this in great length here. So I've been having issues with the 12v battery on my MKZh for the past couple of months. I've been able to keep the battery alive by jumpstarting it every now and then. i came back from 6 day vacation without driving it and now the battery is practically dead. jumpstarting it won't power on anything unless AAA jumpstarts it with their 1.5k Amp jumpstarter. Afterwards I make a trip to Sears. They recommended me a Diehard 96R battery here. It has 590 CCA which is much better than the stock Motorcraft battery with 390 CAA and it was already on sale so I purchased it. The Sears technicians try to install the 96R but find its slightly too large to fit into the tray so they put back the Motorcraft battery and I leave with the 96R. I've read on the Fusion Hybrid Forums that you can cut off the backend wall of the battery tray to accommodate larger batteries. Seeing as the Fusion hybrid is pretty much the same car as the MKZh I figure I attempt this. A member on the FFH wrote a guide here. Anyone have experience upgrading their MKZh batteries ? What tools used to cut the tray?

2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid 12 volt Battery Warning problem We have enjoyed our 2012 MKZ Hybrid since July 2011. It has performed virtually without a flaw now for 44,000 miles. Last week, my wife began to intermittently receive a momentary “Battery Warning” chime with about a one or two second red warning display on the very left hand side of the display (where the temp is normally displayed). This warning happened perhaps a dozen times over several days. It always happened when the car a) slowed down almost to a stop and then b) a very light acceleration (electric only) was called for. I found I could repeat this several times in a row but not EVERY time I tried it. I also have a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, and something that reminded me of this problem had happened to me early last year. If I stopped for a while and left the AC running on the car while stopped, the battery voltage dropped and my dash display would go back to factory defaults. In that case the dealer did not have a clue, but I found the answer in the forums.. That was: Replace the 12v battery and install a particular TSB. That DID fix the Fusion Hybrid 100%. I took TWO trips to the dealer and they were unable to diagnose the problem. I then found the problem on the Fusion Forum, changed the battery, and had the dealer put in the TSB and all was well. I did not want to repeat this experience where the dealer charged me for non-productive diagnostics. With that in mind, I asked my wife to drop in to our Lincoln Dealer to have them check it out. I was pretty sure that by this time, this would be a known problem and easy to fix. This was not to be! They claimed never to have heard of such a problem. I went to the Internet and found a number of forum entries reporting “Battery Saving Warning” alarms and found a TSB that was supposed to correct this in 2013 vehicles. I took the car to my dealer and I said: Please install a new battery in the car, install this TSB and check the charging system for any defects. I was told: “We cannot do this without running complete diagnostic tests”. OK says I. Just install a new battery and install the applicable TSB and I will pay. Don’t worry about the warranty. They refused even though I told them they would have no responsibility if this failed to fix the car. I was pretty frustrated that they were going to take 2 days to do this, so I took the car home to do some troubleshooting. Since I am an Electrical Engineer, I knew what to look for. I found that: 1) When the car “alarm chime” happened, the car had just accelerated slightly in electric mode from a near “stop” and apparently the 12v battery charger which runs off the 277vdc battery stopped supplying current to the 12v battery momentarily as the car accellerates in "electric mode". 2) When the charging stopped, the voltage of the 12v battery dropped, for just a few seconds, below 12vdc and the chime alarm sounded along with the warning display. After a second or two, the charging resumed and the voltage on the 12vdc battery went back to the range of 13vdc and the chime and warning stopped. 3) I replaced the 12v battery with an off the shelf battery (after modifying the battery carrier which was designed to ONLY accept the “especially shaped, but ordinary” Ford 12v battery. Following the battery exchange, the car performs normally without the alarm chime problem. It appears that there is a software bug in the alarm logic, which causes this problem. However! The battery did check “bad” and was ready to be changed out. But the Battery alarm logic could be written to give a proper warning of a failing battery and not leave these obscure failures for people without electrical knowledge to hassle with! FMC should also have a try at training their dealers to a) be KNOWLEDGABLE about these obscure warnings and problems and b) simply ACCEPT THE ORDER AND THE MONEY if and when a knowledgeable customer comes in and wants a specific part (such as a battery) changed out! I would quite quickly accept just the “Make the service consultant KNOWLEDGABLE part!!! How about it FORD!!?? PS> The service manager told me these vehicle forums were FULL of misinformation and could not be trusted! For my own part, I find these forums quite useful and overall very accurate when read carefully.