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Weird electrical issue...


aces-n-eights

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2017 MKZ, Reserve, 3.0T, AWD, 36,000 miles.  We bought the car last Feb.

 

About 2 months ago we went to the garage to take the car - dead.  A few warning lights on the dash, but no crank, no beep of the horn, no interior lights.  Called roadside assistance, they put their boost box on it and it came alive and fired right up.  Got it over to the Lincoln dealer, they tested the battery - failed, new battery.  I noticed the battery that failed had a sticker on it of "2-19".  So that tells me the original battery was replaced by another battery  sometime in early 2019.  This 3 year old car has had three batteries - original, the "2-19" battery and then the new one in there now.

 

About a month ago, same thing - a few warning lights but otherwise dead, dead, dead. Roadside assistance again, boost box again, fired right up.  Lincoln dealer could not find a problem.  Tried to locate any electrical drain and it was all in tolerance.  Got it back after a week and told to monitor it.

 

Yep, you guessed it, same thing today.  I got smart and bought my own compact boost box and it fired the car right up.

 

I'm going to get it over to the Lincoln dealer tomorrow, but i was wondering if anyone has any ideas of what this could be.

 

Thanks guys!

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OK, first off, a battery is only as good as the battery can be... though I find it odd that in 3 years 3 replacements... that in its self should be a red flag that it's not charging it correctly.

 

Did you buy it at a dealer, is so they should find out why it's doing that.

If not, then the place you bought it should be doing that... some states have a lemon law or something like it....

 

 

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Thanks Multitask, yes, Lincoln has an obligation to figure this out.  I'm trying to gather as much info as i can to nudge them in the right direction if possible.  It is just weird and i hope they can get the car sorted.  We really like the car when it starts!  And, yes, we are thinking we may have to pursue Lemon Laws...

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I don't know about Obligated... especially if it's not under warranty.... I'm sure they would cover if it was...

 

But being that it's gone through 3 batteries in 3 years is not a good thing...

 

A batteries life averages 3 years... all depending on how much stress it goes through... in your case that is WAY too much... ?

 

 

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Yeah, it's really puzzling.  The Lincoln dealer has had it the last 3 days.  Today they called and said they could not find the problem.  I told them to keep it a few more days - it's under an extended warranty.  The good news is they gave us a new Nautilus as a loaner - still prefer the sedan over the SUV, but it's a nice loaner.

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  • 2 weeks later...
13 hours ago, TomV said:

My buddies brand new 2019 Nautilus ended up with a completely dead battery a few months after he owned it. Wonder if Ford has a new supplier for their batteries?

 

Hi Tom. No new battery supplier. Things happen, parts sometimes fail. A 2019 would almost certainly still be within the 4 year/50,000 mile New Car Warranty, and therefore the battery would be replaced under warranty/free.

 

Also, you don't mention when this happened? Recently? When did he purchase his 2019 Nautilus, and did he buy it new or used? If he recently bought it off the Dealers lot, that means it may have been been sitting on that lot, mostly unused, for some time. Possibly ~1 to ~2 years if he purchased it new. That will kill a battery quite nicely.

 

Either way, that battery could be ~2 years old. Too young to die? Yes...but we don't know the extenuating circumstances. So the good news is it would be replaced under warranty anyway. So all should be well, we hope. When the Dealer replaced the battery, they also should have checked for any parasitic battery drains which may have caused the problem and need correction.

 

Good luck.

Edited by bbf2530
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The thing to remember is that a 3 or 4 year warranty on a battery just means they will replace if need be, it does NOT mean it will last that long.  ?

 

Humans are not perfect, thus the things we make are also not perfect..  ?

 

EDIT: I worked for Excide back in the late 70's , they made a lifetime battery, it just meant it was replaced for the life of you owning it.  

Edited by Multitask
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  • 2 weeks later...

So to continue the saga...  The car would not start last week.  We got it to the Lincoln dealer for the fourth time.  They had it for about a week and just got it back yesterday.  They installed a new battery.  This car is a 2017 so it's probably about 4 years old now and this is it's fourth battery.  They also tested the BCE (Body, chassis, electrical) module and found some glitch with the BCE communicating with a door module.  They reflashed and reprogrammed the BCE module and i hope that will solve the intermittent battery drain.

 

I just wanted to share the latest with our issue in case someone else has similar problems with their MKZ.

 

We really like the car and appreciate everyone's comments regarding our no start issue!

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1 hour ago, aces-n-eights said:

So to continue the saga...  The car would not start last week.  We got it to the Lincoln dealer for the fourth time.  They had it for about a week and just got it back yesterday.  They installed a new battery.  This car is a 2017 so it's probably about 4 years old now and this is it's fourth battery.  They also tested the BCE (Body, chassis, electrical) module and found some glitch with the BCE communicating with a door module.  They reflashed and reprogrammed the BCE module and i hope that will solve the intermittent battery drain.

 

I just wanted to share the latest with our issue in case someone else has similar problems with their MKZ.

 

We really like the car and appreciate everyone's comments regarding our no start issue!

 

Hi aces-n-eights. Thanks for the update. It certainly may help others in the same or similar situation.

 

Hope this solves the problem for you. Good luck.

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In our 2015,  the battery was draining because a previous owner or shop broke the glove box door damper - which contains the kill switch for the glove box light. Fixed it myself with an Ebay part and a rivet so it's stronger than factory now. And no one else will be replacing our cabin air filter.  An easy test is if the glove box door drops suddenly instead of opening slowly. 

 

11/7/20 Update: the new battery installed in March 2018 was dead this week.  Car is driven several times a week and placed on a trickle charger if we know it won't be driven for a spell.  The dealer is friendly and found nothing wrong except the battery was dead and could not be recharged (confirming my attempts to revive it). The frustrating thing is the dealer claims all modules are "happy" with no faults detected. This is frustrating and we are losing faith in this car for road trips as intended.

Edited by jmcgliss
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