Some Ford Maverick Humor...

I had a customer recently give me a call about their 2024 ford maverick to pick my brains on an issue they were having repeat problems with: The dealer had warrantied 3 batteries in the last 6 months, which is roughly half the time they have even owned the vehicle, and they were wondering if maybe I had some idea of what was going on. Batteries are pretty straight forward in the grand scheme of things and 3 defective batteries in a row does not seem like a realistic problem to me. Obviously I do not do much work on vehicles still covered by manufacturer warranties so I told them I would look into it and get back to them. I found some interesting things but Allegedly they charged the battery, tested it, replaced it and performed the necessary BCM relearn every other months for 6 months without a second thought by anyone at the dealership.

Did not take much time to find dozens of threads on people having exactly the same issue. I came across a Ford Special Service Message (SSM) floating around about battery drain issues caused by the air conditioning control module and the words “Deep Sleep” being thrown around. Thank you ford for deciding to reinvent Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) that have worked perfectly find forever lol. Apparently these messages are pop-ups that just appear when you are using the dealer specific diagnostic resources that is, from my understanding, not categorized and accessible like TSBs. Any-who I printed out the message text I found online as well as a few other relevant pieces of information I found and told my customer to stop in on the way to the dealer for their next service/battery replacement.

SSM 53801 2022-2025 Maverick - Hybrid - 12V Battery Drain - Built On Or Before 17-Feb-2025

Some 2022-2025 Maverick vehicles with a hybrid powertrain and built on or before 17-Feb-2025 may exhibit a 12V battery drain. This may be due to the software installed in the air conditioning control module (ACCM). To correct this condition, perform a battery condition test as outlined in Workshop Manual (WSM), Section 414-01 Battery, Mounting and Cables > Diagnosis and Testing > Pinpoint Test A. Service the battery as necessary. Connect a battery charger such as Rotunda GRX-3590 or DCA-8000 to the 12-volt battery. Download and run the "air conditioning control module (ACCM) software update" application in the Ford Diagnosis And Repair System (FDRS) scan tool. If the battery was replaced, download and run the "BCM-reset the battery monitoring sensor learned values" application in FDRS. For claiming, use causal part 19703 and applicable labor operations in Section 10 of the Service Labor Time Standards (SLTS) Manual.

A could of weeks have gone by since then and the Customer showed up in the office with more cookies then I have seen in one place before. It is not unusual for customers to drop off all manner of snacks, deserts and refreshments especially around Christmas time. Turns out the cookies were a way of saying thanks for the information I gave him. When he dropped off his vehicle at the dealer he left the information I had given him for their the mechanic to take a look at. A couple days later they told him the vehicle was ready to be picked up. At that time they explained how the mechanic working on the vehicle was able to reprogram the climate module to fix the problem. They continued to explain that the mechanic even went so far as to print out the message that led them to solving the battery problem. The advisor then proceeded to hand the papers I had given the customer days prior back to him which went over as you probably can expect...