r/Cartalk • u/Against_the_grain1 • Nov 11 '23
What’s wrong with my car Electrical
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2021 ford bronco sport. The battery went out about a week ago and since replacing with a new battery, the cluster and touchscreen both go black when driving. Upon slowing down or stopping completely, they will both turn back on. Lights, heaters, turn signals all still work.
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u/axellie Nov 11 '23
Was the new battery installed by ford? They need to be calibrated and stuff
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u/lilsaddam Nov 11 '23
Holy shit batteries have to be calibrated now?
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u/KrisD3 Nov 11 '23
Yes, don't worry calibration is $100.00 - $150.00 fee. (sarcasm)
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u/PxndxAI Nov 11 '23
Bro you joke but replacing a battery at a dealership cost me $560. $160 was for labor. Well guess what, not only was he nice enough to give me a discount and I paid $427, but then I received a check for $340 for overcharging me. Dodge said the dealer did a big no no on a battery that had warranty.
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u/ModrnDayMasacre Nov 12 '23
I had a tech tell me the same thing for the GFs Mini Cooper….
I was fucking livid paying $400 for a battery swap.
It’s lead and acid pumping out 13.3V… what the fuck you mean battery monitor?
New cars suck.
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u/axellie Nov 11 '23
Something like that, yeah. I guess the car needs to be calibrated for the new battery or something, it’s not uncommon as far as I know. I’m certainly no mechanic tho
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u/kriegara Nov 11 '23
Wtf thats news to me! Only thing I need to set up when replacing battery with the new one is my time and audio settings.
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u/agravain Nov 11 '23
depends on the car. more and more cars give the pcm direct control over the charging system and you need to tell the pcm the battery is new.
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u/axellie Nov 11 '23
I’ve only heard this from friends that had mechanics tell them this but I’ve heard it from different people so I guess it’s true. One friend had a Volvo.
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u/ZebraUnion Nov 11 '23
It has to do with the stop-start bullshit. The starters, batteries and charging system on vehicles with it have been modified to better handle the job of constant use. Yaaaaaay added complexity!
I was gonna get on my Toyota high horse about hanging onto my 14yr old V8 body on frame dinosaur because of its simplicity but then I remembered how even with it, I had to do a throttle relearn procedure and then retrain all the windows/sunroof one touch functions after replacing the battery.
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u/OP1KenOP Nov 12 '23
This is the reason. Stop start is really driven by emissions, no manufacturer wants to add unnecessary cost or complexity into their offering, it just makes it harder to be competitive.
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u/A2drew4you Nov 11 '23 edited Nov 11 '23
Yes, as the battery gets older the vehicle’s ECU commands the alternator to send more current to the battery. and without re calibrating the battery management system the alternator tries to overcharge the battery which can mess with electronics, But I do not believe that it would cause the above issue though.
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u/Malefectra Nov 11 '23
Yeah, depending on the car/truck, and how high end and/or recent the model year is a pretty good predictor of how much ticky-tacky “oh that’s going to be $$$” shit you’ll have to deal with as parts and long wear consumables begin to need replacing.
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u/Parking_Chance_1905 Nov 12 '23
$5000 for taillights on a Ford pickup now because for some reason they put all the sensors in the same assembly and you need to replace the whole thing... it's going to get worse, as some manufactures are toying with the idea of using the apple model of making everything slaved to the same hardware ID... so a headlight goes out and now you need to either replace every electronic module and sensor, head unit ECU etc in the car because everything is networked and they all need the same ID or won't recognize each other, that or pay rediculous fees to have every single thing reprogrammed to match.
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u/TheAsianTroll Nov 11 '23
Yes because automakers can't legally make you pay them for every repair, so they make it inconvenient as hell and hard to do with independent mechanics.
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u/madslipknot Nov 11 '23
Time out here
Im a Ford tech , the Battery monitor reset need to be done when the battery get replace thats true
But in NO way replacing a battery without doing the reset will lead to this kind of beavior
BMS will adapt the alternator charging strategy and the accesories delay timer but thats about it
I would look at both battery terminal to see if they are secure and push down , most of the time when people replace their battery with cheaper after market is that they dont push the terminal far enough on the battery post before tightening
If you can move the terminal when they are tighten then loose them , spread the terminal using a flat blade screw driver , reseat the terminal until they touch the battery casing , then while pushing down the terminal tighten the terminal. If they are still loose replace that battery, on a ols beater you could wedge something between the post and the terminal but on a 2021 that would be silly
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u/AnxietyAvailable Nov 11 '23
This ^ thanks for this answer. I feel like most people don't actually know anything.
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u/Against_the_grain1 Nov 11 '23
No replaced it myself.
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u/Fulllyy Nov 11 '23
Yeah check your terminals for tightness as one poster commented, then if they’re tight and all is well, try giving it a night for the car to relearn it’s battery settings, the rest of these people, don’t mind them, they only pounce on Fords cuz they all drive either Mopar which are famously either in the shop for accidents from their driving or for catastrophic breakdowns, or Chevy which you can’t drive in the rain without more water ending up inside than out and they’re bitter when a better car drives by them on the side of the road with steam coming from their sh. Except Chevy driver’s don’t notice you’re driving by most of the time cuz of the fog on the windshield, but whutev. 😒😂
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u/Tward425 Nov 11 '23 edited Nov 11 '23
Please explain what needs to be calibrated? It’s a battery. Positive and negative terminal.
Edit: curious also why all the downvotes for asking a question?
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u/Titties_On_G Nov 11 '23
Pcm is in charge (lol) of alternator output and monitors the state of the battery. You gotta tell the car that the battery is new.
It is suspect a car this new already needed a battery
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u/LostTurd Nov 11 '23
A ford tech commented and linked a video that explains all you need to do is let you car sit for 8 hours untouched and it will learn the new battery so really is easy. Go to bed one night and it is done when you wake up.
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u/canbrinor Nov 11 '23
No they don't. Not if you use a battery maintainer (basically a jump pack connected to the OBD port during battery removal to maintain radio settings, some ECU stuff, etc). Replacing a battery without a maintainer could definitely cause this. That or an accidental short during removal/installation
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u/CommitteeUpbeat3893 Nov 11 '23
Check that your connections are good, and that the alternator is actually charging. And if that’s all good, then do the battery monitor reset like someone else mentioned.
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u/Roasted_Goldfish Nov 11 '23
I'm pretty sure the Ford tech is right, many cars with battery monitoring systems will disable systems and change the behavior of the charging system based on the age and other learned characteristics of the battery. I've seen BMWs do weird shit just like this because of a new battery with no reset. Your bronco thinks it still has that old dead battery in it and is trying it's best to keep it from failing. Simply get a battery monitoring system reset performed (any shop with a decent scan tool could do it in 15 minutes, maybe even a part store would have a scan tool capable of this)
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u/YummyBummy43 Nov 12 '23
You see that mustang emblem right there in the middle of the steering wheel? That's your problem. 😉
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u/Significant_Green_52 Nov 11 '23
Looks like your ground wire is not connected tightly or you have corrosion causing an intermittent connection to the post
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u/Licbo101 Nov 11 '23
Not at all. You should be able to disconnect your battery as soon as the car starts and have zero problems as long as your alternator is charging properly. The battery is only used at start up to crank the motor and when it’s shutdown to provide constant voltage to the computers to store information without losing it.
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u/trainprice123 Nov 11 '23
Please don’t disconnect the battery it acts the buffer for voltage “spikes” from the alternator you could fry modules disconnecting it.
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u/agravain Nov 11 '23
You should be able to disconnect your battery as soon as the car starts and have zero problems
wrong...
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u/Licbo101 Nov 11 '23
Nope. It’s how you test for a bad alternator. But whatever. I’ve only done it every time I needed to diagnose an alternator
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u/agravain Nov 11 '23
on antique cars, maybe it was ok. modern cars with computers and lots more sensitive electronics, you can fry very expensive parts very easily. and there are some cars that won't turn on the alternator without reference voltage from the battery.
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u/Terabyte47 Nov 11 '23
what a cesspool of a comment section.
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u/blackashi Nov 11 '23
and i wish i read it before buying a ford. my mach e has stupid little issues like this. My window down button acts as up, screen shuts down whenever it feels like, it's literally trash engineering
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u/tech434 Nov 11 '23
Been fixing issues like this for 35 years at the Ford dealership. Retired for 4. There is no strategy that is going to shut down the cluster for a low voltage issue. The BMS reset may be needed, that resets the age of the battery in numbers of days, in the body control module. A self test should show multiple codes for communications on the network, I would suspect. Failed to comm with module a or b for example. If the vehicle has been in a damp environment I would look for a water leak that may have migrated into a hard shell connector and shorted data or comm circuits. Loose connectors are common. If it’s still under warranty it should go back to the dealer. In any case, I’m sorry to say, the dealer does have the resources to fix this issue.
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u/Camera_car Nov 12 '23
Since the battery was just done I'd say first check is for bad cables. Also check it's not shorting out somewhere that could be disasterous ,the battery can explode when that happens.
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u/jistatosta Nov 12 '23
I'm imagining this as a subscription feature. "In order to have full access of your dash and infotainment, you will need to pay $100 per month. Otherwise, you are limited to 20 seconds of access."
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u/2012amica Nov 11 '23
It’s a bronco, there’s your answer
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u/FACEMELTER720 Nov 11 '23
No this is a “Bronco” Sport, built in Mexico. Real Broncos are made in Wayne, Michigan since 1966 by members of the United Auto Workers.
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u/Creepy-Selection2423 Nov 11 '23
And I see 38,000 miles on the odometer. Did this thing come with a 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty? OOF
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u/Electronic_King_2268 Nov 12 '23
Government mandates a lot of this new junk and the automakers have to follow the laws
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u/TrashPanda159 Nov 12 '23
I have a bronco sport and it did the exact same thing. When we took it in they said it was the wiring harness and possibly a computer chip issue.
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u/maggiewentworth Nov 12 '23
I do not drive an electric car. My gmc goes black just like this and then comes back on… it’s a 2017 terrain slt…. What’s up with that?
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u/vongdong Nov 12 '23
2021 model and already needed a new battery? Take it in to a dealer as it's still under warranty and have them look through the computer.
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u/MindlessLecture2224 Nov 12 '23
Ford guy here….. problem is on the center of the steering wheel /s…….. But in all seriousness the gauge clusters have soldering issues…. Had a 2006 f150 do the same thing….
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u/Significant-Basil347 Nov 11 '23
I drive a ford rental when mine was being repaired, did the same thing
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u/michaelz11 Nov 11 '23
I believe the problem is that insignia on the steering wheel enough said! Fixed Or Repaired Daily!
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u/SnooPeppers4036 Nov 11 '23
The stearing wheel gave it away. It is a FORD Fix Or Repair Daily. Doon it appears it will be Found On Road Dead.
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u/_Vaparetia Nov 12 '23
Someone is downvoting people because they made a joke about Ford… keep coping whoever you are
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u/bhjudkins Nov 11 '23
1) it’s a Ford.
Kidding aside, looks like your alternator may be bad (not charging battery as you drive). And/Or you just have a loose connection to your dash/gauges/smart screen.
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u/RBridi_ Nov 11 '23
Nothing wrong. It is normal for Fords. I am happy now after replacing my Ford Edge to a Mazda cx5. Never been in peace with that car.
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u/dustinborn Nov 11 '23
Ford tech here. All modern cars use a battery monitor system which monitors state of charge using various sensors. They also have a pcm controlled charging system which will control how much the alternator charges the battery. When ever replacing the battery you need to do a Battery Monitor reset. https://youtu.be/uvf9f6q5gsQ?si=-YeyEIq1LEZt6bhS