Ford kuga battery issue

mickdw

We have a 2021 kuga in the family 1.5d bought new, full Ford service history 40k km and it randomly non started. Completely dead after driving to the shops fine 10 mins before. Nothing left on or anything like that.

Dealer says battery is failing and at 2.5 years old won't cover it.

That's a pretty poor performance from a battery time wise.

As I fear there may be a further issue that is causing this, We don't want to fit an aftermarket battery because Ford would then probably laugh in our face saying non standard repair carried out or some such crap.

So question - anyone in the trade see this issue commonly on the kuga or know of any recalls for software update to improve this or any other info.

Google suggests battery drain as a common fault on them

Ford have been very very poor. The answer I got was the battery is covered for 2 years.

The car was fine last year so there ya go. I will enjoy going back to them with some further info if possible.

SouthWesterly

It's a known issue with the phev. Solution was to install a heavy duty battery and a software update.

mickdw

Thanks.

This is the 1.5d though.

bazz26

I'd get the battery tested yourself.

Then maybe see if you can temporarily swap the battery out with a new one to see if the issue reoccurs. If that is not an option then I don't see any alternative but to replace the battery and see. I don't see what issue Ford could complain as long as the replacement battery meets their original specification.

hellyeah

My father has a 2022 focus and he had a flat battery after 6 months and had to call out the AA. Just wondering do you have the ford pass app installed as my father did and I found the car was constantly communicating with the app on my phone which I believe was draining the battery. I turned this off along with the keyless entry and auto updates and the problem never returned.

Imo with all the tech in new vehicles this has to put a strain on the battery. Remember batteries are still only 12v and have to run all these new systems

FREDNISMO

I had a similar problem on a 2018 1.5d replaced battery and battery dead after a week, mechanic taught it may have been faulty battery but he later discovered a faulty connection on the starter motor, that was causing a drain, replaced starter no problems since, I know yours is a newer model but I was fearing hours of labour trying to find parasitic drain so was relieved when he found the fault quickly approx 300e to fix

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121870455#Comment_121870455

Yes it does have the ford pass app that allows mobile to open the doors etc. No doubt it puts a drain on battery as does keyless entry etc.

We have also multiple messages to the app saying those external features have been disabled to preserve battery.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121870463#Comment_121870463

Interesting. This is under warranty but of course battery not covered but any other faults around starting will be covered as far as I can see.

hellyeah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121870683#Comment_121870683

Was getting same messages from my father's car before battery went dead. I'd turn them features off and see what happens.

ash_18x

Hi OP, just wondering if you ever got to the bottom of this? I have a 2021 1.5d kuga too and the last few days on the ford pass app I am getting 'drive your vehicle to reconnect FordPass and exit battery saver mode'. Ford say the car needs to be driven, it's getting over 400miles a week on it. I was talking to the service guy today and he said it may need a new battery- pretty crap going if you ask me and there only 70,000kms on it. He said to give it a good spin this weekend and see what happens but it would be covered under warranty as I only bought the car off them last July. Very annoying though, had a 182 kuga prior to this and no issues at all and the car barely moved during lockdown…

I was going to delete the app too, it's actually giving me anxiety at this stage 😂

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121870455#Comment_121870455

voltage doesn’t make an odds to battery capacity, it’s the amperage. Modern cars certainly have more electronics but batteries are also bigger these days.

Is engine taking longer than normal to turn over lately? Could be causing battery drain. Especially with a diesel it takes a fair bit out of the battery to turn over.

mickdw

In our case, it was just a crap battery that failed at 2.5 years. Hopefully the new one will last longer although it's an identical battery in terms of brand and capacity.

We had a serious struggle with ford to get a battery out of them in the end. 3 year warranty when you buy the same battery over the counter from Ford but only 2 year on the originally battery supplied with the car. Bit of a joke that one.

We eventually got cost of battery refunded from ford ireland which appear to.be based in UK. Had to pay upfront to get the car back on the road and it took about 3 weeks to get a decision from Ford Ireland.