I have a 2017 F-150 King Ranch. Over the past few months, I have been getting a strange message on my screen when I first enter the truck. The ignition is off. However, the screen comes on and reads, "System Off to Save Battery. Turn Ignition Off or Start the truck." A number of times I have found my battery drained to the point that the truck won't start. My Ford dealer says my battery is bad. However, I took the battery to an Optima battery dealer and they tested it and found it to be OK. The battery is less than a year old. Has anyone else had this issue and, if so, how was it fixed?

 

Is it a AGM battery? Most places dont use the right gear to check AGM batteries. In using the wrong gear it tests ok.

 

He's not wrong... Optimas do suck these days. But every Scotty video makes me want to tear off his floppy-*** arms and beat him over the head with them.

 

If you were to tie his arms down, he wouldn't be able to talk.

 

Optima batteries suck. Your battery is losing its charge and is going below the minimum system check voltage level, so everything is being shut down to try to preserve enough juice to start the truck. You are either not driving the truck enough to keep the battery fully charged or it is going bad. AGM batteries need to charge at a higher voltage than regular flooded cell batteries in order to fully charge; first step you should try is to fully charge the battery and see if the message goes away. If the message returns in a short period of time you can be fairly sure the battery is going bad, or you have a fairly high parasitic drain that has developed somewhere in the electrical system.

 

This ^^^^

Whether it's an Optima battery or not, these trucks put a constant drain on the batteries while they sit (as do non-trucks today). If you don't use them, eventually the battery voltage will drop to the point that the Battery Monitor shows that message.

Even when used, the vehicle needs to be DRIVEN. Driving 10 minutes to a store, shutting it off, coming out, another 10 minutes and shutting it off - that doesn't charge the battery. You need to drive 30 minutes or more without turning the truck off. My 2013 had this problem (non-Optima battery) during the winter of 2014, and my dealer said "either drive the damn thing or put it on a Battery Tender". Once I got the Battery Tender, no more message. Truck, and battery, are now almost 7 years old. I will get the battery load tested in the next few months to see if it will last another winter.

 

The battery in your King Ranch is an AGM. If it's less than a year old, it should be covered under warranty. Let the dealer replace it. If you don't drive the truck much, put it on a Battery Tender to keep the battery topped off.. modern vehicles use the battery even when the vehicle is turned off (alarm, power points, WiFi hotspot, dashcam if you have one installed, etc.). I've had no issues with mine but I commute 50 miles round trip every weekday so the battery is always at full charge when I park it.

I've had 2 Optima batteries in the last 15 years and they both died within 2 years... no more for me. Motorcraft batteries are generally good. When mine dies it may get replaced with a Diehard Platinum if they still exist then. I had one in my last truck that was still good at 6 years old when I sold it.

 

Do what I and most others do, disconnect the bms sensor on the negative battery cable. That allows the alternator to charge all the time just like they've been doing for the past 100 years. My original battery died in 8 months or so, replacement lasted 6 years. Just replaced it the other day and my commute is 1.7 miles each way so it barley gets warmed up.

Also AGM batteries are junk. We stopped buying them for our fleet because we went thru so many so quickly. This is one weeks worth.

 

Ooh, that's a double bonus!

No, you bought junk batteries that happened to be AGMs. I've been moving our fire apparatus from whatever flooded junk someone got from Napa that week to X2Power (Northstar) AGMs. In every case, they crank far faster, and we've stopped replacing batteries every year.

 

We live out in rural Colorado, so even driving to the store is 30 minutes or more.