Replace that factory battery
5 Year Member
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 118
Likes: 62
From: Hamilton, MT
Ford has replaced the one in my 22 Powerboost 2x now. The last time they had a different part number for the battery and did an update to the truck. My truck now shows a battery up to 90ish charged. After 8 months no issues so far. There is a TSB for this somewhere they acted on for mine.
No fart cans allowed
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 4,339
Likes: 2,363
From: MO
Which is, in my opinion, the more likely case.
Regarding the comment about dying with essentially no warning, that's the normal circumstance since the advent of HEI ignition, fuel injection, and computer controlled fueling. Everything is very precisely controlled, so cars cold start much easier than when they were carbureted. If there is enough juice in the battery to turn the starter, the car almost immediately starts with very little additional high amperage, battery draining cranking needed. So the car continues to start until it can't generate enough amperage/voltage to turn the starter over. And then the battery is dead or dead in short order, even when the battery is fully charged up. I got maybe an additional week out of my OEM battery when it failed to crank and I fully recharged it.
Regarding the comment about dying with essentially no warning, that's the normal circumstance since the advent of HEI ignition, fuel injection, and computer controlled fueling. Everything is very precisely controlled, so cars cold start much easier than when they were carbureted. If there is enough juice in the battery to turn the starter, the car almost immediately starts with very little additional high amperage, battery draining cranking needed. So the car continues to start until it can't generate enough amperage/voltage to turn the starter over. And then the battery is dead or dead in short order, even when the battery is fully charged up. I got maybe an additional week out of my OEM battery when it failed to crank and I fully recharged it.
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 922
Likes: 308
Many eons ago, I worked at a plumbing supply company, we sold water heaters, including big names like Rheem, etc. Rheem sold the exact same water heater with different warranties, ranging from 3 yrs to 6 yrs to 10 yrs, etc. The ONLY difference was the price. As @David Hineline notes, they charged more to cover more claims on the longer warrantied products. It was more efficient (AKA cheaper) to simply make the same product and charge accordingly for the warranty. I'm going to guess this makes sense for a variety of manufactured products.
I obviously can't speak for every industry, and I'm sure there are cases where diff warranties are based on diff products, but as I said above, this is probably more common than we think. After all, a warranty is simply a risk/reward actuarial calculation. Easy to do these days.
I obviously can't speak for every industry, and I'm sure there are cases where diff warranties are based on diff products, but as I said above, this is probably more common than we think. After all, a warranty is simply a risk/reward actuarial calculation. Easy to do these days.
Practices may differ in other industries or for other manufacturers.
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Apr 2019
Posts: 50
Likes: 14
From: Placerville, CA
battery stress
OK this weekend I did a long drive towing with the new AGM battery I put in that's 760 amps vs the 720 Ford puts in the new trucks. I have a COBB device that shows me all my readings, and the stock battery charged at 14.1/14.2 volts on long drives. The new battery takes a 13.6 volts charge on constant driving. That shows me the OEM battery is pretty stretched and needs a pretty strong charge to keep it full. I definitely like having to put a smaller charge in to keep it full, like using a trickle charge vs full blown on a dead battery. Pretty sure this one is going to last a lot longer.
Senior Member
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 2,169
Likes: 640
From: Garland, Tx
We used to have an alkaline battery factory in my town. I know people that worked there. The only difference between grades of battery is that the QA sample sizes were larger. That increased the confidence level of their QA sample testing so they could offer higher warranties at a higher price. It was just math, not a difference in production.
Practices may differ in other industries or for other manufacturers.
Practices may differ in other industries or for other manufacturers.
