Zippy83

Hi All,

I have a weird issue happening with my 2018 5.0 F150.
It's a starting issues. I am on my Second new Battery in 6 months and I'm starting to think that it's not battery issue.

here is what's happening

I can start my truck cold, without any issues, but when I drive it for 45min or longer and get to a stop (such as gas's station) turn it off and then try to turn it back on, on the first try it don't even try to turn over. All I can see on the dashboard is (Charging system Failure).. Then I wait 30 sec and re-try and it turns over but not as it should. It struggles but it turns on the truck. So I started to do some troubleshooting. I hooked up a multimeter and checked the battery out after the truck has been sitting off for 12 hours. The multi meter shows 12.6V so I know it's close to being full. When I first start the truck (cold start) looking at the Multimeter during the cranking it shows the battery at 11.4v no issues there... While the engine is running I see the battery between 13.6v and 14v which tells me the alternator is doing it's job.

So I take it for an hour drive. I get back home and check the battery while the truck is running and still see the same as I did before (13.6 - 14v) I turn the engine off and the multimeter goes down to 12.7v.. I wait 2 minutes and try to re-start the engine, and the Multimeter goes down to 9.1V and the engine does not turn over and I get the warning on the dashboard (Charging system Failure).. I wait 30 sec and try again, the engine struggles but turns over (multimeter showing 10.4v during the crank). Once it turns over and starts to run I see the readings go up to 13.5 - 14v. I then take the truck for another 30 min drive, come back home turn it off, wait 2 min and turn it back on, however there is a slight hesitation this time around and the Multimeter showing 11v during the crank.

When I got the new battery I followed Fords recommendation, got the battery with the same specs as the old one. I reset the Battery by flashing the bights 5 times and tapping the brake thee times. On the next key turn I got the confirmation that it worked by seeing the battery icon flicker two times. Im not sure what's going on.. I was thinking of changing the started but the starter checks out when I took it to the shop.

Perhaps a bad ground?

Thanks in advance..

Mackey

It might be worth checking the small wire that goes from one side of the starter to the other. I've heard of them corroding and starting to cause some issues. I haven't checked mine yet because it is winter but I have noticed some "starting degradation." I have symptoms where sometimes it will crank but not start and just shut down. No notifications around the battery issue though.

It's worth a check to see if it is corroded so bad that maybe the power is shorting.

Zippy83

I was able to locate the ground wire on the starter and it seemed it had some corrosion going on. I took it off, sanded it down put some corrosion preventive lube and put everything back together. Drove it for an hour came back turned it off, waited 2 minutes and turned it back on without any issues. So it seems that the ground was an issue.

Brian Bourgeois

they had a bad run of starters, i replaced mine with the high torque starter. Mustang 2018-2021 5.0L Coyote/10R80 Transmission High-Torque Mini StarterPart Number: M11000C50A
that fixes the problem.