here is the photo of the HV battery end of the battery heater cable under the rear floor mat driver side on my 2008 MMH.





for clarification .. the wire colors are
white with blue tracer/stripe
and brown with white tracer/stripe.


I had hoped someone had found where the other end terminated

 

Several years ago I posted the answer to your question--the hybrid battery heater wire travels to the DC/DC converter, then to the location under the windshield washer bottle reservoir, then out thru the front grille.

 

that may be true for the 2005

I read and looked at every post of the issue I could find including that post. I have done some extensive reading on several sites. so far everyone refers to the location for the 2007 and before and assumes the 08 is the same if it has the cable at the battery.

I have not read any post where a person found where the end is on an early 08


I have "searched" for the cable end... I even took off the front passenger wheel and the plastic fender well which allows you to see the cable run and the leads that branch off of it go.

I have seen the main cable run that goes past this location.. it has two leads coming off of it by the filler tube, one goes to the right turn signal and the other goes to the fog light.

a third goes to the DC -DC converter. ( I may have the wrong term for the DC/Dc box) but that is how it is described in this picture


the wire to the inverters is
a brown with yellow tracer/stripe
and a blue with red tracer/stripe.

the change in color at the inverter suggest that this is not it OR that it terminates at another component such as the jump-start button on the side dash panel .


I have ordered the wiring manual but had hoped to solve this issue before I took it in for warranty work next week.

knowing more about it would enable me to discuss it and understand what the tech is telling me. when I talk to him next week.


but right now I am a bit blind without a manual or an 07 and befroe to compare the differences.



so far I have found:
that the lead colors are different at the battery
(an 07 and before is Violet and Violet / orange

that the connector in the engine compartment does not appear to be located in the same spot.

since it appears no one has seen the connector in the engine compartment
I will have to wait for the wring diagrams to trace them out..

it appears by past posts that KenE looked and was unable to find his as well.. I had hoped that someone had found them on and 08 and just not posted the answer.


which leads me to the next question..

is the leads at the DC DC converter on an 07 and before the same leads that go to the connector? (my research shows they are not) but without a diagram, .. I can't say one way or the other.

and if they are not are they the same color at both ends.?

again thanks for your time..




I will try to post a picture of the 08 DC-Dc converter tomorrow to show the connector.

hopefully then someone can look at an 07 or before and see the difference.

Steve

 

The hybrid battery heater wire has to terminate in the DC/DC converter because your household voltage current is different than the hybrid battery. It is that simple.

 

from my research it appears that the the household voltage is 120 volts stepped down to 24VDC by the charger/transformer that is part of the block heater wire/assembly.

http://www.eaa-phev.org/wiki/Escape_PHEV_TechInfo

either way that still doesn't get me any closer to finding out where I have to connect the charger/transformer.



Steve

 

this is option 41H--engine block heater. The part anyone can buy.


This does not contain the wire from the DC/DC converter to the hybrid battery heater.





Send a PM to GPSMAN1 to obtain "other" information

 

I understand and know of the parts and the part numbers.

but without being able to locate the connection point on a 2008 MMH it is essentially useless.

I have read "every" post that I could find on the block and battery heater issue.

so I do have a grasp for how it works and what it does, but without a wring diagram or the location of the connector for the battery heater it would not do me any good.

I do have extensive knowledge of electrical systems. (over 30 years)
and have troubleshot and developed repairs and fixes on extremely complex systems.

I had just hoped that someone had located the connection point.

I do thank you for your time and patience.

when I locate the battery heater connection point on the 2008 MMH/FEH I will post the information.

Steve

 

on a side note the reason I am trying to find this information and did all this research is to not to increase gas mileage, but to understand why my HV battery went incredibly low over the recent cold spell leading to a dead SUV.
NOTE: (12V battery was fully charged, Jump start failed, tow truck called)

I would have thought there would be a protection in it for cold weather.

I have the Ford extended warranty, and it is covered to 150,000 miles in NJ.. so repair costs are not a huge concern..

my concern is the same as any when presented with a unique challenge.. and that is how to fix it and how to correct the design flaw that caused it in the first place.

Steve

 

How low did it go? What is the story behind this? Was it low in the am after sitting all night in the cold or what?

 

It had been to low to register on the on board NAV screen and did not appear to have any charge at all, but was still starting without any issues.

so for the most part I wrote it off to the cold weather. but after replacing the battery it actually became worse.
finally not starting at all, and using the jump start did not help.



the old 12V battery was a motor-craft and possibly the original battery from the date code. or about 6 years old.

That Battery was replaced after first episode. the load test on the original was just below the good range.. so I charged it, and the load test marginally improved.

the SOC of the HV batteries was low (not registering on the NAV menu)

I rechecked on a friends high end tester after a 15 minute drive, with the lights and heat on,.. it tested marginal to bad after the drive.

I called our local Ford Service manager and he would not recommend the Optima style batteries. so I went with a standard 96R battery,

over the last few weeks it has not gone into EV much if at all (mostly due to the cold weather) and we felt the 12V battery may be part of the issue.
as it didn't improve with the weather going into the mid 40'sF and low 50'sF

so I replaced it.


and it soon got worse fast. the MPG was around 8 in town

it charged to full on screen, but when left overnight (low 20's) it is to low to register and most drives it didn't improve much. starting out real low,

the last few times to aid in diagnostics I had left it fully charged when I came home for the evening ,..(by the nav menu screen)

by morning it was to low to register on the nav menu. but was still starting.

the other morning (sunday,) we went to church and a luncheon. and then home,.. about two miles total (three starts) (mid 20'sF)

I didn't worry about the HV charge level as I knew I had an errand to run later that would bring it up..

on Sunday afternoon about three hours after shutting it off, I went to run an errand and it was dead.

checked New 12V battery, load tested good. tried jumpstart , charged battery tried jumpstart again.. nothing. had it towed Monday morning to dealer.

when trying jump-start it had a chattering noise)that appeared to come from the cabin firewall area.



just got back home with it..
techs first report was dead battery.. but knowing it was a NEW battery he load tested it and it was great.. had it for three days and replicated the symptoms several times. (after calling to say they couldn't get it started because the ignition was bad.,.. but that is another issue they will fix later)



Ford replaced a relay and they think the HV battery may be the problem.

I have it back and am going to Delaware tomorrow with it. (about a 100 miles either way) local ford will arrange towing if it breaks down.

the ford tech and service manager feel that should give them some better data to decide how to proceed.

it still has to go back for the ignition replacement, a ABS sensor, and to figure out a minor brake issue..

while none of the issues are actually associated with the block or battery heater.. I sure would like to get to the bottom of that to save wear / tear on both systems. and get better fuel economy as well..






I saw other threads addressing some of this and will try to do some more research but would really like to see how practical home mount charging would be.