Updated info towards bottom. Please see the very bottom for a 12/30/2022 update for an easier way to connect.

Regardless of what your 2008-2009 Owner's manual says, based on my research it appears that for MY 2008+, the HV Battery jump start system was removed. One can find online references where Ford claims it was never needed. Bullsh1t.

Please check this thread:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f...47/#post261444

I have included pictures showing a large piece of electronics missing from newer packs.

Here is what the old pack (05-08) looks like (the jump starter is circled):



Here's the 2009+ (space for former jump starter circled):


You can conduct your own grid charging with a little elbow grease.

For the love of all that is holy, make sure the safety plug is completely out. Even in the unlocked position, it is still making the connection.

The cover can be removed in-car with a little trickery. There are 2X Torx bolts on each side of the cover (two difference sizes, non-security) that are essentially inaccessible and 2X 10mm bolts on the front. If you lift one side of the pack and rotate it about 15-20° in the compartment, you can access the two side bolts. These should be done first. Then remove the remaining T30 (I think) Torx security bolts.

From that point, one can access some live terminals with a little effort. Refer to this image for component location:


You can also check the 26 sticks at the top of the pack by probing through the shrink wrap. Anything less than 4.8V between the ends is completely dead. They should be over 5V, and they should all be very nearly the same - likely less than 0.02V deviation.

Before you get started, take your own pictures!

You will need to clip one or more zip ties.

Remove ECU on the passenger side. Some connectors have their clips on the top, remove these first. Remove the Philips/8mm screws securing it. Once loose, disconnect all remaining connectors and remove it completely.

Remove the main relay. This entails a couple of 10mm bolts mounting it into the case, a single 10mm bolt to remove a small plastic cover, 2 8mm bolts connecting the relay to the main plug and the two 10mm bolts at the orange blocks. Note that these are NOT hot. They are insulated from the live terminals by a ceramic insert. In order to get enough clearance, I also removed what looks to be a large ceramic resistor from the back of the relay attached with a T30 Torx screw. The Relay can then slide straight back. You will need to push wires and bundles down and out of the way and tilt the rear carefully upwards to make it slide smoothly.

Flip the relay upside down and remove the two T30 Torx screws:



Then take off the top cover (the bottom cover is loose but retained by wires). The two points at which you can make your connections are here (red is +, black is -):



You then need to re-install it by sliding the forks back into the orange terminals and CAREFULLY tightening only the two 10mm bolts. You only need them finger tight, i.e., "snug".

Now, once the safety plug is in, you will get full pack voltage at those two locations.

LPC-150-350 (240VAC input only!) power supply will charge 350mA. 3-4 hours should be enough to get your pack to a state that is safe to start the ICE. For a battery that is very low, I wouldn't be concerned about as much as 12 hours of charging provided you're checking it for warmth every 30 minutes or so after the 8 hour mark. This is extremely conservative. I put in quite a bit more than that at higher currents and never felt any heat at all. To protect the power supply from the battery, you should install 2X 1N4005G diodes in the output lines. The positive lead should have the diode stripe on the battery side of the connection, and the negative lad should have the diode strip on the power supply side of the connection.

When finished charging, remove the safety plug and fully reconnect the main relay and ECU. The two 8mm bolts connecting to the main plug should be 48 in-lb. The 10mm orange terminal bolts need to be a little tighter. I just used 48 in-lb and went a little further.

You can start it with the cover off provided all electrical connections are tight.

---------------------------------

updated:

Tools:
Philips screw driver
Torx security bits
Metric Hex tools for Allen heads
Metric socket set
Torque wrench
Drill/bits
See https://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f...tml#post270783 for tools to enable removal of side torx bolts to enable in-place cover removal
Channel locks - to crudely remove the large side bolts that secure the lifting straps.

Materials:
LED Power supply (LPC-100-350 + APC-35-350 OR HLG-120H-C350A or B, all available from Mouser.com)
Diode (D1NK60-5070 or better)
Computer power cord or extension cord for sacrifice (to power LED supplies)
28ga or thicker wire for output.
Simple cheap crimp terminals
Butt splice connectors
heat shrink
Velcro and/or hot glue
Wire nuts

Outline:
Build charger (wire nuts and power cords)
Remove safety plug
Remove battery (https://www.dropbox.com/s/85demexnlo...draft.pdf?dl=0) (NOTE THAT REMOVAL IS NOT NECESSARILY REQUIRED, SEE TOOLS ABOVE)
Remove cover (takes torx security bits torx security bits )
Remove computer (8mm socket or Phillips screw driver)
Remove relay/fuse (Torx, 8 and 10mm sockets)
Remove relay cover
Attach power supply leads to relay
Take high voltage precautions, energize power supply and check for voltage at the relay (confirming power supply is working)
Install relay cover
Install relay
Install computer
install cover
install battery
install safety plug
charge for 4 hours. Shorter charges can work if the battery is freshly discharge, but 1 hour minimum. More is recommended.
start and let car idle until it auto-stops or for 20 minutes (whichever happens first).
Done - car is fixed

If you want to attempt to "recondition" the battery, the most effective thing is to charge it to true 100% SoC:

This will take 24 hours of charging
It must be done with the cover off
You must use a box fan laying on top of the cells blowing down into them or an equivalent method of cooling
The last four hours should be used to monitor the cell temps. Once they start heating, you will feel it in the side gaps that allow one's fingers to nearly reach to the bottom of the pack.
Once heat is detected, terminate charging.
Allow it to continue to cool until heat is not longer detected.

Do not drive the vehicle until after the engine has shut off after initial run. Attempt to drive the vehicle solely on EV power without using engine/regen braking until it refuses (pop it into "N" if you need to use brakes). Then drive normally. Being at 100% SoC, it's important to bleed the battery down into the working range while taking care not to over charge it in the vehicle. The BCM is smart enough to take care of this on its own, but a little help on your part doesn't hurt as there is a delay in sensing and reaction.

Lastly, once the battery has been jump started, I vigorously recommend the Forscan balancing function. It will force charge the battery at idle to a much higher state of charge and then bleed it back down to the working range. It can take 10-30 minutes in my experience. For batteries that may be problematic, I recommend this on a routine basis for maintenance (couple times a year, or at least once before your hottest season and once after). If you elected to manually charge the battery to full, this is not necessary except for periodic maintenance.

A summary of one user's process:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f...tml#post270784

Note: 05-08 MAY require this treatment if their batteries are severely discharged. It's possible for the NiMH chemistry to go dormant. This causes HV voltage to spike when the jump starter begins charging. If you note that the jump button goes solid and then turns to slow flash after 30-60 seconds, then there's been a jump fault. If the jump button goes from solid to fast flashing, then it's completed normally, and you may attempt start.

Having a significant number of hybrids - more than I can realistically drive enough, the '05 FEH entered a long period of neglect. There are other issues, so that may have been at play. Initial voltage was 180. jump starts would fault after 30-60 seconds. Voltage would spike at 324V by the time I could check it, but it would bleed down rapidly. Start attempts would push it back down to 180V.

The good news is that the full process isn't required. One can simply:
Put a 10A charger on the 12V.
Fully charge the 12V.
Leave 10A charger on the 12V
Remove the safety plug
Remove the battery cover.
Remove the cover over the bolts connecting the relay to the main terminal.
Attach charge leads to the terminal bolts, (-) on passenger side.
Replace safety plug.
Hit jump start, wait for flash.
Ignition on (do not start).
Clear codes with Forscan
Cycle ignition when instructed to do so.
Energize charger.

Since the car will see a 300V+ at the battery, it will energize the relay and connect the battery to the car once ignition is on. As long as the 12V can power the ignition, one should get a net charge. One can use Forscan to monitor the progress.

Recommend 1-2 hours. Once the chemistry has been reactivated with input, the jump starter should function normally.

EDIT: If you plan to leave a harness installed for future charging, how you route the wires may induce a P0AA7 code. Please see this post for a recommended routing path:

https://electricvehicleforums.com/fo...tml#post275151

12/30/2022 UPDATE:

There's an easier way to connect to the main terminals of the battery. This was brought to me by a customer through his own research of other resources. It's also possible this has been mentioned on this site, and I've simply forgotten.

With certainty, on the 2009 and 2010 (probably on 2011 and 2012), there are "vestigial" jump start connectors that can be used to connect your charger.

Inside this:



are these connectors:


There is only 1 wire in these 12-16P connectors (can't remember how many pins), and one is the main (-), black, and the other is the main (+), gray. They are always hot if the safety plug is installed across the contacts in the RUN or UNLOCK position. The only way to de-energize them is to remove the safety plug from the contacts. They are the only wire in the two orange shrouded wires that route towards the front of the pack on this side.

You can install your entire "jump starter" in this location. Did this on Tuesday with a 1000V/1A diode on the (+) and a 2A fuse on the AC input and ran the short AC cord out of the case near the lifting strap secured with a grommet, and ran it forward to the rear seat. Simply plug in to an extension cord, and you're charging.

7/19/2023 update: NOTE: "vestigial" connection points are 0V when safety plug is removed. Even so, exercise caution. Never assume ~300VDC is safe to touch without verifying.

 

I'm wanting to charge my 09 FEH hv battery, but confused on something. The LPC-150-350 states 200-240ac input and has only two leads. So I need a AC programmable power supply to use this or you using just 110v to power this?

 

For 110V use LPC-100-350 and APC-35-350 with outputs wired in series.

 

What current input would you recommend if one had a capable charger and for how long? Without cooling the hv battery, but monitored of course.

 

Assuming:
1) HV battery is at least 80% new capacity
2) HV battery is at 0% SoC.

Highest current possible up to 3000mAh input. Above 3000mAh input, provide some means of cooling at any current. If you can monitor it, you can cool it.

If SoC is unknown, charge at 0.5A max with cooling.

 

Easy way to find it's SoC with hv battery out of the car already? I would assume that would entail probing a stick to figure this out.

 

Not really. NiMH resting voltage is completely unusable as an SoC estimation UNLESS it's less than 1.2V/cell. Then you know it's dead, so < 300V on a FEH is at 0% SoC.

If your battery starts the car, then it probably doesn't need charging.

 

Thank you very much.

 

So how do you determine the "health" of an old battery (say 10+ years ) that outwardly is not showing any signs of problems:

• No error codes from vehicle
• Battery maintains voltage when parked unused for weeks
• Battery starts ICE quickly and easily

Thanks

 

I'm interested in knowing this too.
Is there a definitive test for HV battery health that can be performed without opening the battery?