This is my first hybrid/electric vehicle and I am trying to ramp up my knowledge as fast as possible. I originally posted my issue on the Ford Truck Enthusiast forums, but it seems that electricvehicleforums is much more active.

On Saturday, I purchased a 2010 Ford Escape Hybrid with 100k miles on it. There were zero DTC codes when I purchased the vehicle, the dashboard self check system passed. I even paid a "lemon busters" company $170 to inspect the vehicle. The inspection showed the 12V battery to be weak under load along with a few other minor issues. But, like I said, everything 12v and 300V battery and charging related seemed to be good to go.

I hopped into my new car, drove about 30 miles, and the check engine light came on. So, here I am, doing my best to sort out what happening and make sure I tackled the root of the problem. When I got home, I hooked up my ELM327 compatible OBD2 bluetooth adapter and used the android apps DashCommand and Torque to pull codes. I was surprised to find that DashCommand pulled a different set of codes than Torque and have since concluded that both of those Apps aren't the best apps available. Here are the codes they pulled: P2450, U3003, U0154, C102A, C1029, C1018, P0562, B1137, B1318, U2472, U2511, P1000.

My first thought was that I should take some deep breaths, the lemon buster guy said the 12V battery was failing. So, I looked at the date on the battery and it was nearing 5 years old, so I decided to first put in a new 12V battery, reset the codes, and then reassess the situation, my thinking being that a bad 12V battery might be pulling the 12V voltage rails down throughout the vehicle and causing sensors to have incorrect readings.

The new battery has been installed, I used both DashCommand and Torque to try and clear the codes, and then I drove the car for about 40 miles trying to get the OBD2 self tests to run. All of the codes cleared except for P2450, P0562 (coming from the TCM), and P1000. My understanding is that P2450 and P1000 won't clear until "Evaporative System Readiness Check" has completed, which it hasn't yet, I am going to drive the car around more today until that last self-test runs.

Being a newbie to hybrids, I ignorantly thought... "I really need to make sure the alternator is good, what if the alternator is bad too". I now know that the 2010 escape doesn't not have a separate alternator for the 12V battery and that instead, the generator inside the eCVT keeps the 12V battery topped off.

So, here are my concerns and questions:
1. Am I on the right track?
2. When in EV mode AND when the ICE is running, the voltage at the battery is usually at 13.5V, I have seen it get as high as 13.9V. That voltage would be a bit low for traditional cars. Is this normal for a 2010 Escape Hybrid?
3. How do I clear the P0562 code?

Finally, when I posted my issue on the Ford Truck Enthusiast forum, the user ford390gashog replied:
"Well before we go further, do you have forscan? You are really going to need it. Because this is a 2010 Ford baked in a lame kill cycle to the high voltage battery. First step to regain original performance is to reset the battery in service date. The next is the 12v battery reset, this needs to be done after battery replacement. You can also adjust the battery charge voltage with forscan. You won't find a alternator on this vehicle. The 12v is charged by the high voltage battery."
Is ford390gashog correct? Do I need to do some sort of 12v battery reset? Where can I learn more about that? How do I do that? I ordered the scan tool that forscan recommends, it should arrive tomorrow.

 

1. failing 12V seems to be the primary issue.
2. Normal.
3. It should clear on its own or with Forscan.

Forscan is desirable.

There is documentation of a "expiration date" on some models and years. I don't know if it applies to the 2010 FEH specifically, and I recall it mostly applying to the Fusion. Forscan with an expanded license can reset this. Having worked on a dozen+ 2005-1010 FEH/MMH, I have never personally seen one with the alleged expiration date being a factor.

https://www.fordfusionforum.com/inde...topic&id=19361

I would not pursue this avenue unless you experience poor function.

I would pursue the Forscan battery balance function.

 

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OK. Since the car is new to me, how will I know if I have poor function? Seems like the car runs in EV and is getting lower than the EPA stated fuel economy (might be just under 30mpg, versus the 33mpg it is supposed too). Regarding the thread you posted, it seems like the fix definitely helped a lot of people, but you are right, I checked 5 pages of the threads and I didn't see anyone mention of Ford Escapes having the problem.

Can you give more details on this? What is the purpose? Why is it necessary? Why doesn't the Ford Escape automatically do this every few miles if it is as simple as a button click on forscan?

Thanks for all of the help!

 

If it sat for a while its good to balance. It charges the battery higher and kinda reconditions it. For your MPG issue check the standard OBDII stuff like fuel trim, etc. Make sure you don't have some engine problem. e.g. I had to clean my injectors. P2450 is a evap valve that goes often. Its on the throttle and if it fails open can cause running lean. Often they leak too.

 

It's a specialized function and takes more than an hour to accomplish while the vehicle is basically immobile. It involves charging the battery to a high state of charge, discharging and carefully monitoring it (as I understand it). Nobody at Ford (or the Khan Academy) expected so many of these vehicles to be running in 2021 thanks to all the help from devoted enthusiasts. It's good that FORScan has it, and it's comparatively cheap. Most owners would not want to sit and wait every few miles for the battery to balance for an hour or more.

There are always things that happen in software that vehicle manufacturers do not supply to the general public for all kinds of reasons. A lot of the time it is because of liability lawsuit reasons in the United States, so you can blame the lawyers, which in my opinion is always fine. In general, manufacturers are extremely "risk averse" and do not provide advanced functionality to "shade tree mechanics" - many of whom do not know the first thing about what they're doing despite thinking they do - because of liability concerns. The Russian programmers who wrote FORScan are pretty creative people and they do not care about our liability laws. Nobody is going to travel to Russia and serve them with a class action lawsuit. The BB function is more properly thought of as a "service procedure" that would otherwise be done by a dealership mechanic, once a year or more, perhaps. We are fortunate that FORScan offers it, because as far as I know, most Ford dealerships do not. Therefore there is a marketing opportunity: You can run a service helping people recondition their batteries. This is a good thing, and it helps people at a relatively low cost and risk, but you still have to know what you're doing.

 

I think forscan isn't just cheap, unless you need module edits or key programming it's free on windows. Just need a OBDII device with MS and HS can support. The other option is to buy ford IDS or cloned version. Forscan lacks the option to flash the PCM and probably some dealer IDS functions are missing. A plain OBDII tool is better than nothing but I think for this car with it's many sensors/modules it will come up short.

 

Exactly. No one mentioned Ford Escapes have the problem. If your vehicle slips into EV mode readily, it's doing what it's supposed to do.

Everything that impacts mileage is the same as any other car. The biggest factor is the driver. Terrain, ambient conditions, tire type, inflation, state of tune, etc., affect mpg more than a HV battery operating at 100% health vs 50% health.

The FEH doesn't NEED much battery capacity to function acceptably, but it NEEDS all the other factors to be optimal to get rated mpg. 2-3mpg loss can be as simple as having the wrong tires on it.

I will answer your balancing question as follows:

First, it's not that simple. You actually have to let the car sit idling until the process is over. I can take 30+ minutes, so it's not something that can be done "every few miles."

Second, there are 250 individual cells in the HV battery. They all retain charge at their own rates. It is beneficial to drive them to higher states of charge to help normalize their charge levels as these cells self-balance due to coulombic efficiency changes (they take on less charge at higher states of charge allowing the lower state of charge cells to catch up).

Ford chose to remove the HV jump start feature after 2008 because, "it's never been needed." - there are hundreds of posts about this. I have disassembled and manually charged a dozen+ 09+ batteries that "never needed" to be jump started (and posted a how-to thread).

Ford also chose to remove the rear evaporator from the 2010+ models. Unknown as to why, but likely cost related. The aggressive thermal management of the 05-09 battery has contributed to the fact that it's one of the best HV batteries ever made. Ironically, the exact same Sanyo cells used in the FEH are also used in the Honda Civic Hybrid 06-08 and 09-11 (HCH2). The 09-11 HCH HV battery has the distinction of being the worst hybrid battery ever made with a 30% failure rate in 3-4 years. The 06-08 is the second worst hybrid battery ever made with a 16% failure rate in 5-7 years. 06-08 failed at a high rate due to changes made in the design from the prior generation that introduced hot spots everywhere. In an attempt to fix the cooling problems, they staggered the spacing between the cells and created even more hot spots further killing reliability.

The difference between the HCH2 and the FEH packs are simply thermal management. Honda screwed it up, and Ford made the best one ever seen for cylindrical cells... but they removed it in 2010+

I'll leave it to you to speculate why Ford (or any other manufacturer) didn't build these balancing routines into the car.

 

Thankyou for all of the replies. I have some follow up questions to what you all asked AND I have made some progress and have updates.

Updates on my progress:
1. My wife drove the FEH into town today and the final readiness test ran, this cleared the P1000 code and the P2450 code. The P0562 still remained.
2. I installed FORScan on my laptop and upgraded to the extended license. I still do not have the recommended ODB2 reader (ODBLinkEX), it arrives tomorrow, but I was able to get my existing ELM327 reader to work with FORScan. I am not sure I had access to all of FORScan's functionality with my existing scanner.
3. I was impressed with how many more systems FORScan was able to communicate with. Likewise, I discovered even more DTCs that were thrown, I cleared them without logging them first, I had assumed they were red herring codes that my other ODB scan software had failed to clear because they didn't have access to those systems. I should have logged them, I don't know what I was thinking. Anway, after clearing the codes using FORScan, the P0562 continues to persist and as expected P1000 popped back up since the ODB2 tests were wiped.
4. For what it is worth, I used FORScan to check the EV battery voltage, it was well over 300V.

Questions/Observations:
1. Between FORScan "Tests", "Service Procedures", and "Configuration and Programming", there are about 40 different items I can run. But, it looks like most if not all of them have very little documentation about what they do. For example, I looked over all of the items and didn't see any that were obviously a balancing routine.
2. Any new ideas on how I can get the P0562 code to clear?
3. In the next post AlexK pasted the alldata info on P0562 for the 2010 escape hybrid. From what I can tell, it is telling me what to do with the DTC, but not explaining how to clear it. I tried running the two TCM self tests in FORScan, "TCM: Key On Engine Off On Demand Self-Test" pass and I couldn't get "TCM: Key On Engine Running On Demand Self-Test" to run, I kept getting the error "It seems the test is not supported".

Responses to ya'lls advice:
1. Interesting info about the Honda vs Ford batteries. So, I have the 2010 FEH, are people finding out the 2010 batteries are not lasting as long?
2. What everyone said about running the rebalancing makes sense, thanks for the details.
3. "For your MPG issue check the standard OBDII stuff like fuel trim, etc. Make sure you don't have some engine problem." I have zero experience doing those types of things... do you have a link to a document I can read to learn more?

 

There is a good chance that using the recommended OBDII connector will give you access to things you cannot "see" right now. That may solve your problem with the TCM test you describe. Unfortunately, all this troubleshooting is described in the Powertrain Control/Emissions Diagnostic manual for the car - separate from the main "shop" repair manual - and I don't have that book. I'm trying to find a copy. [Update: See see my second post below.]

On other cars, a P0562 error can indicate that the alternator is going bad, supplying insufficient voltage, etc. As you note, there is no alternator in your Hybrid because the motor/generator in the transaxle functions as the generator for the entire system, including the LV 12v side. First thing you can and should do is make sure your battery terminals, cables and connectors are clean, in good shape, and tight. Eliminate the 12V battery and its connectors as a possible problem source. They should not be getting hot. A little warm is OK, ambient engine compartment temperature in other words, but HOT is bad. I've seen other cars with conventional alternator/battery systems have almost undiagnosable problems that turned out to be nothing more than failing 12V battery terminals. Then try your new FORScan connector and report back what you get from the TCM test. I think the guy you're talking about ford390gashog is a bit confused. There is apparently (maybe) a "battery age reset" function in FORScan but it is for the High Voltage battery and associated with the Battery Balance function? What is a "lame kill cycle?" Does Ford send someone out with a rifle to put your lame car down when the battery dies so it doesn't suffer? Lol. I've never heard anyone else talk about the dastardly "lame kill cycle" on 2010 Hybrids. FWIW, I have not tried to run this procedure yet. My Windows 10 laptop is still in purgatory after having wrecked itself during the last Patch Tuesday. Hopefully I will be able to get it running by this weekend and then I'm going to be running the battery balance procedure myself.

You really have to see if there are more DTCs that arise when you know you have FORScan connected through the recommended connector. As your bottom picture indicates, this could all be down to a bad ground wire in the TCM connector.

> 1. Interesting info about the Honda vs Ford batteries. So, I have the 2010 FEH, are people finding out the 2010 batteries are not lasting as long?

Deleting the rear evaporator on the 2010-12 models means that the system now relies 100% on the main cabin A/C to cool down the air that gets pulled/pushed through the battery box by its internal cooling fans. The earlier system provided much more instant and direct cooling when needed by 1) Bringing in its own outside air through a duct built into the rear driver's side window and 2) Using a blend door/actuator (which sometimes got balky and caused problems of its own) and dedicated A/C evaporator to recirculate and cool the air in the battery compartment if that wasn't good enough. That system doesn't exist on your car.

This means that maintaining optimum performance of your existing A/C system is very important for the long-term health of the battery and normal vehicle operation. I have a 2010 and when SKeith informed me of this, I was a little bit bummed out, but since I love the car otherwise, I have decided to live with it and do my best to keep the battery and cabin as cool as possible during hot weather. Try to park in the shade on really hot days. Use a sun shade on the front windshield to cut down on very high interior temperatures. Your back cargo area and rear seat glass should be tinted - keep them that way, it cuts down on the interior heating. Use MAX AC with RECIRC on really hot days when the interior is very warm, to get that cabin cooled down as quickly as possible. Here are some temperature guidelines from over the years on the forum:

Optimum temperature for HV Battery operation is 82 degrees F
The HV Battery will turn on the Air Conditioner if the battery box is warmer than 85'F, but will still allow EV.
The HV Battery will run the Air Conditioner full time and dis-allow EV if the battery box is hotter than 100'F.
S Keith has said that battery box temperatures over 131 F are destructive to the battery.

My battery is still doing fine after 11+ years and I intend to do my best to keep it that way. But it will never be as "sure thing" or as automatic as having that second A/C evaporator in the rear driver's side cargo panel. Keep cool and carry on, just bear it in mind.

By the way, the links you used for your photos are not static links. Every time you refresh this thread, different pictures come up.

Here are some screenshots of your originals:


TCM Connector

TCM Diagnostics

 

And once again I am proving myself partially incorrect by RTFM. Note that the pinpoint test checklist on this page explicitly discusses making sure the 12V battery and the associated cabling and connectors are OK.

It turns out that the operation of the DC/DC converter including DTC P0562 is covered in at least some versions of the "standard" repair manual. This one is for a 2011, but it should be the same/similar on your car:

Here is the frameless page link:

http://www.nicksmustangranch.com/Ser...tm#extract_791

From the root, here:

http://www.nicksmustangranch.com/Ser...e%20Manual.htm

On the left, click: "Battery and Charging System ----> "High Voltage Converter/Inverter" ----> "DTC Chart"

P0562 and Pinpoint Test C are at the top.

"The DC/DC converter is a liquid-cooled component that converts high voltage (216-397 volts) DC power to low voltage (12 volts) DC power while maintaining electrical isolation between the 2 DC power systems. The converter steps down the high voltage to 12 volts, providing power to the vehicle low voltage battery system. The PCM controls the operation of the DC/DC converter through an enable input from the PCM to the DC/DC converter. The DC/DC converter voltage output is varied by the DC/DC converter, based on an internal temperature sensor reading.The DC/DC converter supplies voltage to the battery and the vehicle electrical system through the battery B+ cable. The PCM monitors this voltage through the Battery Junction Box (BJB)."