Sometimes the indicator bar for the hybred battery goes from full or near full to total discharge in a matter of seconds. This is especially likely to happen shortly after the car has started up -- perhaps 2 minutes into the trip. The car will struggle to recharge, adding a few hundred rpms to add a couple of green charge bars, and after another couple of minutes the battery will recharge and operate normally. I have taken it to the dealer and been charged $50 to be told that the system is charging normally. I know that intermittent problems are the hardest to diagnose, but it is still annoying to be charged for no help.

If you have a multi-meter check the battery voltage at the terminals of the battery 12 v dc or better indicate that the battery is nearly fully charged.
no meter no problem. Turn on the head lights and look into the light and if the light is dim and flickers the battery is either weak or needs a charge. If the car will not start and you are able remove the battery and take it to Auto Parts store of choice. Have them do a full diagnostics. They may need it for a while to recharge the battery before checking. If battery is bad replace. If not charge battery and take car to favorite garage. Remember not to depress the gas pedal after battery disconnect. If you do the engine electronics will have to relearn idle. Some times the engine will continually stall during the relearn process. Better to leave the pedal alone during battery replacement.

If the car starts take it to a Auto Parts store and have them check the battery and charging system.

I expect that a CD is stuck in the radio or a light switch was left on

• Dome
• Fog Light
• Head Light
• Brake Light (bad switch)
• Flashers
• Cooling fan thermostat (bad thermostat)

What has happened is that the battery has run down and as the battery sits for a few seconds voltage comes up and light goes on. With light on battery voltage goes back down and relay clicks. Of course this will discharge the battery.

Could be a shorted/failed diode in your alternator.

Don't how accessible it is in your van but if possible, use a meter (Chinese have made them affordable) across the battery terminals and quickly remove the heavy cable from the alternator and watch the meter reading.
If it is still falling quickly, the alternator is likely OK and something else is causing the drain.

Most Digital Multimeters have a separate 10 Ampere range via a separate, marked jack; the black lead stays put, the red lead goes to the 10A jack.
Remove the negative battery cable, connect the black lead to the battery terminal, quickly touch the red lead to the loosened battery clamp; this is normally protected by an internal fuse which may blow if the current is well above 10 amperes.
If it doesn't blow. attach the leads so you can start the next step.

This will be a systematic removal and replacement of each fuse, one at a time, until the current reading drops to a low value on the meter indication.
Milliamperes, not normally seen on this meter range, are normal.

If this works, you have narrowed down the culprit to a specific circuit and at that point, you are on your own.

Good luck-

first off, what is you complaint? second there is a disconnect (have heard it referred to as a fuse) located on the battery in the cargo area that have given some problems. by the way, this car will hurt you!!!! be careful or have a trained hybrid tech check it

try changing your thermostat

P2106 Ford Throttle Actuator Control System Forced Limited Power


P0622 Ford Generator Field Terminal Circuit

Have your battery tested / charged.
Totally dead battery may take some extra time to charge being hooked to cables.
When a battery is "hard discharged" as you described...sometimes they never recover and require replacement.

Hello,

The first and most likely indication of a low battery would be a hard starting problem caused by slow cranking. If the battery seems weak or fails to crank your engine normally, it may be low. To find out, you need to check the battery's "state of charge."
A battery is nothing more than a chemical storage device for holding electrons until they're needed to crank the engine or run the lights or other electrical accessories on your vehicle. Checking the battery's state of charge will tell you how much juice the battery has available for such purposes.
If your battery is low, it needs to be recharged, not only to restore full power, but also to prevent possible damage to the battery. Ordinary automotive lead-acid storage batteries must be kept at or near full charge to keep the cell plates from becoming "sulfated" (a condition that occurs if the battery is run down and left in a discharged condition for more than a few days). As sulfate builds up, it reduces the battery's ability to hold a charge and supply voltage. Eventually the battery becomes useless and must be replaced.

The charge level depends on the concentration of acid inside the battery. The stronger the concentration of acid in the water, the higher the specific gravity of the solution, and the higher the state of charge.
On batteries with removable caps, state of charge can be checked with a "hydrometer." Some hydrometers have a calibrated float to measure the specific gravity of the acid solution while others simply have a number of colored balls. On the kind with a calibrated float, a hydrometer reading of 1.265 (corrected for temperature) indicates a fully charged battery, 1.230 indicates a 75% charge, 1.200 indicates a 50% charge, 1.170 indicates a 25% charge, and 1.140 or less indicates a discharged battery. On the kind that use floating balls, the number of balls that float tells you the approximate level of charge. All balls floating would indicate a fully charged battery, no balls floating would indicate a dead or fully discharged battery.
Some sealed-top batteries have a built-in hydrometer to indicate charge. The charge indicator only reads one cell, but usually shows the average charge for all battery cells. A green dot means the battery is 75% or more charged and is okay for use or further testing. No dot (a dark indicator) means the battery is low and should be recharged before it is returned to service or tested further. A clear or yellow indicator means the level of electrolyte inside has dropped too low, and the battery should be replaced.

On sealed-top batteries that do not have a built-in charge indicator, the state of charge can be determined by checking the battery's base or open circuit voltage with a digital voltmeter or multimeter. This is done by touching the meter leads to the positive and negative battery terminals while the ignition key is off.
A reading of 12.66 volts indicates a fully charged battery; 12.45 volts is 75% charged, 12.24 volts is 50% charged, and 12.06 volts is 25% charged.

In recharging the battery do not attempt to recharge a battery with low (or frozen) electrolyte! Doing so risks blowing up the battery if the hydrogen gas inside is ignited by a spark.
Your charging system should be capable of recharging the battery if it is not fully discharged. Thirty minutes or so of normal driving should be enough.
If your battery is completely dead or extremely low, it should be recharged with a fast or slow charger. This will reduce the risk of overtaxing and damaging your vehicle's charging system. One or both battery cables should be disconnected from the battery prior to charging it with a charger. This will eliminate any risk of damage to your vehicle's electrical system or its onboard electronics.

Take care and good luck

NB: Your alternator might not also be charging the battery while the car is on, so try to check the alternator.

Alternators are pretty rugged, but can succumb to excessive heat and overwork. They can also be damaged by sudden voltage overloads (as when someone attempts to jump start a dead battery and crosses up the jumper connections or if someone disconnects a battery cable from the battery while the engine is running).
Sometimes alternators can partially fail. In the back of every alternator is a "diode trio" that converts the alternators AC (alternating current) output to DC (direct current). If one or more of these diodes fail, the alternator's amperage output will be reduced. It may continue to produce some current, but not enough to keep the battery fully charged -- especially at idle or low speed.
Most service facilities have test equipment that can identify these kind of problems. So if you suspect a weak alternator, you should have it tested to see if it needs replacing.
Most service facilities do not repair or rebuild alternators because it's too time consuming and requires special parts. Most will replace your old unit with a new or remanufactured unit. Your old alternator is usually traded in or exchanged for a credit (so it can be remanufactured and sold to someone else).

I think you have what is called a parasitic drain. First check to make sure the light in the glove box, under hood, indicator light showing door is ajar, interior light ect all go out when they are suppose to.

If this is something that happen only once every in 6 to 12 months I think you are probably dealing with something that is human caused, something left on and not a mschanical issue. If it happens repeatedly when it does occurs then your parasitic drain is probably more of a short in the system. You can disconnect the negative battery cable to prevent yourself from getting stuck when this is going on. When this is happening you pull fuses for various systems and see if the battery still discharges the next day. If the battery is discharged the next day then those systems whose fuse were pulled are not involved. If the battery does not discharge then you have identified which systems are involved. Again this works only if you are having the battery discharge repeatedly.

if its a loud, roaring sound then maybe wheel berrings...gl

Try and reboot the system.
Disconnect both sides of the battery then crank the car 3-4 times (i know is sounds silly but this fully discharges all the ecu's)
Then reconnect the pos, then neg, reboot the windows and try that.
The xk8 have a lot of quirky problems like this.
JPTCAT