Ranger Mods

We did a camping trip recently to the Darling River ( 4 days aof glorious 35+ degrees weather ) and on our way back to the Blue Mountains we went through the Macquarie Marshes which involved driving through a flooded road with the depth markers showing it to be just over 600 mm deep and for a distance of roughly 400 metres - hard packed bitumen under the water.
The Wildtrak managed the crossing easily in 4WD High range with the cooling fan imobilised and not a drop of water entered the cabin despite the bow wave and the water depth but yesterday, when I was carrying out the 80,000 km service ( I change all the filters and engine oil every 10,000 kms ) I noticed that the battery box was brimming full of water and on investigation found that Ford in their wisdom hav'nt included a drain hole.

Has anyone else noticed this - to me - obvious design omission ? I'm also bemused and at a loss as to why and how it could become full with water as the bow wave we created was'nt over the hood height.

NB. It now has three 8mm diameter drain holes.

Yep! Found the same problem. Likewise, now has drain holes!!

ditto

I noticed this as well.
The reason for the lack of drain holes is to prevent any potential battery acid leak from finding nice metal bodywork to corrode.
Also the reason for it being plastic...appears to be anyway. unless i'm mistaken on that point?

NathanSA wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:05 pm I noticed this as well.
The reason for the lack of drain holes is to prevent any potential battery acid leak from finding nice metal bodywork to corrode.
Also the reason for it being plastic...appears to be anyway. unless i'm mistaken on that point?

I noticed this as well and you make a valid point regarding the plastic battery base and possible acid retention however the OE battery - and any direct replacement - are sealed for life and I think the only way that they could leak would be if the battery case was smashed as in a frontal accident - in which case the leaking battery would be the least of the owners problems or perhaps secondly if the battery case became split due to vibrations a very rough road -- were this to be the case and given the volume of the plastic base taken up by the battery case were it to leak would the remaining volume in the plastic base be sufficient for the entire volume of acid from the battery ? I doubt it but I'm not going to put it to a test .

Battery cases have been known to split open due to corregation
Marine batteries have thick cases so they can take a beating on waves
Battery cases have been known to split open due to a short, either man made or a battery fault

In what year were battery boxes introduced the the px ranger range? My 2016 doesnt have a box. It has an insulation blanket around the battery. My 2017 did not have a battery box. My 2019 ranger does not have a battery box. Can someone please post an image of a ranger battery box. Cheers

Boydie wrote: ↑Wed Mar 30, 2022 9:37 am

NathanSA wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:05 pm I noticed this as well.
The reason for the lack of drain holes is to prevent any potential battery acid leak from finding nice metal bodywork to corrode.
Also the reason for it being plastic...appears to be anyway. unless i'm mistaken on that point?

I noticed this as well and you make a valid point regarding the plastic battery base and possible acid retention however the OE battery - and any direct replacement - are sealed for life and I think the only way that they could leak would be if the battery case was smashed as in a frontal accident - in which case the leaking battery would be the least of the owners problems or perhaps secondly if the battery case became split due to vibrations a very rough road -- were this to be the case and given the volume of the plastic base taken up by the battery case were it to leak would the remaining volume in the plastic base be sufficient for the entire volume of acid from the battery ? I doubt it but I'm not going to put it to a test .

The sealed for life batteries still have fill access ports and vent holes which are plugged.
I have seen these leak acid (in other cars) in the event of a battery going bad either due to overcharge from an alternator or some other factor.

This is my Ford original so-called maintenance free battery.

Lincolnland wrote: ↑Thu Mar 31, 2022 4:20 pm In what year were battery boxes introduced the the px ranger ranger? My 2016 doesnt have a box. It has an insulation blanket around the battery. My 2017 did not have a battery box. My 2019 ranger does not have a battery box. Can someone please post an image of a ranger battery box. Cheers

It is the tray being spoken about here
"box" may be the wrong word but as the OP started with it that's what we have been referring to.
So it's more a really shallow box with no lid!

My 2017 with blanket and battery tray.

As suspected. No box exists, its a tray not a box and not all batteries are not sealed for life. Unfortunately the information posted by the op is not correct. Again. Thanks nathan for clarifying and confirming. Cheers

Lincolnland wrote: ↑Thu Mar 31, 2022 8:41 pm As suspected. No box exists, its a tray not a box and batteries are not sealed for life. Unfortunately the information posted by the op is not correct. Again. Thanks nathan for clarifying and confirming. Cheers

Box or tray it still gets full of water and there is no standard drain provided and the tray on my Wildtrak is 22 mm deep, so, even with the battery positioned in the tray that's still a considerable amount of water just sitting there and contrary to your second comment my Marshall XDIN77MF battery is "sealed for life" and according to Marshall, cannot be "topped-up" with acid and under no account should the top cover be prized off.
During manufacture the Marshall batteries are put under a vacuum to allow volume for gas expansion and then the tops and the cells are sealed.
Some batteries under the top cover do have screw cap ports, the Marshall, and several others do not. For that matter, how do you top up or service a Lithium cell battery and from my auxiliary battery experience my next starter battery will be a lithium. They just need some further development to cover the required CCA.
The days of checking a car batteries acid content and individual cell condition with a hydrometer are long gone.

All batteries I have seen in the last few years come with the "Sealed for Life" logo which means to me I don't need to ad anything
But that doesn't mean the contents can't come out.
One of our sons worked at a battery place and I witnessed several controlled battery explosions
I know I don't want to be near a Lithium battery if it explodes
I also know Sealed for Life only works one way

"The days of checking a car batteries acid content and individual cell condition with a hydrometer are long gone"

Incorrect. How will a small amount of water negatively effect a battery base? It will aid the cooling of the battery. The engine heat will eventually evaporate it as will taking the vehicle off road regularly. If the ford engineering team determined the tray needed drain holes, they'd have been oem. As mentioned above the tray is installed as a capture device, which in turn prevents long term corrosion

Lincolnland wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 9:16 pm "The days of checking a car batteries acid content and individual cell condition with a hydrometer are long gone"

Incorrect. How will a small amount of water negatively effect a battery base? It will aid the cooling of the battery. The engine heat will eventually evaporate it as will taking the vehicle off road regularly. If the ford engineering team determined the tray needed drain holes, they'd have been oem. As mentioned above the tray is installed as a capture device, which in turn prevents long term corrosion

The water that got into my battery tray was salt water from crossing Eli Creek at the seaward edge on Fraser Island, - it was still there when I returned home, that's a distance of close to 3000 kilometres and it hadn't evaporated. I guess that's why there is a "blanket" of sorts around the battery to keep it cool, 21 mm deep water just 5 mm wide on the four sides wont do diddly to cool it.
On my OE battery there were 6 plugs with a groove in each to take a very wide screwdriver or coin so that they could be unscrewed. On my current Marshall battery there are no such plugs, it is totally sealed and tamper-proof.
Yes, batteries do split open, in over 40 years of competitive rally driving I have only personally known of one and that was when the car was totally destroyed due to a high speed head-on into a large gum tree but I can well imagine that there have been many other occasions, for that reason in all competition cars the battery is required to be in an enclosed and sealed plastic box/container.
When I rolled my Charade on the Esanda Rally of Canberra in 1978, we went over a sharp crest way too fast and rolled it 6 times, it went nose first 3 times end to end and then 3 times side to side before coming to rest on its wheels and the battery was still in one piece and the engine was still running so we drove the final 3 kilometres to the end of the stage. The marshals prevented us from continuing to the next stage as we had no windscreen !
As for Ford engineering and design, -- please !! If there was any forethought into the vehicle's engineering and design they would have located the EGR cooler in a convenient and serviceable location not behind the engine wedged up against the firewall. I accept that the original design of the 3.2 engine never included having to have an EGR or DPF but having had them foisted upon it the engineering design team could easily have located the EGR cooler in a more convenient and serviceable position, perhaps even utilizing some natural airflow as well as a water jacket.