I bought my 2017 Ford Escape SE 4wd 2.0L suv 3 years ago, last year I had to replace the battery because the suv kept going into deep sleep mode and I had to jump start it to get it started, also my auto start and stop stopped working. When I replaced the battery, I consulted my owners manual and did it as it said to reset the bms, auto start started working again, and as time has gone, it now only occasionally work, I've also tried the bms reset with the key to the on position, brights 5x and break 3x but the battery icon on the dash doesn't flash, ONE time when I did it the heater/radio lights flashed and the auto start and stop worked, now it's not working again, regardless of how many times I do the bms reset with the lights and brake pedal. HELP!!!!! This is literally driving me clinically insane at this point!

 

When you replaced the battery last year, you replaced the same type (flood/agm) and same AH? If not you probably can't just reset/reigister/code it, you have to program it.
What you can try now is to disconnect the BMS data wire for diagnostic purposes, so it can't communicate with the ECU and the default constant voltage (say 13.6v) should be kicked in automatically. Try that and if everything works again, then you can have a bad BMS.
Please note resetting BMS and registering a new battery are NOT the same thing. A new battery needs to be registered just once while you can reset BMS as many times as you want. I think your battery hasn't even been registered yet. Whatever high beam flash brake light flash that might be a way to reset BMS but definitely not a method to register a new battery when you don't have a capable scan tool.

Additionally when you have a bad BMS you should get thrown a DTC (not CEL) and you need a capable scanner to retrieve Ford's specific DTCs.
Do you also have any aftermarket electronic device that's currently connected to your battery negative or positive terminals? If you do then that's very bad to your BMS. Let me know I can tell you the correct way to do it.

 

Yes, it was replaced with the exact same battery. I followed the owners manual for the battery reset when it was switched out. My BCM isn't bad, my auto start and stop I guess works when it wants to? It'll go days/weeks and not work then BAM! It'll work every time I stop... I don't have anything but the positive and negative cables hooked up to the battery, nothing after market is hooked up to my suv, nor is there any codes.

 

If it's the exact same battery type and AH then you don't need to program it, but you have to use a capable scanner to register it, if you don't have such scanner, go to the dealership or find a shop with ford specific scanner to register it.
Again, resetting BMS and registering a new battery are NOT the same thing. Do NOT use headlight/brake lamp flash in attempt to reset BMS, you didn't do it right, and not the right approach in the first place. Register the battery first, then reset BMS only if needed. If you don't have the scanner then don't DIY any further.

 

No, I don't believe my obd2 scanner has that, but I just called my local Ford Dealer and they do it for free, having it done tomorrow.

 

Thank you for the update, and please let us know how you make out , have a great day !

 

Absolutely! And thank you heiko for advising me of the registration of my battery because Ford said nothing to me about it when I bought the battery having to be registered, all they told me was in my owners manual follow the steps to reset the bms so all my stuff would work again and that's what I did and everything worked and then the auto start and start stopped working again, so I googled it and that's where I found the key on position, flash the brights 5x and press the brake 3x and wait for the battery emblem to flash, which mine never did, but the dash lights (heater) did and it worked, and after a few days, back to nothing. Then all of a sudden on March 21, 2025 it started working and has since with exception of a few days it didn't. But anyway, I'm going tomorrow afternoon to have it put on the machine and registered... I'll update with how it went...

 

UPDATE: I went and had my battery registered Saturday 4-26-2025 and honestly, I don't even know it's changed anything bc some stops it works, others it doesn't, and yes, all in the same ignition start, not driving then shutting off and restarting, it's all in the same ignition start. I also had my battery checked and it's 100% charged and reading the Volts where it should be, so my battery checked out.

 

If you are positive they already registered the battery for you and if you have a capable scanner you can verify that be able to retrieve that data, like the the odometer reading when it was replaced. They already done it for you, so you don't need to keep resetting your BMS. If your BMS itself is defective you would get thrown a DTC already. So you need to start looking at elsewhere on the electrical problems.

 

It seems to be working now. I guess it just needed the battery registered.. Who knew? Ty for all the input...