[Steve56]

I agree with many comments here. The low battery alert with its annoying loud chime is a pita and unnecessary for most folks, I checked my battery and it is at 100% charge but even when i open the door or hatch (oddly not rear doors) the damn chime / alert goes off for seemingly 2 hours , tho i know it is far, far less than that…,just SO annoying. Imo, the only time this alert should go off is IF the battery is low enough that there is a possibility of the vehicle not starting,,,,not just cuz a door is open or radio is on. I wish this could be either A. Turned off permanently, or B. The chime sound disabled so i do not have to listen to it every time i enter the vehicle.

 

[Steve56]

This is a new firmware update by Mazda to warn that the battery is low and need to switch the ignition on to prevent a dead battery. When this alarm pops up, there is nothing to worry about and no need to call Mazda or bring the car to the center; all you need to do is turn the ignition on immediately and drive the car for long-distance (recommended is around 100 km according to Mazda) to fully charge the battery. Hence, the alarm will disappear and your car will be back to normal.

To prevent this alarm, do not use radio, light, air-con, etc. while in accessory mode. Turn the ignition on if you really want to use the radio.

I disagree. Your example is not always the case nor the answer My battery is 100% charged and i still get the alert/chime The minute i open a door or hatch.

 

[Steve56]

This has stopped happening for me. I also have a dashcam installed now with a parking option that I leave on for days and no battery alarm. Very strange.

I contacted my dealer this AM and am waiting for a call back. He said he will research it. We will see What we see.

 

[Steve56]

Got my CX-30 June 19. Mexico built 04/21. Had the low battery warning a few times now, but have not had any problem starting. First week got it while messing around checking things out. 6/4 I washed it and got it again. Then this past weekend I camped out at a car show and it was a total pain! I was selling parts and slept in the passenger seat 1 night. Got the alarm while loading boxes at home Wednesday. Drove enough in between that it should have been charged up. Then at the show, I unloaded and was in and out of the car several times when it went off again. I did run the car, but could not drive anywhere to charge it. Did not know about the 5 minutes or fuse pull option. Anyway, while the passenger seat is quite comfy, it's not exactly a bed, LOL. So sleeping was difficult enough without the darn alarm carrying on if I opened the door! Was not happy!
I go back to dealer this week for ceramic coating. Will be discussing and find out if any updates need to be done.

What 5 minute option?

 

[Steve56]

Service Alert attachment in post #35 of this thread says you can drive or idle 5min to clear it.

Thank you. I missed that. providing i do not leave doors open for any length of time , i stopped this lo volt alert by always keeping the key fob in a faraday pouch when fob is not in use. Seems stopping the car and fob from "talking" all the time has also stopped the alert.

 

[Steve56]

I maintain that the amount of energy used by the annoying and long duration chime and instrument cluster lighting to let you know of low battery voltage prob exceeds the amount of low voltage in the battery lol.

 

[Steve56]

G'day from the top of the Whitsudays in Queensland.

See also my post in "Battery Discharge Issue - Log of Members events" yesterday.

Had the low battery alarm problem with my car within a week of taking delivery. Had the car since 27 July.

I turned the MRCC off yesterday as well and, sitting here at the dealers service dept. and have had it confirmed that it is the MRCC causing the problem due to it not going to sleep after locking up the vehicle. The techs here are currently re-programming the car with a fix from Mazda. It takes about 45 minutes to install the software patch.

It appears the paint on the female thread to which the retaining bolt that attaches the negative lead from the battery to the suspension tower is not the cause of the problem.

Another common cause of the problem is people leaving the key in the car and leaving the windows down a bit. Both of these actions keep the system alive (together or separately) resulting in higher than normal current draw from the battery as well. This has been reported elsewhere as well.

Hopefully now I can now not have to worry about this problem. 🤠

When you say "windows" are you including a sunroof left open a crack to expel excess heat?

 

[Steve56]

As I understand it (and others may correct me on this), the warning system counts around 30 cumulative minutes before triggering. These minutes can cover any number of occasions that you connect with the car (so if your fob is nearby for example it would count). This means that, in practice, it could set the warning off if you did no more than connect with the car via the fob and/or say opened doors or the tailgate a few times enough to add up to the 30 minutes before it would be reset via you running the engine for a minimum of 5 minutes or so when it would start its count again. As I say, the principle is sound but the implementation leaves something to be desired and it needs tweaking If you keep your fob nearby that may be contributing to the problem. I now keep both my fobs in faraday pouches when not in use so there is no chance they can communicate with the car. Doing that has the added advantage of being good for security given the methods around for stealing keyless entry vehicles

I keep the fob in a faraday bag eliminating most of the annoying crap, but not all....today, for example, short trip of 5 minutes opened hatch to get stuff out, closed hatch, opened hood to replenish washer fluid, closed hood, doors closed whole time,,,the frickin thing went crazy chiming annoyingly for 30+ seconds even tho all doors, etc were closed and no lights on and fob in faraday bag. Mazda REALLY needs to address this!

 

[Steve56]

I keep the fob in a faraday bag eliminating most of the annoying crap, but not all....today, for example, short trip of 5 minutes opened hatch to get stuff out, closed hatch, opened hood to replenish washer fluid, closed hood, doors closed whole time,,,the frickin thing went crazy chiming annoyingly for 30+ seconds even tho all doors, etc were closed and no lights on and fob in faraday bag. Mazda REALLY needs to address this!

An addendum: Had the hood open for about an hour doing some cleaning....no chime or alert for low voltage. Closed the hood and the damn alert went crazy! What in hell is with this system?!

 

[Steve56]

Do you guys know if any other mazda product suffers from this? Especially anynmodel with the 2.5l n/a engine....i am thinking if not, and the cx30 is the only model affected then, obviously, the fix mazda must pursue is within the cx30 line.

 

[Steve56]

FYI.. the only thing we altered regarding this, was to keep the key fob further away from our parked CX30. In our home, with attached garage, my wife usually keeps her purse I'd say within the 23' range of the fob. So she has been keeping it double that distance now... and it seems to be avoiding the alarm message. Time will tell.

Keep the fob in a faraday bag as i do and the alert rarely goes off....imhave a secure , locked garage so i keep the fob in the cal all the time in the faraday bag and i have no issues

 

[Steve56]

I did a parasitic drain test which includes proving if the vehicle will react to the key fob. You can watch it at the link. Parasitic Drain Test - YouTube

Thank you for sharing that,,,it was very interesting. I can speak only from my personal experience since purchasing my vehicle early this past may....it is parked in an attached garage, i use the vehicle infrequently (so it can sit for two or three weeks), i keep the fob in the vehicle. Every time i let the car sit for a week or so and then opened the door the damn lo battery chime would go off, Since i have been placing the fob in the farady bag, this has not happened. I do not know the reason, only that for me it worked. Thanks again.

 

[Steve56]

Must spoke with my dealer today about the lo voltage alarm....he conceded he gets lots of complaints about it from customers. He also said mazda already has a software fix for it in the cx5 and 9 but has not yet released a fix for the cx30 Grrr! He did say the alert timing will be extended to 60 minutes. Personally, i want it gone completely.

 

[Steve56]

Lots of details in this thread, but to summarize: The dead battery and the alert are separate issues. The Alert is based on how many times and how much time the computer is woken up without the car running. It is doing what it is programmed to do. It is not monitoring actual battery condition. Clears with 5 minutes of run time. I just ignore it and let it clear next time I drive it. No need to waste fuel.

No matter its purpose it is a "nanny" alarm and damned annoying and mazda needs to get rid of it....in 99% of cases it serves no purpose other than to annoy the owner.

 

[Steve56]

Having gotten to see how much of the systems in today's cars overlap I thought that I would share some insight here. The short answer to just tweaking the software and changing the timer because a percentage of owners don't like something about it isn't as easy as one might think. Software corrections when proposed have to be tested to prove that they don't negatively impact the FTP ( federal testing procedure) Emissions levels that the car was certified for when it was first produced. On the surface it might not seem like a big deal just letting the battery experience some longer drain events. But the federal emissions testing is going to want answers to things like how will this impact fuel economy? When the battery is allowed to drain more, the alternator is going to demand more power from the engine for a longer period of time in order to try to replace that consumed power. That additional engine load will lower the fuel economy and lower fuel economy equals more CO2 and pollutants released to the atmosphere. Consider this as an over simplification of just what all can be involved in something like a software change there could be numerous other concerns that could result from something this innocent of a change and rooting them out before just tossing out any random change probably drives some of the engineers crazy.

Perhaps then, not alter the software....just cancel the alarm sound or lower it so the folks in the Ukraine cannot hear it.

 

[Steve56]

Having owned both a 2020 and a 2021 CX-30 don't ask, it does all come down to the 30 min active time as noted
by many, yes the remote will cause the car to wake up which adds to the 30 min accumulation time.

Since the battery condition is secondary to the 30 min rule the actual battery state of charge is irrelevant
so a battery tender will not trump the 30 min timer.

BTW without pulling fuses there is no way to turn off the rear tailgate light [open] when vacuuming/cleaning
not that its going to lessen activation of the chime anyway.

I'd be more than happy with a 60 min active mode prior to the activation of the much hated chime.

I keep my fob in the car all the time when garaged as my garage is secure and i live where crime is virtually non-existant. I keep the fob in a small faraday key case and can leave it parked for weeks on end (i have another vehicle) , and very rarely (i cannot remember the last time) i got the lo battery alarm. So, not certain, but perhaps the lack of fob/vehicle communication keeps the alarm at bay.

 

[Steve56]

No, this doesn't work. I keep my key in a Faraday pouch and it still does it. Also does it with my spare key which has the communication turned off. Its just working on a timer basis.

Hmmm odd. I have not had a battery alarm since using the faraday bag. (My second fob is turned off, as well) sorry it has not worked for you.

 

[Steve56]

For owners in Europe & UK with affected models, a PCM update is now available from your local Mazda dealer, which incorporates the following changes:

Control software of the BCM has been modified to change the condition for the power saving mode to be activated and deactivated.

- Activation of the power saving mode
The accumulated time 30 minutes has been extended to 90 minutes.

- Deactivation of the power saving mode
Driving or engine running for 5 minutes has been shortened to 3 seconds.

That should at least greatly reduce the occurrence of this message appearing.

I wonder when this will be available for other markets in n. America and asia?

 

[Steve56]

Thank you for posting this. It's a little disconcerting that Mazda admits the alert also means customers "may have problems starting the vehicle". Updating the programming will lengthen the time it takes for the counter to sound the alarm to 90 minutes and it will clear upon startup. However, this doesn't address the battery capacity and overall engineering of that system. My car only has 6700 miles on it and I purchased it in May of last year. From the beginning.... starting it on really cold days was interesting. Very slow cranking to the point I wondered if it was going to make it. This is not confidence inspiring. I've been driving since 1978 and I've owned scores of cars....most of them new. I've never worried about this type of thing with a new car. And, I've never purchased a car this expensive. My 2019 MX-5 GTS was close. Expensive trucks are another story and a sore spot with my wife.

Can our vehicles accommodate a larger, more powerful battery to overcome this?

 

[Steve56]

Has anyone in the U.S. gotten the update to extend the timer to 90 minutes? I'm taking mine in for safety inspection Friday so would like to know if there is a 'fix' available to me yet.

I had mine updated last servicing last month and so far no annoying alert