[Updated with Ford statement 2/15/23] 🛑 Lightning Stop Production / Stop Shipment Issued (due to potential battery issue)

[boggle]

Any idea where the holding lot is where this happened - Rouge Plant, or after a train trip? I hope Ford fast-tracks replacements for the 2 poor people whose trucks were involved.

Knowing Ford their trucks probably still say "In Production".

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[queuewho]

“We have no reason to believe F-150 Lightnings already in customers’ hands are affected by this issue,” a spokeswoman said.

Unless that changes I don't think we current owners need to worry. There were probably what, at most 200 in the staging lot or something? and there are 15,000 on the road and none of them spontaneously combusted (believe me the media would be all over it) so it's likely like they say, an issue affecting recently produced units.

 

[Sealevel]

All it says, as you can read, is "on company property" and that it was during a predelivery check.

Thank you, I missed that. That is good news for all who learn their Lightnings were transported toward their delivery spots. Mine sat in Nashville for 2 to 3 weeks.

 

[cvalue13]

OTH, Consumer Reports, based on reader surveys of reliability, usually rates Ford vehicles at average or below-average reliability. So, by that data and Occam's razor, it's probably that Ford is not doing as well on reliability, rather than that Ford is just a lot more conscientious than everybody else.

Occam's razor is not rejecting the more straightforward and simple explanation in favor of a more complicated, convoluted one.

simplicity cuts (get the pun) neither way here

the point was, Ford could be recalling 10,000,000 vehicles for a windshield wiper blade malfunction, while Volvo recalls 1,000 for the wheels falling off at high speeds.

there is no necessary correlation between recalls and long-term vehicle reliability

Here’s some dated (1985-2016) data that
the point - the first chart shows number of recalls, the second shows what portion of those recalls were for serious issues:

So again, I’m not taking any position on the substance or seriousness of Ford’s recalls in the last two years - I’m merely injecting that telling me “Ford has been #1 in recalls in the last two years” doesn’t tell me much of anything that I care about, absent more context

that’s a point that’s agnostic to razors

 

[GolfJRM]

Battery Fire Causes Ford Output Halt

Ford Motor Co. said a battery fire in an F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck stored on company property was the cause of a production halt that began early last week.

The auto maker said Wednesday evening that the truck was in a holding lot when it caught fire during a predelivery quality check and spread to a nearby truck. “We have no reason to believe F-150 Lightnings already in customers’ hands are affected by this issue,” a spokeswoman said.

https://wallstreetjournal-ny.newsmemory.com/?publink=35033c274_134aa6c

Since all the trucks are pre-order (I assume) it would be interesting to see what message the people who ordered those two trucks get.

 

[adoublee]

Unless that changes I don't think we current owners need to worry. There were probably what, at most 200 in the staging lot or something? and there are 15,000 on the road and none of them spontaneously combusted (believe me the media would be all over it) so it's likely like they say, an issue affecting recently produced units.

And it was infant mortality.

 

[Blainestang]

The fire has been confirmed by multiple independent sources. Seems like the fire was a pretty good indicator they had a problem during pre delivery inspection. Starting to have flashbacks to the Boeing Dreamliner battery issues!

Wow, it's wild that Ford worded it that way.

It's giving me Baghdad Bob vibes. haha

 

[Chado]

Ford's questionable quality aside, the lightning is still an awesome truck.

I hope for the safety of everyone it's something with just those recently produced batteries in the new trucks in that holding lot.

I am guessing everyone feels the battery module email/phone call that some are receiving is unrelated?

 

[XLT Jeffy]

Anything involving fire is something I'll be cautious of until Ford releases more information.

Appreciate all the info this thread has provided.

Driving my ICE Mazda for now.

 

[VTbuckeye]

The bolt fires... If memory serves me well, it was over a year before the first fire and the first three model years affected by the initial recall (reprogram the charging behavior) totaled 45000ish vehicles. When the charge reprogramming didn't resolve the problems things got uglier, more complicated and more expensive for GM.
Building defect free batteries is hard! 288 cells in the 60kwh battery pack means that a one in a million defect at the cell level would statistically affect one in 3500 cars.

 

[F150ROD]

 

[Lightning64]

@F150ROD Did Ford post that Q&A online or email it to you?

 

[F150ROD]

@F150ROD Did Ford post that Q&A online or email it to you?

Apparently it was released to the press, I took a screenshot from another Lightning Forum.

 

[detansinn]

My F150 Lightning Lariat (extended battery) was supposed to arrive this week. Unfortunately, my dealer was able to confirm that it is part of the transit hold. I am super annoyed, but I have been waiting since I placed my reservation in 2021, so what's a couple more weeks. I'm hoping that it gets the all clear soon.

Ford social media was useless in getting any additional details. They directed me to order tracking which is still showing arrival this week.

It's reasonable that the issue doesn't affect trucks already delivered. They likely made some change in the manufacturing process that turned out to be bad choice. It also could be the setting's on some dude's automatic torque wrench were out of whack. These things happen.

 

[Jim Lewis]

“Ford has been #1 in recalls in the last two years” doesn’t tell me much of anything that I care about, absent more context

I agree that # of recalls doesn't tell you anything about the seriousness of a recall. But the question that we're discussing is, "Does a recall basically have to do with a reliability issue for a vehicle, or could it be that actually the reliability issues involved are really insignificant compared to other manufacturers and Ford is just being incredibly conscientious (and stupidly digging itself into a deeper hole) by volunteering to recall a vehicle when it really needn't and even if it did, its recall issues could be very insignificant compared to anyone else's." (I'm deliberately exaggerating your point a bit.

I think the simplest interpretation is "a recall = a reliability issue of significance to either safety or the value of the vehicle the customer deserves."

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