Powertrain Malfunction/ Reduced Power

[LightningShow]

Last night i got a ‘stop safely now’ and service soon message with power reduced to 20%. I didn’t see a powertrain malfunction message. I wasn’t able to clear the fault by restarting or removing the 12v negative terminal. I checked my 12v battery (because the low battery icon also showed up) and it seems that the LVB is low, it measured right at 12v. I put my battery charger on it overnight and it was still only 12.6v. I’m not sure what it *should* be but i assume that’s on the low side. My app isn’t giving me vehicle status (giving the “partial response received” error when i go to the vehicle tab). Hopefully not a battery module issue but i’m not liking what i’m seeing.

EDIT: i just checked my message log and it *does* show a high voltage battery fault and powertrain malfunction warning. Damn.

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[TomB985]

I joined the non-exclusive Powertrain Failure club yesterday after the truck sat idle while I was on an 11 day international trip. I contacted my service department at Grappone Ford in Concord...

Small world. I've spent most of the last two months in Concord visiting my parents, and I know Grappone Ford well. Their DCFC units are apparently the first Ford-branded chargers to make it online, and it's good to see their service department leading the way as well. A bit off-topic, but these chargers are located right near the entrance and fed my mom's new EV9 at 165 kW. We need more dealers like this!

My dealer in Minnesota is huge, but nobody outside their service department seems to know about EVs yet.

 

[LightningShow]

Truck is going to the dealer this morning. We'll see what they say.

ETA: Opening a ticket with the BEV team now.

 

[LightningShow]

Last night i got a ‘stop safely now’ and service soon message with power reduced to 20%. I didn’t see a powertrain malfunction message. I wasn’t able to clear the fault by restarting or removing the 12v negative terminal. I checked my 12v battery (because the low battery icon also showed up) and it seems that the LVB is low, it measured right at 12v. I put my battery charger on it overnight and it was still only 12.6v. I’m not sure what it *should* be but i assume that’s on the low side. My app isn’t giving me vehicle status (giving the “partial response received” error when i go to the vehicle tab). Hopefully not a battery module issue but i’m not liking what i’m seeing.

EDIT: i just checked my message log and it *does* show a high voltage battery fault and powertrain malfunction warning. Damn.

Added detail…after i got the fault message, i plugged in at about 50% and got a charge fault when it reached about 65%. First time that’s ever happened.

 

[TomB985]

Added detail…after i got the fault message, i plugged in at about 50% and got a charge fault when it reached about 65%. First time that’s ever happened.

That sounds a lot like what happened to mine. I could charge to 65%, but then it errored when it hit 60% at the dealer. Mine was a failed module 7, which sits in the top row of the pack.

 

[LightningShow]

I'm expecting to hear I have a failed module by the end of the day. Hopefully they can take care of it quickly. Considering how often this is cropping up I would hope Ford has these ready to go out the door ASAP.

 

[LightningShow]

Looks like they're replacing one of the battery modules. They have the request in with Ford for approval on the repair. Who knows how long this will take them. Hopefully less than a month. They gave me a Mach-E GT as a loaner. I guess I need to go join the Mach-E forum now!

 

[TomB985]

Looks like they're replacing one of the battery modules. They have the request in with Ford for approval on the repair. Who knows how long this will take them. Hopefully less than a month. They gave me a Mach-E GT as a loaner. I guess I need to go join the Mach-E forum now!

Mine was really quick. It was diagnosed on Tuesday and the part was ordered Wednesday, which arrived on Friday. Less than two weeks all-in. I hope yours is at least that fast.

 

[LightningShow]

Mine was really quick. It was diagnosed on Tuesday and the part was ordered Wednesday, which arrived on Friday. Less than two weeks all-in. I hope yours is at least that fast.

That would be great if it was that fast. I’m traveling 4 of the next 5 weeks for work so it’s not the worst timing.

 

[LightningShow]

That sounds a lot like what happened to mine. I could charge to 65%, but then it errored when it hit 60% at the dealer. Mine was a failed module 7, which sits in the top row of the pack.

They’re replacing module 1 on my truck. Hs there been any rhyme or reason to the modules that fail?

 

[Piquette]

They’re replacing module 1 on my truck. Hs there been any rhyme or reason to the modules that fail?

They are replacing module 9 on mine. Cell #96 was producing less voltage than it should have.

 

[LightningShow]

The dealership ordered the battery module but neither the service department nor Ford customer service has any idea when the module might be available. They won’t even give me an estimated time. The customer service person said if they don’t have it in a couple of weeks they can try to talk to the department in charge of the battery sourcing. Clearly they know who to ask but don’t want to ask until i’ve waited for a while. Joke’s on them, though, because now they are going to have to talk to me every day and answer the same questions over and over until they ask someone when the module will be shipping.

 

[TomB985]

I wonder if @GoodSam wants to add Motor Trend’s review truck to his spreadsheet. I think this is a different truck than @FMarkus has in Michigan?

We got an unexpected call from Ford recently. The call—from Ford’s PR team, not its customer service arm—was concerning a high-voltage battery pack degradation issue. Our truck, the rep said, was part of a pilot program tracking early-build 2022 Lightnings, and when they remotely examined our truck, Ford engineers discovered a battery module was malfunctioning. We were highly encouraged to get our Lightning into the dealer immediately.

We asked what would happen if the issue, which Ford says affects around 350 F-150 Lightnings under “Lightning Customer Satisfaction Program 23H01,” were ignored. Ford told us a yellow service wrench icon would eventually appear on the dash, and the truck would gradually slow down to 15–18 mph over three minutes before refusing to move any farther. We were told our Detroit-based 2023 F-150 Lightning XLT is unaffected.

Not wanting to deal with an inconvenient stop on an upcoming road trip, we acquiesced. The PR rep said that for most customers, a dedicated customer satisfaction program agent would call owners to inform them of this not-a-recall, personally setting up the dealership appointment on behalf of the owners to ensure the dealer was properly notified of the issue and that it had parts on hand. In this case, Ford’s PR team had stepped in to serve as our agent.

We marked our pack to see if Ford would replace the whole thing or just a single module. It was the latter. The rest was quite painless. We dropped off our F-150 Lightning at the dealer on a Monday morning and were given the keys to a Mustang Mach-E in exchange. Our service adviser told us the fix was “fairly straightforward,” requiring techs to lower the battery pack to access the bad module and related parts before replacing it with a new module balanced with the rest of the battery pack. This would ensure the new module operates cohesively with the rest of our truck’s 131-kWh battery pack. A software update would finish the repair.

Two days later, we swapped the Mach-E keys for our Lightning’s, with the repairs all covered under warranty. Proactive service actions like this—especially where the inconvenience is mitigated—can go a long way toward soothing an anxious public’s worries about EVs.

I’ll admit to finding the whole thing humorous at this point. This seems to be a pretty widespread problem, and I think the likelihood of a more permanent fix is increased with more press coverage.

 

[ChMIF10L]

I'm the latest member of this unfortunate club. '23 XLT SR at about ~5k miles.

I drove it on my morning commute fine, went to plug it in and got the orange rings, but dismissed it since I was already over 80% charge. Hopped in for my evening commute and got the wrench of death and FordPass notifications, limited to 25% power. Had it towed to my dealer.

The dealer said they can't even look at EVs for another 8 days, and they had 40 people on a waiting list for a loaner, outrageous. Called for Customer Relationship Center to get a case started, they got the dealership to bump me up on the list and said if I couldn't get a loaner today they have a $45/day rental reimbursement for Ford vehicles.

Although I've loved my truck for the short time I've had it, I'm pretty disappointed with Ford. We are basically beta testing their future flagship vehicle, so when it hits the fan so early I would expect some better support and for them to make it right, not for me to have to jump through all these hoops only to get an inferior car while still paying for my very expensive brick that's sitting in the shop for probably weeks to months.

I got my truck back after 28 days. Launched about 10 times on the way home from the dealership. Life is good now, but I've lost a fair bit on confidence in this truck. No more road trips, my wife would kill me if we got stranded with our baby somewhere.

 

[ChMIF10L]

I wonder if @GoodSam wants to add Motor Trend’s review truck to his spreadsheet. I think this is a different truck than @FMarkus has in Michigan?



I’ll admit to finding the whole thing humorous at this point. This seems to be a pretty widespread problem, and I think the likelihood of a more permanent fix is increased with more press coverage.

IMO @Ford Motor Company needs to step up and take a national initiative of owners affected. From this thread, people's experiences range from a few days to over a month, no loaner to an ICE Escape (like me), or a Mach-E or Lightning. It's a damn mess and they have to know it's a widespread issue.

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