"Stop safely now", 12V battery loosing charge, and rodent damage

[njlightining]

My Lightning was the best car i've ever owned and driven. I absolutely loved it... until about a month ago when it suddenly stopped working. I went over some puddles (nothing too deep - all other cars were going over them without issues). An hour later, the truck wouldn't start. I kept getting the dreaded "Stop safely now" and "Full accessory power active" error messages on the screen (see attached). Got the truck towed to the dealership. After a week there, they determined i just needed a new 12V battery. Didn't make sense to me, but truck was working and i took it back. Next day (another wet day), same problem - truck wouldn't start. Towed back to the dealership. Another week went by and they tell me that there is nothing wrong with my truck - they charged the 12V battery and everything is fine and they cant replicate the errors. Took it back and few days later, again the same problem. Back to the dealership, filed the buy back case with BEV. The day after, they miraculously found rodent damage to the orange wire loom and some wire insulation inside. This wire loom is under the bed of my truck , right above the spare tire. Now they are saying it's not a warranty and want me to cover about $2k worth of repairs. Im not usually this cynical, but the whole thing smells fishy. First, I thought the orange wire looms hold high voltage wire that goes to the main battery and it shouldn't have anything to do with the 12V battery (I'm not 100% on this). Second, if this was the problem from the beginning, it just doesn't make sense that it took them 22 days to find it. damage was very visible from under the truck. And last, I understand that this wire loom is made of some soy product that rodents love to chew on, but most of the other wire loom under the truck is covered with protective tape. Shouldn't the rest of it have this protective tape as well? Especially on a luxury car. Shouldn't this be considered a design flaw and be covered under warranty? Would love to hear if anyone else here has any similar experiences. Thank you!

 

[Maquis]

There have been several reports on here of rodent damage to wiring.
But the wiring shown in your picture is not damaged - it appears that only the outer loom was compromised.
If you do indeed have rodent damage, it should be covered by your insurance.

 

[njlightining]

the wiring itself is not damaged. just insulation. according to service, when it's wet out there is a short and it drains my 12V battery.

 

[21st Century Truck]

There have been several reports on here of rodent damage to wiring.
But the wiring shown in your picture is not damaged - it appears that only the outer loom was compromised.
If you do indeed have rodent damage, it should be covered by your insurance.

We've had rodent car damage, on a different Ford several years ago.

Rodent wiring damage looks a bit different than the provided picture: in our case on a Ford Fusion the rodents chewed the direct wire insulation off, bit by bit, then chewed through the stranded wires to get at more of the wiring insulation which they then pulled off the broken stranded wiring circuits.

I write this to say that rodent damage on stranded auto wiring ends up looking like a huge silver spaghetti ball made of unwrapped loose wire strands. No mistaking it for anything else. The silver wire spaghetti ball was about the size of an adult male clenched fist. I could also call it a "rat's nest" the way it looked.

I'm sure any Lightning member from Maine or the Canadian Maritimes would love to comment / expand the discussion

 

[Maquis]

the wiring itself is not damaged. just insulation. according to service, when it's wet out there is a short and it drains my 12V battery.

I call BS on that. The stuff in the picture that is chewed is only for physical protection, not moisture.

 

[broncoaz]

That “damage“ to the orange outer loom does’t look like the jagged edges I’ve seen from rodents. I grabbed this pic off reddit, but it’s more typical of rodent damage. Yours looked like it got pinched and cut during assembly, there aren’t and discernable teeth marks.

 

[Scorpio3d]

That “damage“ to the orange outer loom does’t look like the jagged edges I’ve seen from rodents. I grabbed this pic off reddit, but it’s more typical of rodent damage. Yours looked like it got pinched and cut during assembly, there aren’t and discernable teeth marks.

I agree it does not look anything like rodent damage or that it was chewed through. It looks like it was cut or sheared.
Or maybe a beaver or some other critter with giant teeth bit off only that one little piece-LOL

 

[njlightining]

lol. i don't have any beavers here. maybe a squirrel, but my driveway is far from any trees and I don't see any rodents anywhere near my house or driveway. I guess it's possible that it bit into the high-voltage wire and killed over. But, then I'd probably see a dead squirrel on my driveway and a lot of little orange pieces of wire harness. Neither was the case. The cut looks way too clean. But, I'm not sure what I can do here. They are telling me that it's not under warranty and Ford will not take care of this. Im hoping there is a mechanic here who has experience with Lightning or maybe a Ford employee who can tell me if it even makes sense that a short in orange wires would discharge a 12v battery. I can't make sense out of this.

 

[Scorpio3d]

lol. i don't have any beavers here. maybe a squirrel, but my driveway is far from any trees and I don't see any rodents anywhere near my house or driveway. I guess it's possible that it bit into the high-voltage wire and killed over. But, then I'd probably see a dead squirrel on my driveway and a lot of little orange pieces of wire harness. Neither was the case. The cut looks way too clean. But, I'm not sure what I can do here. They are telling me that it's not under warranty and Ford will not take care of this. Im hoping there is a mechanic here who has experience with Lightning or maybe a Ford employee who can tell me if it even makes sense that a short in orange wires would discharge a 12v battery. I can't make sense out of this.

Have you contacted the BEV team?
I had excellent luck and experience with them as I had a rodent chew through my wires(At least that is what I was told I never saw any true documented damage) I posted about my experience on another thread!
I cannot figure out how to add the link on the new app so search for my thread ” Charging station not detected”

 

[njlightining]

Have you contacted the BEV team?
I had excellent luck and experience with them as I had a rodent chew through my wires(At least that is what I was told I never saw any true documented damage) I posted about my experience on another thread!
I cannot figure out how to add the link on the new app so search for my thread ” Charging station not detected”

I have. I was in touch with the lemon law firm first and when I told the dealership about it, they told me to contact BEV first - they said it will be easier and that they won't fight it. I called and opened a case. They told me "someone will call you back". The next day, service guys at the dealership conveniently "found" the rodent issue. And nobody from BEV has called me back yet. Since then, I've attempted reaching out to them 3 times and each time I'm told that someone will call me back.. cant help but feel that I'm being royally screwed. I hope someone is here from Ford reading this and will help me out. I paid full retail for this truck in August 2023 and it's only at 18k miles.

 

[njlightining]

And even if it was a rodent, I think a car where a rodent can easily chew through a wire loom and short a high voltage wire is a huge design flaw and a safety risk.

 

[htobin]

I live on a ranch in West Texas. Rodent damage to wiring in our machinery is all too common. I’ve had it in a truck and twice in an excavator. We’ve tried everything, including traps, sonic machines, and bait blocks. There is something about the wiring that they now use, which makes it very attractive to rodents. I wish I knew the answer. It’s just become something we have to live with, but we do tend to suspect it when we have problems that seem to be related to wiring. Your phone, lots of ads on the Internet for techniques that are supposed to be effective, but I doubt that any of them offer any real protection.

 

[GarageMahal]

My lightning was the victim of rodent damage twice. Second time was the day after I got it back from the first repair so I can say that it happens fast.

That picture doesn't look like rodents to me either and I dont see how they could charge a thousand dollars to fix it.

Comprehensive insurance did cover mine but I had to pay the deductible twice, once for each incident.

Squirrels suck....

 

[Zprime29]

I've never had rodent damage, so no first hand experience. But I agree with other assessments here, that looks rather clean cut. Not like it was chewed on at all. In addition, with no damage to the actual wires, there would be no effect from them getting wet to drain the 12v. The HVB battery is what charges the 12v, it doesn't work the other way around. Only your accessories drain it. You need a better explanation of how that could cause a 12v drain. I'd also consider trying to slip in fraud and a BBB complaint into the conversation.

 

[Adventureboy]

Agree with the folks here. This is NOT rodent damage. There is no evidence of gnawing at all. In fact, it looks more like a clean cut with a sharp knife in 4 distinct directions.

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