Factory power connector - good dealer

[TMND]

So I have the orange and blue light issue that’s been progressively getting worse over the last few weeks. I called my dealer who informed me I’ll have to bring down the truck with the charger for them to test it which is a 50 mile drive for me and generally, a big pain sitting hours in a waiting room. Without asking, though they said that they would line up a loaner vehicle for me and have it ready when I dropped mine off. Shout out to Wesley Ford in Minot, ND I guess.

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[davehu]

my dealer is using the pickup and delivery service. works great.

 

[Adventureboy]

Can you provide a bit more info to clarify your symptoms? Do you sometimes have the orange ring of death when you first plug in? Or does it turn orange after a period of charging time? Do you get any charge error messages on FordPass when it turns orange? Which EVSE are you using?

Have you checked your charge pins and gun? - in some cases dirty pins will cause intermittent problems with charging. They may just need to be cleaned.

Use a mild electrical contact cleaner that leaves no residue or use a simple solvent like rubbing alcohol and a qtip to clean both the 5 pins on the truck and the 5 contacts in the charge gun.
Do not lubricate the pins or gun - they must be clean and dry before plugging in. I use compressed air to dry them before energizing.

 

[NCevGuyF150]

So I have the orange and blue light issue that’s been progressively getting worse over the last few weeks. I called my dealer who informed me I’ll have to bring down the truck with the charger for them to test it which is a 50 mile drive for me and generally, a big pain sitting hours in a waiting room. Without asking, though they said that they would line up a loaner vehicle for me and have it ready when I dropped mine off. Shout out to Wesley Ford in Minot, ND I guess.

Is the orange and blue light on the mobile charger that came with the truck? If that’s where the orange blue light are on. I was having the same problem. It turns out that I had two bad modules in my battery pack and they had to replace them. Also, I noticed that the cord to the charger was getting hot. Very warm to the touch. After they replace the modules in the battery, I haven’t had any issues.

 

[TMND]

Yes it was. And I’m hoping that’s not the case. I just dropped it off this morning. They gave me a brand new truck with only 500 miles on it to drive in the meantime . Cord wasn’t getting warm, but the unit itself was a little warmish.

 

[TMND]

To answer adventureboy. It is the mobile connector that comes with the truck. No orange light on truck only on mobile connector. Pins were clean.

heard back from the dealer this afternoon. Apparently they found a slightly loose pin on the truck. Ford authorized replacement. Parts will be in by Friday. I guess they will replace the entire port. Fingers crossed that’s the fix

 

[TMND]

Well, after getting the vehicle back now, the quality of their service comes into question. They did replace the charger port and the cable that goes from that to the battery pack, but it still behaves the same when charging at home. Buddies with an electrician, he checked it out and said everything is perfectly fine on that end.
Curious, when I went to get my power cord out of the backseat after getting the vehicle back, I noticed that it looked untouched from how I had wrapped it up when I dropped the vehicle off. Called and spoke with the service manager this morning to find out if they actually tested the power cord at all or if they just tested the truck. Waiting to hear back, I’m guessing they never touched that power cord, which is what I told them I was having issues with in the first place.

 

[21st Century Truck]

These Ford EVSE power connectors are known to be crappy, in the Mach E world just like in the Lightning world. Many threads on this in both blogs... I'll use mine on trips until it dies.

There are much better EVSE versions in the aftermarket.

 

[Zprime29]

Its nice that they found an issue with the charge port and got it fixed. Do you know anyone else with an EV you could test the mobile charging cord with?

 

[TMND]

No i don’t unfortunately and I do have plans to get an aftermarket one, but with Christmas coming not in the budget. Just would like the one that came with the vehicle to work as it should. Every dealer has the tools to test the power cable according to Ford customer service, still waiting for a response back if they actually did that though. I’m betting the “issue” they found with the charging port was probably nothing and did an unnecessary repair.

I’ll gladly take the brand new port though

 

[Peddyr]

Have you tried charging at a public station like Electrify America or ChargePoint?

 

[Mach Turtle]

In your dealer's defense, the orange light problem can be difficult to diagnose, and they do seem to be trying. I had a similar problem, but it didn't usually occur until the charger had been charging for about 20 minutes, and my dealer tested the thing for 10-15 minutes (which seems reasonable) and couldn't find a problem. On the second 40-mile trip to the dealer, I gave them a plot of energy use with the Ford charger compared to use with a correctly working home charger (I had done the measurements), and they redid the test and got me a replacement within a couple of days. Not everybody has the gear to measure AC current usage, though, nor should you have to.

At least your dealer recognized that there was a problem right away! Surely the dealer has another EV with which they could test the charger...

Since this is a well known and common problem, Ford ought to be swapping chargers at the first hint of orange lights. It would save lots of money, time, and trouble in the long run. Surely those things can't be very expensive to have made anyway?!

 

[Maquis]

No i don’t unfortunately and I do have plans to get an aftermarket one, but with Christmas coming not in the budget. Just would like the one that came with the vehicle to work as it should. Every dealer has the tools to test the power cable according to Ford customer service, still waiting for a response back if they actually did that though. I’m betting the “issue” they found with the charging port was probably nothing and did an unnecessary repair.

I’ll gladly take the brand new port though

Your dealer has to have a level 2 EVSE. Tell them you’re bringing the truck in and plug it in. If it charges OK, your Mobile EVSE is bad.

 

[TMND]

Your dealer has to have a level 2 EVSE. Tell them you’re bringing the truck in and plug it in. If it charges OK, your Mobile EVSE is bad.

Oh, they do they have a lightning for their runaround vehicle to drop people off. And I did notice on the Ford app before I picked it up. They were charging it at 7 kWh which is faster than I’ve ever seen. I got my hopes up that it was the problem. But I’m guessing they were using their charger and mine never left the back seat. I spoke with the service manager at 8:30 this morning and still haven’t heard anything back.

 

[Maquis]

Oh, they do they have a lightning for their runaround vehicle to drop people off. And I did notice on the Ford app before I picked it up. They were charging it at 7 kWh which is faster than I’ve ever seen. I got my hopes up that it was the problem. But I’m guessing they were using their charger and mine never left the back seat. I spoke with the service manager at 8:30 this morning and still haven’t heard anything back.

Agree - your EVSE is likely the culprit.

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