Safety Recall 22S41 - 2021-2022 Mach E - HVBJB Recall [high voltage battery main contactors may overheat]

[Matt Bagne]

Don’t kid yourself I knew a guy who routinely cooked food in his car engine here’s a list of all the delicious foods you can make inside your ICE engine
Jes Sayin

https://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Food-on-Your-Car's-Engine?amp=1

I knew a guy who used to cook a full beef roast using his truck every time he took a trip to see his parents. I forget how long the dive was, but he said that if the roast was exactly [X pounds], when double-wrapped in foil and nestled in the exact spot he found on the engine block, the roast was perfect upon arrival to his parents house. I thought it was a bit nutty, but also kind of creative.

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[EV_Pilot]

Remedy:



This is annoying, it's clearly defective contactors or defective poor-quality hardware was used, instead of fixing the bad hardware, looks like Ford is taking a shortcut exactly like Chevy did with the Bolt, this is obviously won't affect the guys with a Select, but those with a GT like me, looks like going to suffer the most

Hey, @moparguy, not aiming this comment directly at you but at all the GT guys who seem to be complaining like a power reduction hurts them more.
Why do you all think that?

I mean I bought an ER AWD because I simply could not justify the added expense of the GT models. I already am probably going to get a ticket with my car's acceleration. I still want to get the full acceleration I thought I'd bought. But, a potential reduction in power output will affect all of us potentially.

And, a bigger concern which might have more of an affect on me would be DCFC speeds. If this new software limits the charge rate, my road trip next month might go from 7 hours of charging round trip to 14 if they cut the rates in half. Maybe it will even be worse. And this is something ALL of us might experience GT or not.

 

[KevinS]

Tell us that in year 4. Right now it's simply wasted money...

Enjoy your inflation!

 

[billy_at]

And, a bigger concern which might have more of an affect on me would be DCFC speeds. If this new software limits the charge rate, my road trip next month might go from 7 hours of charging round trip to 14 if they cut the rates in half. Maybe it will even be worse

A 50% cut in DCFC charging rates is probably not a likely outcome of the update.

 

[Logal727]

With the production delays and the various recalls on this vehicle I believe Ford could go a long way by including 10 pounds of chicken wings with every MachE. I am noticing they are nearly a dollar a wing now at my sports bar and this would be a great boost to the economy

Jes sayin. Frunk is multitasking. It hides needed components like the 12 V but does handle wings and shrimp quite well

Wings have been insanely expensive for at least 10 years, they’ll have to fill it with boneless wings

 

[EV_Pilot]

A 50% cut in DCFC charging rates is probably not a likely outcome of the update.

True...obviously we don't anything about the changes yet and wasn't trying to give folks one more thing to worry about. I was just giving a potential example that would affect ALL of models not just GT versions.

 

[bruceski88]

Exactly; this shouldn't be considered 0.5% of cars. This should be considered 0.5% per year...

This is likely a wearout failure mechanism. This means that the cumulative failure proportion follows a normal probability distribution in log time. Very few failure mechanisms have a linear relationship to time. The upshot is that the time or number of operations to 0.3% failure when doubled will result in about 10X more failures and approximately half of everything failing at 4x the time to these early failures. I am sure Ford is trying to reduce the stress that is driving this by a software patch. Whether it is successful or not, maybe even they don’t know.

 

[timbop]

Sorry to say, but you're speculating and don't have a clue. Why are you assuming the software "fix" only kicks in to reduce power right at the point of failure?

Sorry to say, but I was quoting the document by FORD and not some "genius/Nostradamus" on the internet with no firsthand knowledge. I was expressing a counterpoint to the opinions determined in a vacuum.

Not to speak for him, but probably because that's what the recall describes as the remedy.

"The updated SOBDMC software... will monitor contactor temperature and intelligently reduce battery power to prevent damage to the contactor. The updated BECM software... will monitor contactor resistance to identify an overheated contactor and reduce vehicle power to prevent further damage."​

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2022/RCLRPT-22V412-2331.PDF​

They don't say the updated software limits maximum power draw, or anything of the kind. They say it intelligently monitors temperature and resistance to identify problem conditions and reduce battery power in those scenarios to prevent damage. Seems pretty clear to me.

exactly

Is that threshold temperature one that is *only* seen by contactors that are already failing, in which case meh, or is it one that even healthy contactors will see after two WOTs/ten minutes of DCFC? We'll see

And this is EXACTLY the operative point I was trying to make: deciding exactly what will happen with no actual first hand information, and then using that as a basis to foment internet rage is ridiculous.

 

[Blue highway]

Not to speak for him, but probably because that's what the recall describes as the remedy.

"The updated SOBDMC software... will monitor contactor temperature and intelligently reduce battery power to prevent damage to the contactor. The updated BECM software... will monitor contactor resistance to identify an overheated contactor and reduce vehicle power to prevent further damage."​

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2022/RCLRPT-22V412-2331.PDF​

They don't say the updated software limits maximum power draw, or anything of the kind. They say it intelligently monitors temperature and resistance to identify problem conditions and reduce battery power in those scenarios to prevent damage. Seems pretty clear to me.

thanks for posting the recall doc... it answers a lot of questions.

 

[Bullitt]

So, if this all can be fixed with a software update, what's the point of the new part number HVBJB? And why can't that software be pushed immediately if it's good enough to ship in the Mach-Es currently coming off the line? Especially considering the failure can be a safety issue. It doesn't add up to me. I'm still betting the software is a band-aid.

 

[Kevin P]

Assuming you can measure resistance in the circuit with the BECM or SBCM or what have you, that can be tied directly to temperature. Meaning, resistance varies very predictably based on temperature. So reacting to that should be doable. How it affects performance will be very interesting. It may be largely imperceptible, or maybe not.

 

[RickMachE]

Enjoy your inflation!

I don't plan on buying it in year 4 or any other time.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

So, if this all can be fixed with a software update, what's the point of the new part number HVBJB? And why can't that software be pushed immediately if it's good enough to ship in the Mach-Es currently coming off the line? Especially considering the failure can be a safety issue. It doesn't add up to me. I'm still betting the software is a band-aid.

The Law of Unintended Consequences. Any solution will have more than one effect and one of these will be an unforeseen negative side effect (which indeed, can be considerably more significant than any of the designed or intended side effects).

They may have a fix. It might be great, it might have unknown bugs. Test vehicles first, then their internal fleet, then maybe a few EA vehicles. More speculation on my part there.

 

[jlauro]

In this case, call your dealer. We would only be speculating. AND THAT'S NOT ALLOWED HERE ANYMORE! ?

I think in this case (stop sell order) we can state that it will be fixed before delivery. The question will be when will the dealer be allowed to deliver it...

 

[kennethjk]

So, if this all can be fixed with a software update, what's the point of the new part number HVBJB? And why can't that software be pushed immediately if it's good enough to ship in the Mach-Es currently coming off the line? Especially considering the failure can be a safety issue. It doesn't add up to me. I'm still betting the software is a band-aid.

I am not a software person but I would think a software upgrade or replacement is different than installing the first time around. I also want to make sure that when they install OTA or at dealer they don’t brick the car. So it does take a while.

I do agree that software will probably be step 1 with hardware changes down the road.

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