😭😭😭 POST BATTERY CONTACTOR RECALL -- FIRST JUNCTION BOX FAILURE 😭😭😭😭

[EELinneman]

I said weeks ago that the big elephant in the room is long highway trips at 75+. Heck my vegas trip in a week or so is 80mph for a lot of it with massive elevation changes.

Fingers crossed for you. You might want to bring a bunch of twinkies just in case

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[scoopman]

Your trials and tribulations are causing me to reassess my GTPE plans.

My GTPE is supposed to be delivered in 6 weeks (Aug 11-17). Mine went into production 4/20, but like other GTs in my build week, I was not "built" until the week of 6/13 (that date sounds familiar). Non-GT models were shipped out shortly after our build week. Were our GTs held back to get the allegedly "new" part? One can only speculate. My VIN shows up as part of the recall on both the NHTSA site and the Ford ETIS site.

Nonetheless, I have now tested the i4 M50 ($10,000 markup) and Polestar 2 Performance (Oct-Nov delivery date) and will be testing the Genesis GV60 Performance ("only" a $2500 markup) tomorrow. Of course, the latest JD Power survey has the Polestar 2 ranked at the bottom. I really liked the BMW since I am so familiar with the layout having owned many recent 3-series. So I have decisions to make in the next 6 weeks.

Now if I decide to stay ICE and not go EV, BMW of San Diego has a sweet red M3 Competition with only a $995 mark-up that could tempt me (ugh, but that almost $7 per gallon gasoline). But then I'll have a newly-installed 240v outlet and EV charger wasting away in my garage!

I say let's see if my continued junction box testing of the new part produces 100% trouble-free miles before you take delivery. GTPE is really a great car -- when it works.

 

[DevSecOps]

Just looked at what happened with the recall announcement I get links sent to me from everyone that knows I have a Mach-E worrying about it exploding or something lol. All it does is spread misinformation.

Exactly ... we can't discuss or rationalize anything in less than 280 characters. I had the same thing happen where I got blown up with text messages from clients of mine with pictures of news articles.

 

[Fordman]

Disappointing to read your story. My Mach-e is due next week , so I have no experience to add. I have no intension of ever taking a road trip. In addition I will mostly be doing local driving by myself or at the most with my 100# wife. In one of my previous lives, I worked in home ac repair. It was common to see a old ac unit that would die when it drew more currant than the hv relay could handle. . It was all about the load. So, I am wondering how much load happens when a Mach-e is loaded as opposed to just a skinny driver. In other words, if you had made the same trip by yourself, would you have had a problem free trip? Tech question. Does a dual motor drive have a separate relay for each motor?

 

[MGHTYDX]

I say let's see if my continued junction box testing of the new part produces 100% trouble-free miles before you take delivery. GTPE is really a great car -- when it works.

I agree wholeheartedly. Like I said, I have 6 weeks (based on Ford's totally reliable timeline estimate/crapshoot) to fish or cut bait. Sorry that you have to keep serving at the beta tester.

But I am remembering what I think I learned in my economics classes decades ago...the money I spent on the 240v outlet and EV charger are sunk costs.

 

[ARK]

A software fix is not possible because of the nature of the failure. The relays can not handle the current draw the cars demand without failing.

A way to get around it I think would be to limit the current the motors demand in certain situations. Perhaps if done right, the limitation would be basically invisible to owners (like getting a couple more bars on rare occasions, not great, but perhaps not awful either). On the other hand, if there is no way to do it except give everyone a horsepower haircut, that would be a terrible 'fix' for this.

 

[Cjpayne]

I plan to follow DevSecOps advice and turn off OTA and observe. I have not had any problems with my GT so far and plan to drive and charge reasonably and utilizing the information shared here. Scoopman's situation has the potential to be very revealing.

 

[scoopman]

Here ya go, get yer popcorn and feel the junction box sizzle. Enjoy the Blippi tunes and my in-the-moment commentary (I have to work on my patience with my kids!). This is a quick edit.

You folks tell me if I'm a maniac driver. I actually was moving over to let a red Honda Civic who was tailgating me get in front of me. He was probably annoyed that my BlueCruise distance was set to 3....

Right when the part failed, I had moved into the left-most number 1 lane and I think I did give it some throttle (certainly not WOT) and BlueCruise was accelerating up to the set speed I had of 78mph.

But still, look at all the minivans and other cars that seem to do just fine going between California's two biggest metropolitan areas.

 

[Blue highway]

Yes if your car throws the new DTC codes and experience I detailed, you will be getting a supposedly better part that is engineered properly. That is what @Mach-Lee detailed several pages ago -- there's no other procedure to let you just go on your way and not replace the part with the right one.

HOWEVER, my statement was that Ford has made no public statements that cars built after May 25 -- or that those that continue to fail like mine -- are getting new hardware to fix their obvious defect.

Ford's CEO has been vocal on twitter that they fixed this problem through software alone, and that it is actually a fix. As we have discussed here, I don't think it is.

As asked above, photos of the new part would be helpful... especially part numbers visible for the 4 big relays.

 

[lwilliams0514]

Honestly...... great detailed post about what happened....... and I hope everything works out...... but I am too busy laughing and jealous about the GREATEST CAR NICKNAME EVER!!!! LOL

 

[DevSecOps]

I plan to follow DevSecOps advice and turn off OTA and observe. I have not had any problems with my GT so far and plan to drive and charge reasonably and utilizing the information shared here. Scoopman's situation has the potential to be very revealing.

I want to make it clear that my opinion on updating shouldn't be taken as advice. It's just what I'm doing. My argument in the other thread is more about how people assume this is a fix, when it's really not. I'm normally the first one to update with FDRS and I haven't done these updates. I don't really want to until I see how it plays out. But there's a lot of people who probably should get the update. It's depends on how each person deals with life situations. Prior to this update the car wouldn't just stop in the middle of the road on you, it would stop when you turned it off. It just wouldn't turn on again. I guess if you drive in areas that are "bad" routinely then maybe the update would be the safer route.

I mostly drive to work and to my clients locations in this car. If it stopped working in a parking lot of a client I would probably get a free dinner out of it and we'd joke about it happening.

 

[ZuleMME]

Here ya go, get yer popcorn and feel the junction box sizzle. Enjoy the Blippi tunes and my in-the-moment commentary (I have to work on my patience with my kids!). This is a quick edit.

You folks tell me if I'm a maniac driver. I actually was moving over to let a red Honda Civic who was tailgating me get in front of me. He was probably annoyed that my BlueCruise distance was set to 3....

Right when the part failed, I had moved into the left-most number 1 lane and I think I did give it some throttle (certainly not WOT) and BlueCruise was accelerating up to the set speed I had of 78mph.

But still, look at all the minivans and other cars that seem to do just fine going between California's two biggest metropolitan areas.

Dude you are too calm about it!

 

[ProximusAl]

NOw I can’t get “Humpty Dumpty” out of my head!

 

[KevinS]

I want to make it clear that my opinion on updating shouldn't be taken as advice. It's just what I'm doing. My argument in the other thread is more about how people assume this is a fix, when it's really not. I'm normally the first one to update with FDRS and I haven't done these updates. I don't really want to until I see how it plays out. But there's a lot of people who probably should get the update. It's depends on how each person deals with life situations. Prior to this update the car wouldn't just stop in the middle of the road on you, it would stop when you turned it off. It just wouldn't turn on again. I guess if you drive in areas that are "bad" routinely then maybe the update would be the safer route.

I am in many circumstances where backing into a parking spot isn't very practical. At least with the software update I can possibly get myself to a location that's towable.

Hopefully I never need to test that theory, though.

 

[babgvant]

Oh one more thing which worked out very well and I am so glad I did: I hid one of my set of keys in a faraday bag zip-tied under my plastic pieces in the hood. This was very important since I normally only use PAAK and did so on this trip.

But I took out my "oh CRAP!!!" set of keys from its hidden location to give to the dealership.

EVERYONE who uses PAAK should do this.

Couldn't you share the door/start codes with them in a pinch?

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