Stop Safely Now (HVBJB): Mach-E Owners Biggest Fear - Facts and Info Thread

[Bigshow]

Update to my case: Dealer thought the repair would take a month. I contacted Ford corporate just to feel things out - no luck there. My car was supposed to be looked at Aug 5th. I got a call from the dealer saying my car had been repaired as per most recent TSB on Aug 4th and its done. Too bad I'm over seas in Norway (Norway is crawling with EVs - tons of Mach E's here), cant wait to get home and drive that thing like a rental the next few years. So, my dealer totally came through with no nudging required. Things just worked out.

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[zog]

Got my pony updated with the recall software this morning. It took about 30 min. No noticable difference in driving compared to before. Fingers crossed now it works!

Well it lasted a full day. On the day after the update I went on a 80km trip at highway speeds of 120km/h or so.
The wrench and error sign popped up and it entered turtle mode stating HVB and drive train malfunction. I was able to start, stop, start etc but turtle mode and error was there each time.

I took it to the dealer yesterday, who I believe will change the component needed but let's see what they answer.

 

[sjtwxman]

Mine lasted a week. Died the first trip out of town and stranded me 100 miles away, but luckily less than a mile from another Ford dealership who gave us a loaner to get home. Had to get it towed over there. No power at all to the wheels along with the usual HV and PT errors. They are saying 3 bad cells but not sure if its a bad junction box or actual bad cells. They are still looking at it so maybe I will find out more in the upcoming week.

 

[bluestripes]

Just to add my story in case it helps anyone.

My EV left me stranded a week or so after the "stop safely now" message appeared. I contacted Ford customer care right away when it first happened and was told to continue driving as normal and that they'd perform a software update together with other software related issues with my booking in Sept at the dealership... also had an email about a HV power loss recall.

Road side assistance managed to get me started by clearing faults and disconnecting and connecting the battery, so was able to drive home, but the next morning I had to have it recovered to the dealership since I had the same issue - no start and "Stop safely now" and warning on my fordpass app about HV power train issue. They're looking at it now... will update.

 

[mkhuffman]

Just to add my story in case it helps anyone.

My EV left me stranded a week or so after the "stop safely now" message appeared. I contacted Ford customer care right away when it first happened and was told to continue driving as normal and that they'd perform a software update together with other software related issues with my booking in Sept at the dealership... also had an email about a HV power loss recall.

Road side assistance managed to get me started by clearing faults and disconnecting and connecting the battery, so was able to drive home, but the next morning I had to have it recovered to the dealership since I had the same issue - no start and "Stop safely now" and warning on my fordpass app about HV power train issue. They're looking at it now... will update.

It sounds to me like Ford customer care gave you bad advice. They should have told you to drive it directly to the dealer. SSN is not something that just goes away, and it needs to be investigated by a trained EV technician. In fact, it would have been safer to have it towed to the dealer even though it was derivable, as long as the tow truck driver knows how to tow it, of course.

Hope they get it resolved for you quickly. If your dealer has the right training, and support from Ford, you should be fine. It is a good thing you called customer car and got a case assigned. That will help.

 

[bluestripes]

Yea you’re right - I don’t believe the car was safe to drive, the dealership advised me not to try and restart it and just get it towed so they have all the fault codes, so I did get it towed in the end as I couldn’t drive it without the AA clearing faults which the dealership didn’t want.

Ford techs are working with the dealership at the moment to resolve it on top of the corrupted software updates.

 

[cbcasas]

2021 First Edition (ER) and had HVBJB replaced with part NK4Z-10C666-C

 

[bluestripes]

Just had an update from Ford customer care - the diagnostics returned an “unknown error” and they’re calling in “specially trained engineers” to figure out if it’s the battery and what to do next… doesn’t sound good.

 

[mkhuffman]

Just had an update from Ford customer care - the diagnostics returned an “unknown error” and they’re calling in “specially trained engineers” to figure out if it’s the battery and what to do next… doesn’t sound good.

You can have a forum member run your VIN in FDRS and they may be able to see exactly what is happening with your car, and may be able to give you some information to help you help your dealer. Ford can do that also, obviously, but IMO it is always good to know as much as possible when others are working on your car.

Go here: https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...are-willing-to-look-up-info-for-others.10230/

 

[bluestripes]

@WyldStallyn did run it and “P0AA6 with no P0ADE so shouldn't be HVBJB” - wondering why the dealership didn’t pick this up? I might give Ford customer care a call/email and see what they say about it.

Update: gave them a call "still diagnosing it" and Ford CC saying they're waiting for a specialist whilst the dealership when queried how long it'll take for a specialist, they've no knowledge of anyone being called and as far as they know it's still under diagnosis and it's been in since Monday this week...

 

[mada]

Well, add my 21 AWD ER to the list of this problem.

Aug 5th- I took our vehicle on our first road trip. Austin to Houston. The trip went great. We charged our car at a nearby L2 charger while we attended a wedding for a couple of nights in Houston. Did very little driving around the city. Primarily to small coffee shops in the mornings.



Aug 7th- Walking to our car to get some coffee in the morning, the car won't start, and the stop safely message appears. Call Ford roadside assistance to tow our vehicle to a dealership. They are unable to complete the request, stating that there are limited options for Tow companies on a Sunday (This is Houston, TX. One of the largest cities in the nation.) After several hours of waiting for tow truck, we are told we can pay $150 for an out-of-network company to tow the car to a dealership. We obviously declined, as the car was under warranty and there should be no money coming out of our pockets.



Aug 8th- 36 hours later, still no tow. We are on our 7th service request, with all the towing companies canceling the request 45 minutes into accepting our tow request. My wife called our insurance company to get it towed to the nearest Ford dealer. Our insurance provider had it towed within an hour to a ford dealership. Ford Roadside Assistance is worthless. Service providers don't read the notes. Several tow companies failed to communicate with us while waiting for their arrival and ultimate cancellations that we were not notified of.



Finding a dealership with rentals was another challenging task on its own. Houston is no small city. Several ford dealers had no rentals available. Finally found one, and we tried to reserve one comparable size to our vehicle. My wife was told “we have several loaner options. When your car arrives, we will get you taken care of." The only options were a Chevy spark or a convertible mustang. Both vehicles are much smaller than we need to get us home. (we had ten days of clothes as we just returned from a vacation, wedding clothes, two dogs, etc.) Loaner car windows don't roll up all the way. Seat belts don't work correctly, USB ports don't work, smells like urine in the trunk, and the steering wheel shakes violently on the highway.



The ford dealer told us it would be a couple of days before they could look at it. This is fine. At this point, I'm in no rush to get back into a Ford vehicle.



Aug 12th- I read this forum and opened a case with the BEV team. Call the ford dealer to find out what's going on with the MachE. They haven't looked at it yet. "We will look at Monday or Tuesday and give you a call." Ford customer service says BEV team will be calling me shortly.



Aug 16th- Call ford customer service and ask why no one has reached out to me. My case has been reassigned, and an agent will call me shortly. I call the ford dealership, they still haven't looked at the vehicle. I see a trend when it comes to customer service with Ford.



Aug 18th- Dealership calls us, says the diagnosed the problem, "should" be fixed by late next week if they can get the part(s). Still no call from ford customer service.



So far, this has been an awful experience. Ford roadside assistance and Ford customer service have been incompetent and have failed to manage my expectations by failing to communicate or failing to meet verbal deadlines. I hope this post provides insight into what to expect if you run into this problem. The car was great up until this problem. But I have no more trust in the MachE and Ford to take care of me when I decide to take a reasonably expensive car on a road trip and not expect to get stranded.

 

[bluestripes]

mada - sorry to hear and I feel your pain. It sounds like I was a bit more lucky, though Ford Assist weren't too helpful saying even though it was under warranty, I wasn't on their system so I don't think they'd have helped me directly, but thankfully I used my own AA cover and managed to get things sorted relatively quickly with getting it towed to a dealership.

The UK Mach E team with the dealership managed to get me a rental in just over 48H (they cut it close considering I had work, but did offer to pay for any taxi) and are offering to pay for my fuel, so will be keeping all receipts.

I'm getting a further update next week... I'm hoping this isn't going to be a long saga, but they've told me it could be a "few weeks". I've a feeling they can't do much till the techie comes back from holiday. What I find astounding is that there's ONLY one techie trained at the dealership to deal with the Mach E - single point of failure. And even so, he's required further help from Ford as he's not sure how to deal with my previous software update issues and they had to order in additional cables as per Ford's instructions. I feel like the support system is very disorganised - push a car out but no support/ecosystem in place to take care of customers.

 

[Tyldum]

mada - sorry to hear and I feel your pain. It sounds like I was a bit more lucky, though Ford Assist weren't too helpful saying even though it was under warranty, I wasn't on their system so I don't think they'd have helped me directly, but thankfully I used my own AA cover and managed to get things sorted relatively quickly with getting it towed to a dealership.

The UK Mach E team with the dealership managed to get me a rental in just over 48H (they cut it close considering I had work, but did offer to pay for any taxi) and are offering to pay for my fuel, so will be keeping all receipts.

I'm getting a further update next week... I'm hoping this isn't going to be a long saga, but they've told me it could be a "few weeks". I've a feeling they can't do much till the techie comes back from holiday. What I find astounding is that there's ONLY one techie trained at the dealership to deal with the Mach E - single point of failure. And even so, he's required further help from Ford as he's not sure how to deal with my previous software update issues and they had to order in additional cables as per Ford's instructions. I feel like the support system is very disorganised - push a car out but no support/ecosystem in place to take care of customers.

The HVBJB is on backorder in Europe. I got one, but it was damaged in transit so now 2 weeks into a six week estimated wait.

As for being disorganized, very much so. Ford needs to inform dealers abd Ford Assistance how to deal with this specific issue. Even the tech from Ford Norway appeared to know less about this than me.

 

[bluestripes]

Still no joy here. Last update was that my car is being transported to some technical centre - I’m guessing the dealership doesn’t have the equipment nor the expertise to deal with this. In the meantime I’ve a rental car that’s not like for like and I’m still paying monthly for a Mach E which I don’t have… I’ll be calling Ford Credit to see what they say. Week 3 of this saga.

 

[mada]

Sorry to hear your bad experiences Tyldum and bluestripes. I was really hoping to hop on hear to good news and hoping my experience was just isolated.

Alittle update from my story. The car has been repaired but they moved onto other recalls. My service technician said there was "6 recalls" on my mache. That is Bananas. Our mache was supposed to be done last week, then tomorrow, and we called the dealership to get an update and see if we need to take a road trip to pick the hunk of junk up. They said it wasnt done, it would be done next week on Wensdeay. After being fedup of not hearing from Ford CX, we called, then, they called the dealer to update their notes. Ford CX said it would be done next week friday, this is right after we got off the phone with the dealership service technician. Ford providing Lip service agian.

This car has been nothing but a headache. I read the list of issues most owners were having and every single one listed on that list i have experienced in my 21 mache. To add to the frustration I have yet to hear from our assigned Ford customer experience agent. From my experience they just provide lip service, like the dealership has. I have called several times and and have failed to get a hold of my assigned agent. And it has been "escalated".

If youre on the waiting list for his car, GET OUT NOW. Ford has systemic EV infrastructure issues that resault in poor experiences and if your EV has any need repairs (it will, mine has "6" and its only a year old 17k miles) it wont get fixed and youll be lucky to find a dealership with comparable loaners during the lengthy repair process.

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