From SVS to SSN - The Tejon Pass Claims Another Mach-E

[EELinneman]

This is bitterly disappointing. I had hoped that the work you had done to help everybody here (and what you helped me with regarding the Sense monitor) might have built some goodwill with Ford. Now, it seems like each dealer is a lottery, and they are not giving this the attention that it deserves. Ford can talk the talk about moving to electrification, but clearly, this is empty marketing.

When will Ford realize that they are in a different business now. FordAss is a mess - the latest version is showing charging maps in Germany. They don't have dealers who understand what they are selling and cannot service them. When a very visible failure like this happens, somebody in Ford management should be making sure that this is fixed right and that the lessons learned are used to improve their customer experiences going forward. We can and should expect better.

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[chrisGT]

Chris, now that you're back, we can take a drive together in your car. I can bring my "special" music, and a special route, and we can get you the recall you deserve from Ford in no time!

I thought I can hire someone to DCFC and drive my car nonstop until it fries the box but I didn't think of the music dimension ?

The new box is working great for me, no "Driving Miss Daisy" mode here -- putting Ford's lack of proper customer orientation aside, if you had the new part, would you keep your car?

IF I had a new box and IF the new box is reliable then yes I would keep the car. Other than the HVBJB (and the bouncy but livable suspension) the car is otherwise fine.

Btw having seen the new box detailed breakdown, I am not convinced it will eliminate the failures for the GTs. There is too much current going through the contractors and there is no active cooling or temperature sensor. I am sure that the new box failure rate will be much smaller than the old one but I don't think it will be 0.

 

[scoopman]

Hey Andy, what about me? I want to get the new box too! Since the recall update, I've put almost 2000 miles on the car driving it all over NorCal and taken it up some fairly high grades (8500 feet) but haven't been passing people at 80 or I guess listening to "special" music. ? Maybe you can get it to fail???

Here, just pass a goat truck doing 80 on an incline while playing this, and you'll be set.

 

[heisnuts]

So here's my 1 week update for everyone:

General Comment:

I always assumed that if I had failure I would be up shit creek with a miniature paddle while I work my ass off to get others taken care of in days. While I know corporate has my back, the local dealer experience has been pretty bad so far. I was also told by a Ford employee when I had failure that all dealerships in a 500 mile radius were warned not to help me (obviously he was joking ... or was he?) ?

First call from dealership (Thursday 08/18):

My service advisor called me and wanted to know why my car was there. I responded with "are you serious"? To which he said, it looks like it's here for an electrical system drain warning. So after rolling my eyes I start explaining to him what is going on. He tells me that he thinks it's because there's an outstanding recall. I told him that the recall was already applied via OTA to which he said, Ford can't do recalls via OTA. Confidence inspiring for sure! So then I go into more detail and he tells me that he doesn't know what I'm talking about and that the technician will have to diagnose the car. He said that this would be done on Monday.

Diagnostics (Friday 08/19):

I get an alert from my camera that the car is in motion. Sure enough it's in a service bay. I'm actually happy, I think "Well that's cool they got it in a couple days early".

This was around 10am so I gave it until 3pm and I call the service advisor. The service advisor tells me that they wont take a look at the car until Monday. So I asked him if he's sure and I told him that the car is in the bay right now. He says "Oh well let me go ask the tech".

He comes back to the phone 10 minutes later and tells me that the tech has gone home for the day. I'm a bit confused by that being that the car accessory mode is still turned on (which I can also see by the camera). So I just chalk it up as a loss. About 30 minutes after my call, the car is turned off.

Diagnostic which hunt:

I decide to pull up FDRS to see what they are leaning towards since the experience, so far, is pretty bad. Well ... it looks like they are trouble shooting a display???

Wouldn't that be your logical first step if you saw these DTCs:

At least the guys in Los Banos were able to figure out what was wrong:

View attachment 76704

I have a gut feeling that this is going to be a fight until the end.

COVID:

Last dose of Paxlovid was this morning. I'm finally feeling better today. I actually slept for more than 2 hours last night and I stopped taking all pain meds. Thank you all for your concern and thanks to the, literal, entire page of DM threads from y'all wishing me the best.

Todd, I am so sorry you are going through this. Of all the people on this board, you should have had the easiest time getting it fixed and not the hardest.

I know how frustrated you must be, but I must admit I was laughing out loud reading your step by step replay of todays events. The reason the car shut off 30 minutes after your call is that the MME automatically shuts itself off if it has been left on for 30 minutes in park (I have a feeling you already know this). I have got to believe with all the people from Ford on this board word will get to your new dealer by Monday and hopefully your GT will be put on the correct fast track like it should have been from the start.

Like everyone else here, I am glad to hear you are starting to feel better too. I just always thought your GT would get back to health before you did.

 

[scoopman]

I thought I can hire someone to DCFC and drive my car nonstop until it fries the box but I didn't think of the music dimension ?



IF I had a new box and IF the new box is reliable then yes I would keep the car. Other than the HVBJB (and the bouncy but livable suspension) the car is otherwise fine.

Btw having seen the new box detailed breakdown, I am not convinced it will eliminate the failures for the GTs. There is too much current going through the contractors and there is no active cooling or temperature sensor. I am sure that the new box failure rate will be much smaller than the old one but I don't think it will be 0.

The risk whenever you drive any car is non zero. New box seems solid so far and I've only heard of one new box failing, and that was on a new car just delivered so probably a bad part not caught at the factory.

But you have to find a match to your level of risk so that you can drive the car without such worries. My feeling is that a Japanese car that's not a hybrid will maximize for reliability if that's the most important attribute you want.

 

[phil]

I drive like a grandma to prevent failure...

"You can't live in fear. That's no way to live your life."
- Bernhard Goetz

 

[DevSecOps]

Todd, I am so sorry you are going through this. Of all the people on this board, you should have had the easiest time getting it fixed and not the hardest.

A lot of people have said this so let me clarify a bit. I could be reaching out to people and complaining, but I'm not. I'm sure there's a couple on the forum who work for Ford that might be wondering why I didn't go to them or say anything. I want to see how this dealer handles things without much initial intervention. If they start to get crazy then I'll start sending emails, calling and DMing people. I want my experience to be like yours, or anyone else's. I've had people comment on how they like my style of documentation and how it's easy to read and follow. If someone is going to document this process I feel like I would be decent at doing so.

I'm not upset perse, but I'm a little frustrated and a lot perplexed. I honestly wonder where the failures are and why they are so big. Corporate called the dealership, they know exactly what's wrong with the car and they knew to have it towed. They also knew that they were supposed to get me a rental, which 7 days later they haven't. It's as if the service manager nodded his head to all of it and then left on vacation without telling anyone. I would think it would all go into the computer so that it could be viewed by whoever is looking at the ticket, but I guess that would be too efficient.

I help a lot of people with these failures and I've seen the dealerships do some crazy things. Most of the people we help aren't avid posters, they just came here for help and you would never know they were assisted. They don't have the desire to document their stories. Not all are bad, but there's been others who have had similar stories. We'll continue to see where this journey takes us!

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

A lot of people have said this so let me clarify a bit. I could be reaching out to people and complaining, but I'm not. I'm sure there's a couple on the forum who work for Ford that might be wondering why I didn't go to them or say anything. I want to see how this dealer handles things without much initial intervention. If they start to get crazy then I'll start sending emails, calling and DMing people. I want my experience to be like yours, or anyone else's. I've had people comment on how they like my style of documentation and how it's easy to read and follow. If someone is going to document this process I feel like I would be decent at doing so.

I'm not upset perse, but I'm a little frustrated and a lot perplexed. I honestly wonder where the failures are and why they are so big. Corporate called the dealership, they know exactly what's wrong with the car and they knew to have it towed. They also knew that they were supposed to get me a rental, which 7 days later they haven't. It's as if the service manager nodded his head to all of it and then left on vacation without telling anyone. I would think it would all go into the computer so that it could be viewed by whoever is looking at the ticket, but I guess that would be too efficient.

I help a lot of people with these failures and I've seen the dealerships do some crazy things. Most of the people we help aren't avid posters, they just came here for help and you would never know they were assisted. They don't have the desire to document their stories. Not all are bad, but there's been others who have had similar stories. We'll continue to see where this journey takes us!

Kudos Todd, on so many levels. We're all pulling for you!

 

[heisnuts]

A lot of people have said this so let me clarify a bit. I could be reaching out to people and complaining, but I'm not. I'm sure there's a couple on the forum who work for Ford that might be wondering why I didn't go to them or say anything. I want to see how this dealer handles things without much initial intervention. If they start to get crazy then I'll start sending emails, calling and DMing people. I want my experience to be like yours, or anyone else's. I've had people comment on how they like my style of documentation and how it's easy to read and follow. If someone is going to document this process I feel like I would be decent at doing so.

I'm not upset perse, but I'm a little frustrated and a lot perplexed. I honestly wonder where the failures are and why they are so big. Corporate called the dealership, they know exactly what's wrong with the car and they knew to have it towed. They also knew that they were supposed to get me a rental, which 7 days later they haven't. It's as if the service manager nodded his head to all of it and then left on vacation without telling anyone. I would think it would all go into the computer so that it could be viewed by whoever is looking at the ticket, but I guess that would be too efficient.

I help a lot of people with these failures and I've seen the dealerships do some crazy things. Most of the people we help aren't avid posters, they just came here for help and you would never know they were assisted. They don't have the desire to document their stories. Not all are bad, but there's been others who have had similar stories. We'll continue to see where this journey takes us!

Wow… Just wow…

I wonder what would have happened if you were not as informed. I could see the scenario where the dealership called asking why it is here with the following exchange:

Dealer - why is it here?
You - I got this service vehicle message so I started driving to you but then it just stopped… It just stopped….
Dealer - Well it looks like it is here for a battery drain issue.
You - I was actually at a DC fast charger when it just stopped. Do you think you could just charge it for me?
Dealer - I really think this is due to a recall out on your car
You - That makes sense. So I assume you will perform the recall today and I can pick it up this afternoon?

OK, I can’t keep going because now I am laughing too hard. Adding to that laughter is the fact that the tech pulled your GT in to the bay, left the car on and then appears to have just walked away (well as the service advisor told you the tech decided to go home in the middle of the day). I wonder if that is the battery drain issue they thought it was originally coming in for.. I guess I see now why Ford added the feature that automatically shuts the car off after 30 minutes if a dealer… I mean customer…leaves the car on in park for more than 30 minutes.

This story is better than some of the Seinfeld episodes ?

 

[Bayviews88]

I own the "non-GT SR AWD MachE" and the dreaded SVS banner appeared yesterday morning when powering up.

How many miles do you have on your MachE? I’ve seen one other non-GT AWD owner post they had a SVS at 10k miles.

 

[DevSecOps]

Wow… Just wow…

I wonder what would have happened if you were not as informed. I could see the scenario where the dealership called asking why it is here with the following exchange:

Dealer - why is it here?
You - I got this service vehicle message so I started driving to you but then it just stopped… It just stopped….
Dealer - Well it looks like it is here for a battery drain issue.
You - I was actually at a DC fast charger when it just stopped. Do you think you could just charge it for me?
Dealer - I really think this is due to a recall out on your car
You - That makes sense. So I assume you will perform the recall today and I can pick it up this afternoon?

OK, I can’t keep going because now I am laughing too hard. Adding to that laughter is the fact that the tech pulled your GT in to the bay, left the car on and then appears to have just walked away (well as the service advisor told you the tech decided to go home in the middle of the day). I wonder if that is the battery drain issue they thought it was originally coming in for.. I guess I see now why Ford added the feature that automatically shuts the car off after 30 minutes if a dealer… I mean customer…leaves the car on in park for more than 30 minutes.

This story is better than some of the Seinfeld episodes ?

I'm really not trying to bash on Ford, but I've seen exactly that happen more often than you'd think. Your parody has been others reality.

Like I said there's a lot of really good dealerships that immediately dive into the correct diagnosis. Los Banos, for example, hooked it up and pulled all the "how to" documentation on replacing the HVBJB, wiring harnesses and BECM within minutes of scanning the car.

I'm still giving them a chance. I'm just not impressed thus far.

 

[KevinS]

I'm still giving them a chance. I'm just not impressed thus far.

Were you finally able to get a loaner? Sorry if you answered this earlier, and if so I didn't catch it (unlike the COVID.)

 

[Regulus7]

How is this for an idea @Ford Motor Company - GTs that have not failed yet, when they come in for 10k service check they automatically get the HVBJB replaced? This way you can do this methodically and it would not inundate the dealer network?

meanwhile I am driving my GT as my daily commuter car... all around metro NY/CT so plenty of Ford dealers to 'rescue me' if something happens.

 

[mkhuffman]

I own the "non-GT SR AWD MachE" and the dreaded SVS banner appeared yesterday morning when powering up.

Maybe a forum member can see what is happening with your car, but I believe there can be other causes for the SVS message. You might not have a HVBJB failure.

I hope they find the cause and get your car back to you soon.

 

[TGIF]

Thank you for taking the time to let us know what to expect. Just about everyone who lives in California drives the Grape Vine grade sooner or later. I used to drive it about ten times a year. I do have reservations now. No new car should cause this to happen, nor cause such anxiety. California is always hot in the summer.

you are right, the way Ford is handling this is not right. When they profit 8 billion dollars a year, why can’t they make the repairs? Basically, they are expecting us to accept the MME break downs, like “aren’t we lucky, we all will face this out on the streets somewhere, and lucky us we might be able to drive it home!” Not acceptable, Ford.
Someone did a heck of a schmoozing to the safety board!

thanx again, good luck, and call Enterprise, as they may let you do a one way drive, and they will pick up the car for you At the dealer. They are pretty good about that.

I agree about the Grapevine. I moved from CA 30 years ago but the Grapevine terrain is seared into my memory. Also, everywhere is hot now. I’m in IA now and we just had a month of lots of 90-100 degree days. It’s grueling out there. I may have to spend summers in FL to escape the heat.

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