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

[Shayne]

I did. Even replaced the 12V battery. And monitored LVB voltage frequently with a cig lighter meter and Carscanner. One of the threads led me to believe that was the problem at first (my SSN's initially only happened when showing <12.2V). When it ticked up over 12.3, it would usually start.

But that turned out to be anecdotal. Or my HVBJB just continued to degrade until it didn't matter anymore. The day after I had them put a new 12V battery in (at my expense, hoping just to make it home), I also bought a charger and used that for hours. Was showing 12.6, but still got SSN. Even tried starting it many times with the charger on it, on tickle, then on 8A, then on 15A. Still no go, until about the 10th attempt when it magically started.

So the voltage either had nothing to do with it at all, or the contactor that was failing had such a weak connection that it was creating resistence and needed more power. Until it got so bad that more power would barely work either.

Ever get it to 13 V (12.7). May be the higher voltage helps it click close? My 12V was always dying and the contact is the latest fix for my cold weather problem? Not many WOT going on here as it is quick without them. Code said positive contact stuck open 3 times back then. Brand new 12V and did it again within 2 weeks lots of messages with SSN and does not go into gear. Full 12V charge always brought it back. Saw how quick it happens and it was not getting any better so I just put it on a 12V charger when parked and waited for the part to come in. Who knows maybe some are not related. Seems to come on "Preparing For Drive" once a day now when below around -5C (20F) so that is good and new. Lets see how it goes still beta testing over here.

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[dbsb3233]

i think we’re all hosed on the HVBJB. I’m at 11k miles and have some genuine anxiety about road tripping next spring/summer into Eastern Oregon with my family in the car.

Hard to say. It's possible it could be one of those "bad batch" things. Although there doesn't seem to be a narrow manufacture date period that would support that. Mine's a First Edition (1/14/21 build). I think many others have been reported throughout 2021 and into 2022, so narrowing it to a time period doesn't seem to fit.

Many there's multiple suppliers, and only one is bad? That seems unlikely too.

I never do WOTs. I drive it more like a Cadillac than a Mustang. But I do DCFC a lot, and do mountain drives. But I never come close to pushing it, even going up those hills.

 

[dbsb3233]

Ever get it to 13 V (12.7). May be the higher voltage helps it click close? My 12V was always dying and the contact is the latest fix for my cold weather problem? Not many WOT going on here as it is quick without them. Code said positive contact stuck open 3 times back then. Brand new 12V and did it again within 2 weeks lots of messages with SSN and does not go into gear. Full 12V charge always brought it back. Saw how quick it happens and it was not getting any better so I just put it on a 12V charger when parked and waited for the part to come in. Who knows maybe some are not related. Seems to come on "Preparing For Drive" once a day now when below around -5C (20F) so that is good and new. Lets see how it goes still beta testing over here.

The battery itself would never get above about 12.7v (the old battery or the new one). When the car would start charging it, it would show anywhere from around 13.5 (maintenance charge) to 14.8 (full charge), of course. When the car is on, it's nearly always showing 13.5-14.8. But when turning it off, the HVB inverter feed shuts off and we can see the battery-only voltage for 10 minutes or so until it shuts off accessory power.

I got my cig lighter meter a year and a half ago, and the battery-only was always showing 12.3-12.7 back then too. Never 13+. Same way with the new LVB now (or even a little lower). When it was showing a normal 12.6 in Reno the day after I got the new battery, but still got SSNs, I knew that theory was shot and I better get it to the dealer ASAP. My BECM error code was P0ADA (whatever that means).

I just now went out to the garage and started the car for a minute, then turned it off. The exact same cig lighter meter is showing 12.1-12.2 right now. But everything is fine with the new HVBJB. Starts without fail now.

 

[ElectrifyCLT]

Later this week is my 1 year anniversary with our MachEAuto (a play of Macchiato), and unfortunately I don’t think she’s going to be with me to celebrate. I’ve been following this thread a long time and am finally able to (sadly) participate. Returning back to Charlotte from a Pinehurst golf trip with a friend along for the ride, our Mach E GT threw the SSN warning while parked in a Zaxby’s parking lot. Odometer reading 12,402.

My Bluetooth OBD reader confirmed what I immediately expected: P0563 (High voltage condition), P0AA1 (stuck positive contactor), P1A10 (HVB Disabled).

For those that aren’t familiar with the middle of NC, the trip from Charlotte to Pinehurst is about 90 miles each way. Most of the ride is through small towns with speed limits anywhere from 25-55MPH. We left Saturday morning with 97% SOC. We parked the car and didn’t drive it again until this morning. It was not charged overnight, and there was no DCFC as part of this trip. The return trip was otherwise uneventful. We performed 1 overtake on a single lane road with brisk, but not full throttle, acceleration approximately ~15 miles prior to the failure.

We pulled into Zaxby’s after a few miles of 25MPH driving through Albemarle, and ate a ~30 minute meal. Upon returning to the car, this is what I was greeted with.

I plugged in my OBD reader at that point and got the following laundry list.

At this point, I regretfully informed my friend that we were stuck, called my wife to start making the trek our way from Charlotte (about an hour away, ~45 miles), and used our insurance carriers mobile app to request a tow. I decided to bypass Ford Roadside given the negative reviews and recommendations of those in this thread.

Geico had a flatbed on site in 45 minutes. We enabled emergency tow mode and got the car rolling backward fairly easily. The first mistake I made was then putting the car in park while the tow truck positioned for the winching. Once the driver got the flatbed into the right position and hooked up the winch, I went back into the car to re-enabled emergency tow mode and it was greyed out. Panic. After a few minutes of fumbling around (knowing every tap is burning down the 12v LVB), I ultimately reset the center display (volume down, and next track buttons on steering wheel) and thankfully that re-allowed me to enable emergency tow mode and Mach E made it up onto the flatbed with no other issues. If I were to do it again, I would leave the car in tow mode and just enable the parking brake to hold the car while the driver hooks up the winch.

Car rolled back in emergency tow mode, tow truck is behind me getting lined up

Thanks to this forum, I had the “TOW” arrow stickers on the car, pointing the driver to the exact right spot.

The car was winched up and gone within an hour, and my wife arrived 5 minutes later To ferry my buddy and I the rest of the way to Charlotte.

Mistake number two was that I requested the nearest EV enabled Ford Dealership….which happened to be a mile away in Albemarle, NC. In retrospect I should’ve gotten it to the dealer I bought it from here in Charlotte. They’re a massive organization and have almost certainly seen far more EVs than this one in Albemarle. Now, if that was the tow request there’s no telling if I would’ve been able to get a flatbed that quickly, so this is a mistake I’ll live with.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be calling the service department at Joe Maus Ford as well as the Ford BEV team @Ford Motor Company to open up a case.

A few other notes/observations on the car and driving habits.

1. The last DCFC was last weekend, returning from a Thanksgiving road trip and was otherwise charged on L2 chargers at my home and office. That was a 1,000 mile Trip with 6 total DCFC sessions. Highway cruise speeds ~77MPH (most of the miles were bluecruise BTW, which was awesome).
2. During the week the car is driven on a routine commute with limited highway driving (2 miles on highway), L2 Charged routinely to 85% SOC.
3. The Pinehurst Trip was uneventful, with no warning of impending doom. (Other than the crazy massive power outage due to a substation getting attacked).
4. I have the Recall software installed. I installed it myself via FDRS this summer, but also got a OTA notification that it was successfully installed earlier this fall.
5. I’ve gotten a number of other unrelated OTAs as well.
6. Car was built in October of 2021, delivered and purchased on 12/10/2021.
7. We have done two longer road trips with our 4 month old recently, I am so grateful/lucky that this occured with a friend of mine, and not my wife & newborn. I admit we are at this moment hesitant to consider this a road trip car, but recognize that we’re both fresh off this experience.

Big thanks to @DevSecOps and the others that’ve contributed to this thread. I can attest that it’s a solid playbook. I am frustrated, for sure, but also humbled that this forum and aggregation of information allowed me to get this thing over to a dealer in under an hour.

Now, it’s time for Ford to do their part.

 

[scoopman]

Later this week is my 1 year anniversary with our MachEAuto (a play of Macchiato), and unfortunately I don’t think she’s going to be with me to celebrate. I’ve been following this thread a long time and am finally able to (sadly) participate. Returning back to Charlotte from a Pinehurst golf trip with a friend along for the ride, our Mach E GT threw the SSN warning while parked in a Zaxby’s parking lot. Odometer reading 12,402.

My Bluetooth OBD reader confirmed what I immediately expected: P0563 (High voltage condition), P0AA1 (stuck positive contactor), P1A10 (HVB Disabled).

For those that aren’t familiar with the middle of NC, the trip from Charlotte to Pinehurst is about 90 miles each way. Most of the ride is through small towns with speed limits anywhere from 25-55MPH. We left Saturday morning with 97% SOC. We parked the car and didn’t drive it again until this morning. It was not charged overnight, and there was no DCFC as part of this trip. The return trip was otherwise uneventful. We performed 1 overtake on a single lane road with brisk, but not full throttle, acceleration approximately ~15 miles prior to the failure.

We pulled into Zaxby’s after a few miles of 25MPH driving through Albemarle, and ate a ~30 minute meal. Upon returning to the car, this is what I was greeted with.

I plugged in my OBD reader at that point and got the following laundry list.

At this point, I regretfully informed my friend that we were stuck, called my wife to start making the trek our way from Charlotte (about an hour away, ~45 miles), and used our insurance carriers mobile app to request a tow. I decided to bypass Ford Roadside given the negative reviews and recommendations of those in this thread.

Geico had a flatbed on site in 45 minutes. We enabled emergency tow mode and got the car rolling backward fairly easily. The first mistake I made was then putting the car in park while the tow truck positioned for the winching. Once the driver got the flatbed into the right position and hooked up the winch, I went back into the car to re-enabled emergency tow mode and it was greyed out. Panic. After a few minutes of fumbling around (knowing every tap is burning down the 12v LVB), I ultimately reset the center display (volume down, and next track buttons on steering wheel) and thankfully that re-allowed me to enable emergency tow mode and Mach E made it up onto the flatbed with no other issues. If I were to do it again, I would leave the car in tow mode and just enable the parking brake to hold the car while the driver hooks up the winch.

Car rolled back in emergency tow mode, tow truck is behind me getting lined up

Thanks to this forum, I had the “TOW” arrow stickers on the car, pointing the driver to the exact right spot.

The car was winched up and gone within an hour, and my wife arrived 5 minutes later To ferry my buddy and I the rest of the way to Charlotte.

Mistake number two was that I requested the nearest EV enabled Ford Dealership….which happened to be a mile away in Albemarle, NC. In retrospect I should’ve gotten it to the dealer I bought it from here in Charlotte. They’re a massive organization and have almost certainly seen far more EVs than this one in Albemarle. Now, if that was the tow request there’s no telling if I would’ve been able to get a flatbed that quickly, so this is a mistake I’ll live with.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be calling the service department at Joe Maus Ford as well as the Ford BEV team @Ford Motor Company to open up a case.

A few other notes/observations on the car and driving habits.

1. The last DCFC was last weekend, returning from a Thanksgiving road trip and was otherwise charged on L2 chargers at my home and office. That was a 1,000 mile Trip with 6 total DCFC sessions. Highway cruise speeds ~77MPH (most of the miles were bluecruise BTW, which was awesome).
2. During the week the car is driven on a routine commute with limited highway driving (2 miles on highway), L2 Charged routinely to 85% SOC.
3. The Pinehurst Trip was uneventful, with no warning of impending doom. (Other than the crazy massive power outage due to a substation getting attacked).
4. I have the Recall software installed. I installed it myself via FDRS this summer, but also got a OTA notification that it was successfully installed earlier this fall.
5. I’ve gotten a number of other unrelated OTAs as well.
6. Car was built in October of 2021, delivered and purchased on 12/10/2021.
7. We have done two longer road trips with our 4 month old recently, I am so grateful/lucky that this occured with a friend of mine, and not my wife & newborn. I admit we are at this moment hesitant to consider this a road trip car, but recognize that we’re both fresh off this experience.

Big thanks to @DevSecOps and the others that’ve contributed to this thread. I can attest that it’s a solid playbook. I am frustrated, for sure, but also humbled that this forum and aggregation of information allowed me to get this thing over to a dealer in under an hour.

Now, it’s time for Ford to do their part.

Ugh. Well, at least it sounds like you weren't hungry when you got stranded!

 

[Shayne]

Hard to say. It's possible it could be one of those "bad batch" things. Although there doesn't seem to be a narrow manufacture date period that would support that. Mine's a First Edition (1/14/21 build). I think many others have been reported throughout 2021 and into 2022, so narrowing it to a time period doesn't seem to fit.

Many there's multiple suppliers, and only one is bad? That seems unlikely too.

I never do WOTs. I drive it more like a Cadillac than a Mustang. But I do DCFC a lot, and do mountain drives. But I never come close to pushing it, even going up those hills.

The recall states to mask it with software and that it is inherent in the design. That is not a 'bad batch' problem but a 100% of them problem if they were spec'd wrong. Most construct things in accordance with design drawings and specifications. If the design is flawed then the manufacturing built in accordance with it will also be. It would not be a bad batch unless you count all the ones before they started to install a more robust designed part as a batch. The first 75,000 batch maybe?

You have now proven to yourself that it can happen to anyone just a matter of time. Me I think that cold ambient temps may exacerbate the design flaw if mine is/was the JB problem. Need to make it through one -30C snap here this winter and hoping for better results than the first 2. By next spring if it survives one winter not babysat I will be feeling better.

Have the basic figured out and understand how all works now (or should). Not sure if that accessory contact is closed when the main negative is or not but I will not be troubleshooting and/or replacing it. Learn more when you have problems. I bought it so it is my problem for a bit. Guys appear good on service here and it is warrantied. First extended since a microwave back when future shop first came out.

Mine works pretty good right now. Does all we need it to do and not a drop of gas so far. Push a button and go. Just a couple of long lasting fixes in the basics so I do not need to babysit it. It started with no charging schedule and a sobdmc module replacement (rear sub-frame). Departure scheduling (pre-conditioning) now the most recent. I have not too many and flexy departures now so it working once in a blue moon after setting it up is not the greatest.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Well, it finally happened to me. STRANDED in Arizona. We were driving home to Austin from San Diego when we pulled into charge at an EA at Walmart in Casa Grande and as soon as we pulled in boom, the dreaded Stop Safely Now followed by all the other warnings and lights.

Does anyone have any advice regarding being stranded? We don’t live here and need to work on Monday which obviously won’t happen because service doesn’t open until Monday.

But in terms of getting back home if the part/service will take days or weeks. Will Ford give me a car to get home? Do I leave my car here and have to come back and get it or will they ship it to me? Will I be reimbursed for Ubers and hotels? I am so disappointed and am already fearing an inadequate response. The fact service isn’t open on weekends or even just customer care is already a huge sore spot for me. Yeah, cars don’t break down on the weekend.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thankful for this forum and all the info compiled on the first page. At least I won’t be blind walking into the service station on Monday.

Hello there. Can you please send over a private message with your VIN and the name/location of the Ford dealer you are working with? I would like to see what I can do to assist with your Mach-E's error messages.

 

[bluestripes]

The wait should not have been since August for the part. If your dealer did not order the part as a priority item through COPIS the part will likely never arrive. Have you started a case through Ford’s Battery Electric Vehicle team? They can help prioritize things and guide your dealer through the entire process. ??

I didn’t - not sure how to do that?

I just got an update saying it’s going to take a further 4 weeks… so I’m looking at January. This is just nuts. In the meantime I’m having to pay Ford credit for a car I still don’t have. Almost 4 months now.

Apparently 4 parts ordered. 3 arrived and waiting for the 4th. No idea what on earth they are doing.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I didn’t - not sure how to do that?

I just got an update saying it’s going to take a further 4 weeks… so I’m looking at January. This is just nuts. In the meantime I’m having to pay Ford credit for a car I still don’t have. Almost 4 months now.

Apparently 4 parts ordered. 3 arrived and waiting for the 4th. No idea what on earth they are doing.

Please see the first post in this thread for how to contact the BEV team. They should be able to get parts expedited and some help on the payments and car rental. ??

 

[Al-E]

Hello there. Can you please send over a private message with your VIN and the name/location of the Ford dealer you are working with? I would like to see what I can do to assist with your Mach-E's error messages.

Hello, I’ve sent a DM. Posters on this forum say to call BEV Customer Care because they can help guide the dealership through this process but all I’ve gotten from customer care so far is a phone system that keeps hanging up on me, a supervisor telling me my car is showing up as “used” (completely false) and because of this, that there’s nothing they can do to help at all since “there’s no program for that” and so sorry but have a nice day. This is insane. I expected to have to deal with my car being bricked, but now this? Where’s the guidance and customer care?

 

[dbsb3233]

Hello, I’ve sent a DM. Posters on this forum say to call BEV Customer Care because they can help guide the dealership through this process but all I’ve gotten from customer care so far is a phone system that keeps hanging up on me, a supervisor telling me my car is showing up as “used” (completely false) and because of this, that there’s nothing they can do to help at all since “there’s no program for that” and so sorry but have a nice day. This is insane. I expected to have to deal with my car being bricked, but now this? Where’s the guidance and customer care?

The Ford rep here was helpful. They took my info and forwarded it to the BEV Team, who opened a case# and gave it to me.

But my case was a little confusing so I'm not sure they actually expedited the part at that time. The dealership had not ordered it at that time (yet), so I think it may have just sat. I made the mistake of trusting that the dealership had it handled. 2 weeks later I finally called Ford, and at that point they escalated the case. I wasted about 2 weeks, it appears. Took about 10 days for the part to show up after that point. 31 days to get the car back in total.

I assume you've talked with the dealership there now. Are they OK with doing the repair? If so, I'd head home, keep in touch with the dealership, and when they confirm they've ordered the part, call Ford to escalate the case which should help expedite the part. You can reference the case# that the Ford rep here will likely DM you soon (if you're responded to them).

It's a frustrating process that shouldn't take this much involvement from the customer, but that's just the way it is at this point. Everyone is still in this learning curve (including Ford and the dealerships).

 

[Al-E]

The Ford rep here was helpful. They took my info and forwarded it to the BEV Team, who opened a case# and gave it to me.

But my case was a little confusing so I'm note sure they actually expedited the part at that time. The dealership had not ordered it at that time (yet), so I think it may have just sat. I made the mistake of trusting that the dealership had it handled. 2 weeks later I finally called Ford, and at that point they escalated the case. I wasted about 2 weeks, it appears. Took about 10 days for the part to show up after that point. 31 days to get the car back in total.

I assume you've talked with the dealership there now. Are they OK with doing the repair? If so, I'd head home, keep in touch with the dealership, and when they confirm they've ordered the part, call Ford to escalate the case which should help expedite the part. You can reference the case# that the Ford rep here will likely DM you soon (if you're responded to them).

It's a frustrating process that should take this much involvement from the customer, but that's just the way it is at this point. Everyone is still in this learning curve (including Ford and the dealerships).

I’m at the dealership and they are still looking at it/diagnosing the problem. I definitely need to get home asap, that’s the main issue since I’m 950 miles from home and already missing work. I just need Ford to help with the process getting back home, whether a loaner or rental.

I’m speaking with the rep in DM and I’m hopeful. Thank you for your message.

 

[scoopman]

Please see the first post in this thread for how to contact the BEV team. They should be able to get parts expedited and some help on the payments and car rental. ??

(except that @bluestripes is in the UK...... )

 

[scoopman]

I’m at the dealership and they are still looking at it/diagnosing the problem. I definitely need to get home asap, that’s the main issue since I’m 950 miles from home and already missing work. I just need Ford to help with the process getting back home, whether a loaner or rental.

I’m speaking with the rep in DM and I’m hopeful. Thank you for your message.

If the dealership can diagnose it today, you can use that to get reimbursement with the BEV team later on. The social media folks who contacted you can open the case number, which then causes someone from the BEV team to contact you and tell you how to get reimbursed. Once the dealer confirms the HBVBVBVBJBJBJBs, make sure to tell them to order it thru COPIS.

It's a good sign that the dealer is willing to diagnose it today for you -- one of the obsticles Ford throws up is that they try to say that they won't start paying for out of pocket costs until it is diagnosed as a warranty problem.

 

[ElectrifyCLT]

Tomorrow morning I’ll be calling the service department at Joe Maus Ford as well as the Ford BEV team @Ford Motor Company to open up a case.

Update: It took a few times, but I finally got to a “concerns” department that was able to create a case for me. Notably, the BEV team sighed when I got sent to them, sounds like they know exactly what’s going on and how big of an issue it really is.

I also was able to speak briefly to the dealer. They won’t get to the car until tomorrow. Unfortunately on callback I couldn’t get an answer on the phone, and their voicemail box is full.

My case agent at Ford just sent me an email that she finally got in touch with the dealer and was told that the service advisor wouldn’t have an update for Ford Corporate until Wednesday.

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