Road trips and HVBJB issue

[JoeSnow]

I did some research before buying MME and I saw the HVBJB issue every where, but I read that this issue applies to cars manufactured before 5/24/2022 and there was a recall for this models and it is already addressed by ford. I felt more confident after this and started looking around.
I decided to go with a used MME GT and I found one that was manufactured July 2022 and has around 6K miles. I pulled the trigger and couldn't be happier.
After less than 2 months (around 1K mile) I got the SVS message while driving (speed was about 45mph and battery was around 22%). So I dropped the car at the dealership the next day and didn't receive it back yet.

Last weekend, I was walking in a mall with my family when I saw a Mach E promoting event in the middle of the mall.
The guy asked me if I'm interested in a test drive. I told him that I have the car and it is the best car that I won't recommend to anyone.
He was surprised and I explained to him my experience with the HVBJB issue and that the dealer is having the car for 2 weeks without even looking at it, and the many calls with ford that ended with "The BEV team will give you call in 24-48 hours" and of course 3 weeks later, I have never received that call.
Interestingly, when I explained the HVB issue to him, the ford guy mentioned that I wasn't the first one mentioning this issue on that day and asked for more details. So I asked him to google "HVBJB" and he will see all these issues on the forums, Reddit and car websites.

This discussion brought something I didn't think much about before, will this car be good for a road trip?
I enjoy driving cars in general, and I do a lot of road trips with the family, but with all the cars I have owned or rented, this is the first car that I feel unsafe driving for a long road trip. I feel this HVBJB issue is an enjoyment-killer and it is against the whole point of having the MME GT, which is about how fun driving this car is. Giving the fact that some owners had the issue more than once (I'm not sure if anyone had it after the redesigned replacement)

I would like to see what other MME owners think.

PS: I'm not sure if this is the right sub-forum to post this and please feel free to move it to the correct one.

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[AllenXS]

I’ve noted before. My first HVBJB was pre- new unit. It failed on a shorter trip after using a specific charger.
It failed a second time on that same charger six months later. (They replaced parts on that charger immediately after this, but of course it’s not the chargers fault).
New HVBJB. I drive the premium like it’s a GT without a limit. It does feel smoother and better to drive (software enhancements too in the meantime?)
First time it was early and took a few weeks. Ford were all over it as it was new for them in the PNE region. Second time it took a few days, same engineers were physically looking at it within hours.

 

[Logal727]

I worry more about getting a flat tire than the HVBJB during a road trip.

Also I think your poll is missing an option for those of us who haven't had it happen to our early build vehicles and aren't scared about it.

 

[thekat03]

My MME is pretty new, and I drive like a Prius driver, so hopefully it will be a long time if I ever have the HVBJB fail on me. I know it still might happen, and it will really suck if it happens on a road trip, but the risk of that is still better to me than putting up with Toyota telling me I was driving my bZ4X wrong because I expected it to be able to drive the distances my Prius could drive in a modestly reasonable time frame.

 

[RickMachE]

Been discussed many times before. A lot of the "concerns" that people have about things is due to knowledge gained via online forums and such. In other words, the HVBJB wouldn't be of concern to you, absent a failure, if you didn't know of the potential for it to fail. No one has stats (except Ford), but like many issues with cars and trucks the percentage of failure is very low. Is it 5%? 3%? Less?

We've put close to 20,000 Mach-E miles on in 2 years, trips to / through about a dozen states, and have zero concern of it failing. And that's with reading all the doom and gloom online.

 

[AKgrampy]

I am still on the original part and the only thing that stops me from a long road trip is there are a lack of chargers! Soon to be rectified and I will take the plunge. I do believe it could fail at some point but max speed limit here in Alaska is 65 so really do not get things heated up quite as much as those regularly exceeding 70 and hitting 80-90 to pass. Second season of driving through rolling hills to go berry picking and still no SVS.

 

[Chuckler]

I actually had this happen recently on a road trip although it happened at the destination vs on the road trip itself. The problem is not actually the HVBJB failure but the amount of time that it takes the dealers to get the parts and then do the service. Total time mine was out of service was 24 days, and that was with the BEV team expediting the parts and the repairs. Ford should have parts at every one of the ev certified dealers and have a process to prioritize these repairs if they are not going to proactively replace the parts (especially on the GT models). There is absolutely no reason that this should have taken 24 days, it should have been out of service 2 or 3 days. This car has now been out of service now more than my last 3 ICE vehicles combined. So much for higher reliability because of less parts, if you can't get the parts or the right service.

This is a huge failure on the part of Ford and the dealers not to be ready for this since Ford delayed the occurrence, but did not eliminate, the issue. Ford needs to fix this so the customers get a good experience, not a "great car, but I'd never recommend it" experience.

@Ford Motor Company

 

[AzCoronaDog]

Ours has had the HVBJB replaced twice now, about 9 months apart.
I thought it was supposed to be an improved part, but apparently not.

 

[BMT1071]

This is not in any way meant to minimize the suck factor for those that have experienced this failure.
That said, ? happens. Regardless of manufacturer or how much the vehicle costs there will be major failures from time to time. The most recent that I've seen reported is the 90k+ vehicles that Hyundai is recalling because they may catch fire. Owners have been advised to park outdoors, which many thought was a huge anti-EV gotcha when Bolt owners were told the same thing.
Nobody on the internet knows the true failure rate of the HVBJB. The documentation at the time the recall was issued indicated an extremely low percentage. It is likely higher now, but anyone that knows the actual number is almost certainly not allowed to share it.
TL;DR: Regardless of what car you buy it is to some extent a crap shoot as to whether you will have a failure that strands you.

 

[JoeSnow]

I’ve noted before. My first HVBJB was pre- new unit. It failed on a shorter trip after using a specific charger.
It failed a second time on that same charger six months later. (They replaced parts on that charger immediately after this, but of course it’s not the chargers fault).
New HVBJB. I drive the premium like it’s a GT without a limit. It does feel smoother and better to drive (software enhancements too in the meantime?)
First time it was early and took a few weeks. Ford were all over it as it was new for them in the PNE region. Second time it took a few days, same engineers were physically looking at it within hours.

I wouldn't mind an issue if it will be solved in few days.
As of today, I'm not sure if the car will be done this week, next week or next month! and this is worse than the issue itself.

 

[JoeSnow]

I am still on the original part and the only thing that stops me from a long road trip is there are a lack of chargers! Soon to be rectified and I will take the plunge. I do believe it could fail at some point but max speed limit here in Alaska is 65 so really do not get things heated up quite as much as those regularly exceeding 70 and hitting 80-90 to pass. Second season of driving through rolling hills to go berry picking and still no SVS.

When I got the SVS message, I was driving less than 50 mph. However, I have the GT version because of the power, which I was using from time to time.

 

[JoeSnow]

Been discussed many times before. A lot of the "concerns" that people have about things is due to knowledge gained via online forums and such. In other words, the HVBJB wouldn't be of concern to you, absent a failure, if you didn't know of the potential for it to fail. No one has stats (except Ford), but like many issues with cars and trucks the percentage of failure is very low. Is it 5%? 3%? Less?

We've put close to 20,000 Mach-E miles on in 2 years, trips to / through about a dozen states, and have zero concern of it failing. And that's with reading all the doom and gloom online.

I believe that the Premium is less of a concern compared to GT. I hope you hit 200,000 miles with no issue.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I believe that the Premium is less of a concern compared to GT. I hope you hit 200,000 miles with no issue.

Not really, maybe slightly less, but I believe the record for replacements belongs to @heisnuts since he's had 4 or 5 replacements in his 4X Premium. ??

 

[heisnuts]

Not really, maybe slightly less, but I believe the record for replacements belongs to @heisnuts since he's had 4 or 5 replacements in his 4X Premium. ??

Yeah, it has been 5, but as you know I am an extremely rare case. There are not too many people who spend 4 hours at a time out in the country multiple times a month with full throttle starts and coming out of hairpin turns full throttle on uphill slopes. That seems to be really hard on our HVBJBs.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Yeah, it has been 5, but as you know I am an extremely rare case. There are not too many people who spend 4 hours at a time out in the country multiple times a month with full throttle starts and coming out of hairpin turns full throttle on uphill slopes. That seems to be really hard on our HVBJBs.

Hmm, I bet they didn't test it enough on hills. So it might be drawing more power than they anticipated. Or something like that.

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