HVBJB permanent fix on 2023 Mach e's?

[AKgrampy]

Their software patch probably will work, probably, but not definitely. If your 200 miles from anywhere and you get the dreaded notice, what happens then?

And the jury is still out on 23 problems. Too early to tell. Let’s see in a year from now if many fail.

Agree

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[wmaney]

Hi there! I can look into your Mach-E's acceleration/error warning concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Mach-E's VIN?

Thanks so much for doing this. I you sent a PM with the requested information. Any news would be great.

 

[bbulkow]

For all of you saying "It's how the car company handles a problem like this", my '17 CRV has a high efficiency engine, the "eco dream", which is a 1.5L turbo. Mated with the CRV transmission, it has throttle lag for days, but otherwise is a solid car at a good price. I digress.

The first three years of the engine, there's a problem with, I believe, a gas into oil leakage somewhere in the turbo system. The amount of gas in the oil is small, and if the engine gets up to temp often enough, the gas vaporizes and there's no lubrication problem, supposedly. This is apparently only necessary in places with freezing temperatures. The outcome is a blown engine, because of insufficient lubrication, which, in a car of that price range, ends up being a toss up between replace the engine and throw away the car.

What did Honda do?

Software patch. Available only in northern states. Changes something about the idle point on a cold start. Claiming you drive in cold weather even if you live in warm weather apparently does nothing in terms of access.

The failure rate is low. The engine oil does get dirty fast compared to a non-turbo engine, but that's just a matter of the guy at Oil Changers saying that I need extra Snake Oil every time I show up for a change.

Some engines are being replaced under warrantee. I believe there's an extended warrantee, a lawsuit, etc.

My other ICE car, my Porsche, is afflicted with something called the IMS bearing issue. Same thing, engine blows up. Porsche never even attempted to do an extended warrantee. Apparently the solution is vigorous driving with high revs through left hand turns, which bathes a particular bearing more frequently. There is an aftermarket ceramic bearing replacement. A buddy of mine did lose a Boxter to the problem, but he was rather babying it - funny how that works.

Between these three examples - in all three of my current cars - I look at Ford's response as being pretty good, especially as it occurred during Pandemic when replacing all the parts would have been simply impractical. Software patch for limp mode, make more of the replacement parts so it's an easy repair for dealers, cover under warrantee. That's better than Honda and a lot better than Porsche. The only better step than *that* would be offering early replacement to anyone who wants, which neither Honda nor Porsche offered.

The early dissembling about whether the problem exists was similar in all three vendors. Porsche has never come clean about IMS. Honda has been less forthcoming than Ford in the HVBJB issue, but somewhat on par.

What exactly should we expect for low percent failure, but major, problems?

 

[mkhuffman]

HVBJB anxiety it real.

For some, but not me. I really do not worry about it. I drive my car exactly as I want to, and spin the wheels at every stoplight (unless my wife is in the car, because she doesn't appreciate 0-60 in 3.7 seconds).

I did think about it when I was heading out to a triathlon race that started at 7 AM and I was leaving the house at 3:30 AM. I would have been really pissed if I missed that race. But once I got in the car, I just drove. And it was so much fun, especially as I got to the mountain(ish) roads leading to the race site. Driving on those roads was almost as fun as the race.

 

[Ghost Ryder]

I think it would be less of an issue if wait time is not so long to get fix if you do happen to get the fault. But Ford dealerships are still hit or miss. I would be less upset if I knew for sure that my downtime is less than 1 wk. But it seems like some people can't get into their dealership for a month or 2. That's unacceptable.

 

[azerik]

My other ICE car, my Porsche, is afflicted with something called the IMS bearing issue. Same thing, engine blows up. Porsche never even attempted to do an extended warrantee. Apparently the solution is vigorous driving with high revs through left hand turns, which bathes a particular bearing more frequently. There is an aftermarket ceramic bearing replacement. A buddy of mine did lose a Boxter to the problem, but he was rather babying it - funny how that works.

My Boxster was one of these as well. My solution? Track days! haha

 

[DR.J56]

For some, but not me. I really do not worry about it. I drive my car exactly as I want to, and spin the wheels at every stoplight (unless my wife is in the car, because she doesn't appreciate 0-60 in 3.7 seconds).

I did think about it when I was heading out to a triathlon race that started at 7 AM and I was leaving the house at 3:30 AM. I would have been really pissed if I missed that race. But once I got in the car, I just drove. And it was so much fun, especially as I got to the mountain(ish) roads leading to the race site. Driving on those roads was almost as fun as the race.

I had two or 3 responses typed out. I did a lot of deleting because I know I can be insensitive at times, ok, most of the time. What I typed is what culminated.

I’m with you, I just get in and drive. I went through the HVBJB replacement. It was just another trip to the dealer like getting any other service done. Yeah, it took them a while to look at the car, but once it was diagnosed it was fixed. NBD.

 

[helium89]

I think it would be less of an issue if wait time is not so long to get fix if you do happen to get the fault. But Ford dealerships are still hit or miss. I would be less upset if I knew for sure that my downtime is less than 1 wk. But it seems like some people can't get into their dealership for a month or 2. That's unacceptable.

It’s looking like we’re going to be in the month or two category. We got Stop Safely Now a few weeks back. After a big hassle, Ford Roadside Assistance managed to arrange a tow to the local dealer. They’re short staffed, so they said it would be a couple weeks before they could diagnose it and that they’d have to transfer it to another dealership if it ended up being a problem with the HV system. That didn’t seem promising, but we didn’t have any other options since we can’t move the car ourselves.

We waited two weeks before going in to ask if they had any updates. Well, it turns out that it takes less than two weeks for the 12v battery to die when the HV battery isn’t able to charge it, so they can’t even get into the car until they get a new 12v. The 12v battery is backordered with no estimated restock date. Why they can’t use some jumper cables to connect literally any 12v battery for a few hours to make it through the diagnostic process, I don’t know. All I know is that we’re looking at who knows how long for the battery to show up, more waiting while they transfer the car, and then even more waiting while they fix the original problem.

I was willing to cut Ford some slack for first generation vehicle issues, but they’ve had more than enough time to come up with a real solution to this problem (one that wouldn’t have left us with a completely immobile vehicle and no functioning climate control). At this point, I’m firmly in the “never again” camp when it comes to Ford, and our experience has been enough to convince several of my wife’s coworkers not to buy Mach-Es.

 

[Mach-Lee]

...so they can’t even get into the car until they get a new 12v. The 12v battery is backordered with no estimated restock date. Why they can’t use some jumper cables to connect literally any 12v battery for a few hours to make it through the diagnostic process, I don’t know.

Because dealers are DUMB. They could totally jump the frunk open and put it on a battery charger to diagnose it. For some reason, dealer mechanics think you can't recharge a dead 12V battery. You can, as long as it hasn't been sitting for long. They don't probably because they don't make any money charging batteries.

It's almost like they are trying to make you wait as long as possible by doing things in the most nonsensical way possible. Drives me nuts.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Because dealers are DUMB. They could totally jump the frunk open and put it on a battery charger to diagnose it. For some reason, dealer mechanics think you can't recharge a dead 12V battery. You can, as long as it hasn't been sitting for long. They don't probably because they don't make any money charging batteries.

It's almost like they are trying to make you wait as long as possible by doing things in the most nonsensical way possible. Drives me nuts.

Yep, you'd think they could hook up to their FDRS power supply and get everything moving, but Nooooo... ??

 

[Ruben Anthony]

Any part can fail but the late 22/23 HVBJB seems to have more or less made it a non-issue. Most of the failures reported seem to be replacement HVBJBs in 21s/early 22s which implies something else may be going on.

There's also lots of erroneous data...everyone assumes the HV warning indicator = HVBJB when that's not the case at all.

19k on our GT with plenty of high speed driving in the mountains. I don't worry about it.

I bought my 2023 Mach-E Select this past July with only 52 miles on it. And I got all the SVS and Powertrain failure lights 10 days later.

When I was finally able to get an appointment the Ford Service center said their computer pointed to the HVBJB. I asked how sure are they since that was only supposed to be a problem of earlier models fixed with the recall.

They were very sure. But they were also sure my vehicle couldn't be charged but if had been charging at home on my level 2 charger. I was told I was the 1%.

I'm thinking it's something else. It takes about a week to fix and they can't really "see" the problem until they take everything apart. I was also told the service center only has one person trained how to do this and he was still working on his first Mach-E with the same problem at the time I was taking mine in.

 

[tfitzgex]

FWIW, I'm on my 3rd HVBJB. First replacement was the original part. The second replacement was the "updated" part. The current one hasn't failed yet, but It feels like it is about to fail again. Would love to see this fixed, but... I have my doubts.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I bought my 2023 Mach-E Select this past July with only 52 miles on it. And I got all the SVS and Powertrain failure lights 10 days later.

When I was finally able to get an appointment the Ford Service center said their computer pointed to the HVBJB. I asked how sure are they since that was only supposed to be a problem of earlier models fixed with the recall.

They were very sure. But they were also sure my vehicle couldn't be charged but if had been charging at home on my level 2 charger. I was told I was the 1%.

I'm thinking it's something else. It takes about a week to fix and they can't really "see" the problem until they take everything apart. I was also told the service center only has one person trained how to do this and he was still working on his first Mach-E with the same problem at the time I was taking mine in.

The recall was only for software. Your 2023 already has this software on it so it is not subject to the recall. The hardware has not been placed in a recall. There was a change in the part but it is coincidental to the recall (even though it is supposed to be “more robust.”). ??

Hopefully the dealer gets the car before yours done quickly and properly. If the dealer has your replacement parts in stock and their tech has the time, the replacement takes less than a day. ??

 

[Mach-Lee]

FWIW, I'm on my 3rd HVBJB. First replacement was the original part. The second replacement was the "updated" part. The current one hasn't failed yet, but It feels like it is about to fail again. Would love to see this fixed, but... I have my doubts.

"Feels like"? Care to elaborate on that?

 

[Jimrpa]

I wouldn’t buy again mainly due to this problem and Ford’s lousy handling of it, but there are many here that don’t think it’s a big deal and will deal with it when it happens.

other than this and the level 2 charging issue which is also a fiasco but more livable, I like the car. I have a premium, suspension isn’t great but the GTPE has a much better suspension that mostly eliminates that issue.

to each their own.

What is the “level 2 charging issue”? I only Level 2 charge and have never had a problem (Note: when I first got the car, there was a week I had to DCFC because my street was closed, and I tried the DCFCs at Wawa once out of curiosity).

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