High Voltage Battery Junction Box (HVBJB) Replacement Recall for recall HVBJB in 30,013 Mach-E

[21st Century Pony]

It is a USA specific recall. I expect they will also provide the same recall to the EU, but they probably have to follow EU recall regulations, which are much different from those here. Government regulations make everything harder than it needs to be.

Unless your son is frequently traveling at high speeds, I doubt his car is a high risk for failure. From data collected here, the most common cause is 90+ mph driving, especially 80+ going up a long incline. If he rarely exceeds 100 km/h, the risk is low IMO.

This poster lives in Germany. I will assume his son also lives there. German controlled access highways have both long inclines and very high-limit or just plain unlimited speeds, especially across Bavaria.

In my exerience, it was almost impossible to meet a car on German controlled-access highways which drove at a 100 km / h speed, unless it was a now-long gone and forgotten East German Trabant (brrr...)

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[ChasingCoral]

Of the hundreds of cases posted on the forum, haven’t heard a single one where someone welded the contactors during a wide open throttle event.

My Mach E threw the HVBJB box errors while in the middle of a track run. I'm not sure whether at that moment I was WOT or max regen as I was in the twistiest section of the Dominion Raceway. In that section I tended to either be in WOT or max regen.

 

[21st Century Pony]

My Mach E threw the HVBJB box errors while in the middle of a track run. I'm not sure whether at that moment I was WOT or max regen as I was in the twistiest section of the Dominion Raceway. In that section I tended to either be in WOT or max regen.

I was watching you go 'round that day. Sorry about the failure... but you were having a blast

 

[fxo]

There is Ford Master Tech (dealer's technician) feedback that the HVBJB fails after fast charging scenarios, so this would refute the opinion that this problem is only related to fast driving, or only to ER or GT models. The poster in the comments of David Kelly's video makes some confusing remarks but most likely he means all models based on what he wrote.


You can look at the (comment) information here (@smtshrek3674). David Kelly talks contacts on the HVBJB ,(YouTube)

If you have the older model, you want this major board changed out. Software doesn't fix all the hardware issues (in all cases like this one). And wall outlets (chargers) will get more powerful in the future.

This and the fact that over 30,000 vehicles seem to be affected , hints towards this affecting all models that had this (older) HVBJB installed. Just more so with the higher powered units.

This is good news for all.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Just took my Mach E in for a blown HVBJB today. I beat the rush on parts.

Marlin is coming home today with two new Half Shafts and aa new HVBJB.

While Ford Pass doesn't show a recall present, my Vehicle Dashboard on the Ford website shows:

I'm guessing the recall will stay in place even though they just replaced the HVBJB. If there's no remedy yet, the work can't be completed, right?

It will be interesting to see how they deal with cars with replaced HVBJBs.

 

[DaMeatMan]

I certainly hope Ford has a new part that is far more robust than the "upgraded" part that has been used to replace the HVJB in previous failures, particularly when we have folks on here who are their 3rd or 4th replacement.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that Ford CANNOT afford to get this wrong now that this is a mandatory recall on so many vehicles, and I don't think they could afford to risk going through this again.

That said, I would assume that there needs to be testing data in place to show that the parts being used to "remedy" the problem is not simply the exact same part with a different part number. With NHTSA now involved, I would assume that some sort of certification has to take place to prove that the remediation taking place actually resolves the problem, and it does not come back again for the same issue. But then again I don't work in the industry, and these are all just logical assumptions.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I was watching you go 'round that day. Sorry about the failure... but you were having a blast

It was fun! The rest of the runs were a bit more sedate with WOT limited to about half-power and regen feeling mushy. It was worse than being in Whisper.

 

[generaltso]

This and the fact that over 30,000 vehicles seem to be affected , hints towards this affecting all models that had this (older) HVBJB installed. Just more so with the higher powered units.

This is good news for all.

I don't think SR models are immune from the problem, but it certainly appears that they will excluded from this initial hardware recall.

 

[Mach1E]

My Mach E threw the HVBJB box errors while in the middle of a track run. I'm not sure whether at that moment I was WOT or max regen as I was in the twistiest section of the Dominion Raceway. In that section I tended to either be in WOT or max regen.

Well there is one!

Did it weld shut or open though or was is asking you to stop? The question was specifically about welding during full throttle.

Also was specifically talking about GTs, so even if you did we would still be at zero. ?

 

[ChasingCoral]

I don't think SR models are immune from the problem, but it certainly appears that they will excluded from this initial hardware recall.

Maybe. The current text only indicates a higher likelihood in GTs and Mach E-ERs. They may be included in the recall but queued up later so that priority is given to ER-equipped cars.

 

[RickMachE]

The biggest issue on this recall is going to be parts availability. 30,000+ HVBJBs are going to take a year or more, plus all the people that have no clue and won't take it in.

And many dealers are not equipped to deal with this. Besides, queue, many don't have any/much experience with it.

On our trip, Ford's BEV team offered a dealer where we were staying to fix it. I called and spoke to the Service Manager, and he said "we've done one. We will read and follow the TSB."

I declined to have them service it.

 

[generaltso]

Maybe. The current text only indicates a higher likelihood in GTs and Mach E-ERs. They may be included in the recall but queued up later so that priority is given to ER-equipped cars.

That's certainly possible. But as of right now, the recall only shows up for ER VINs.

 

[Mach1E]

I certainly hope Ford has a new part that is far more robust than the "upgraded" part that has been used to replace the HVJB in previous failures, particularly when we have folks on here who are their 3rd or 4th replacement.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that Ford CANNOT afford to get this wrong now that this is a mandatory recall on so many vehicles, and I don't think they could afford to risk going through this again.

That said, I would assume that there needs to be testing data in place to show that the parts being used to "remedy" the problem is not simply the exact same part with a different part number. With NHTSA now involved, I would assume that some sort of certification has to take place to prove that the remediation taking place actually resolves the problem, and it does not come back again for the same issue. But then again I don't work in the industry, and these are all just logical assumptions.

Agreed.

No point in replacing 30,000 parts if they’re going to end up replacing them again later.

How much for a Tesla Plaid HVJB?

 

[ChasingCoral]

Well there is one!

Did it weld shut or open though or was is asking you to stop? The question was specifically about welding during full throttle.

It wasn't a full weld as I finished that 3-lap run and did another, followed by (slow) DCFC and driving home. The message was Service Vehicle Soon. The wrench is thrown when the software detects some welding or similar problems in the HVBJB performance. IIRC the software throws the wrench and limits throttle power, regen power, and DCFC rate. That is supposed to prevent a full weld.

Also was specifically talking about GTs, so even if you did we would still be at zero. ?

Couldn't tell from your original post.

 

[Mach1E]

Couldn't tell from your original post.

These are the two lines from the post you quoted but edited out-

“
Instead only the Gt got limits.

That and the limit and the contactors welding shut or open also seem unrelated.”

It was a back and forth with the other poster about the GT and whether or not the power limit is related to the HVJB or not.

No worries though, easy to miss stuff on a 13 page thread. ?

Super brave to finish your laps though! I would have been afraid of having to get towed and would have babied it!

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