2 Mach-E family. Both have bricked.

[rreddy3]

Lee, I’m trying to figure out exactly what you’re saying. I’m sorry I’m a little slow on this, so are you saying the string that I’ve got connected that I’ve left the keys in the house, I’ve left the phone in the house and I can’t get into the car, but when I pull the string the door open. Are you saying the string is not gonna work in a certain situation or it is gonna work? I’m sorry.

I think the string emergency open fix is entirely separate. It should work regardless of anything else. It’s just activating the inside emergency dead battery release that’s discussed in the owner’s manual, except it’s done “remotely” from outside, as you know from your testing and rig Jerry.

My take aways from Lee’s explanation: 1) the culprit is some glitch which is blocking an “electronicsignal to unlock the doors from reaching the door latch modules, 2) under a “normal” dead 12v battery the front door super capacitors, my brain translates capacitor to “condenser” as in points/condenser in a pre electronics distributor, will have enough juice to unlock the doors and actuate the pop open of the door, 3) the culprit in 1) above that blocks the unlock signal negates the capacitors attempt to send juice to the latch modules resulting in door remaing locked and closed.

Basically we’re screwed unless it’s clear a fix has been identified and received by a car, in the meantime the emergency string works, no electricity needed?

What I remain fuzzy about is what I thought was the 12v battery being too weak to open the doors but too strong to allow the frunk emergence leads to delivery a jump to the frunk. I guess I was absent the day the unlock signal block was previously discussed. The signal block is the missing link, unless it is also possible the super capacitors can’t do their thing unless the baby battery is
stone dead.

Despite attempts by others to clarify it for me, I’m still fuzzy on whether the 12v drain bug message has any relationship to the lockout issue.

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[Mr Breeze]

I think I’m going to do the same thing Jerry, but probably on the passenger side. It’s cheap insurance until we know there is an actual fix actually received. When the car is at home it’s in the garage, nose out, driver’s window down.

So I decided to turn off automatic updates last night. Is there a way to find out what updates my car has downloaded already? Mine is a 23.5

 

[rreddy3]

So I decided to turn off automatic updates last night. Is there a way to find out what updates my car has downloaded already? Mine is a 23.5

I am not well versed in that but I think the answer is “no”, there is not an easy or casual way to find out. I believe you need a FDRS subscription and the hardware to run it or someone with FDRS looks it up using your car’s serial number.

 

[Mr Breeze]

I am not well versed in that but I think the answer is “no”, there is not an easy or casual way to find out. I believe you need a FDRS subscription and the hardware to run it or someone with FDRS looks it up using your car’s serial number.

Excuse my ignorance FDRS??

 

[Jerrytball]

Excuse my ignorance FDRS??

You could contact Javier he’s really good at looking at that stuff. His handle here is Rugedraw

Ford Diagnostic & Repair System

 

[changty6]

If software is working properly, the HV battery should be charging the 12v as needed no matter what you are doing.

My money is on a bad software update in one of the recent OTAs..... Unfortunately, there is no way for Owners to roll back to a known stable build with all modules known to be at a stable version and compatible with each other.

@Ford Motor Company really needs to get a director of software development that knows what 'best practices' are in development, testing, release, and maintaining complex software libraries requires.

Did some quick search this morning. Ford is literally hiring new software director and engineer. This guy needs to be familiar with OTA

 

[dtbaker61]

Did some quick search this morning. Ford is literally hiring new software director and engineer. This guy needs to be familiar with OTA

this job description doesn't even mention experience with development/testing/version control for the software itself. A director-level person should have worked in a SOFTWARE company to develop goals and strategies for version/release management.

I think @Ford Motor Company is missing the boat and doomed to keep making mistakes with OTA if they don't get a Director that has a lot of experience in large software application development. There is a whole science of version control, major/minor/patch releases, testing, customer support for bug fixes and enhancement requests, etc, etc.

The Director then hires Senior Programmers with specific expertise in the automotive, cybersecurity, OTA areas to be the architects of the software modules and the coordination/compatibility between them.

I worked for years as a software development Director; 47 engineering applications sharing libraries with 8 million lines of code written in 3 programming languages released on 4 hardware platforms.... The development/test/release/fix process gets very complex, but 'best practices' in software development and version control are pretty much the same regardless of the actual product. The wrinkle with vehicles is the OTA 'release' management is just an update push to a vehicle computer rather than a desktop.

 

[azerik]

Man I'd hate for this lock out protection fix to make it's way to Electrk or Twitter. It could hurt sales. Just saying.

The Director then hires Senior Programmers with specific expertise in the automotive, cybersecurity, OTA areas to be the architects of the software modules and the coordination/compatibility between them.

That's way more hope and dreams than Ford will invest in the next 10 years I'd imagine.

 

[dtbaker61]

So I decided to turn off automatic updates last night. Is there a way to find out what updates my car has downloaded already? Mine is a 23.5

there is really no easily accessible list of module versions that are actually in your specific vehicle, or whether they are the "latest", or if any particular module has a known bug, or bug fix included.

I would say..... if your vehicle is working the way you like, turning off auto-update is a reasonable way to prevent 'un-intended side-effects' from creeping in.

I turned mine off a year ago, Powerup version 4.3.4 (but that doesn't really correspond to specific module versions). I don't plan to turn it back on unless or until I see evidence that @Ford Motor Company has improved the software test, release, and version control to enable Service-pack updates and roll-back capability to un-install bad updates.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Lee, I’m trying to figure out exactly what you’re saying. I’m sorry I’m a little slow on this, so are you saying the string that I’ve got connected that I’ve left the keys in the house, I’ve left the phone in the house and I can’t get into the car, but when I pull the string the door open. Are you saying the string is not gonna work in a certain situation or it is gonna work? I’m sorry.

I’m talking about the outside door buttons not working while locked, not the string. The string on the inside front door handles will always work.

 

[Jerrytball]

I’m talking about the outside door buttons not working, not the string. String on the inside front door handles will always work.

OK, thank you I was trying to figure out what you’re talking about. That makes sense now thanks.

 

[bp174005]

Mine has bricked twice now. It’s currently at the dealership… again. I’ve filed buy back paperwork, I’m just waiting for my 30 days at this point. Super bummed. It’s all to do with the 12v but they can’t figure it out.

 

[Jynxy in Texas]

So... I found a cheap phone charging cable from ikea... was my culprit!

 

[dtbaker61]

So... I found a cheap phone charging cable from ikea... was my culprit!

? how, and how did you determine this ?

 

[Jynxy in Texas]

? how, and how did you determine this ?

It was not my charger cord. It got left plugged in and I got this message that battery was low. I freaked out. Drove and charged the car. My friend took out the cble when we got back. Didn't do it again for a few weeks. My friend got back in plugged the cord in. Car sits for a few hours. I get a message again the battery is low. Pulled that cable out as was the factor both times. Haven't had another issue.

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