mikedmd
Active Member
- First Name
- Mike
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2021
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 50
- Location
- Southeastern USA
- Vehicles
- 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition
- Thread starter
- #1
TL;DR Failed OTA update disabled my 2021 Mach-E GTPE after BC update.
Long time reader but seldom post as my life with my car hasn't really been that interesting. Don't get me wrong, I love my Mach-E and got mine September 2021 and have had no issues with it in the 46k miles I've driven it so far until last Friday 3/21. So, I'm going to write my experience to add a datapoint about an OTA failed update disabling the vehicle for anyone else researching this in the future. I think it may have been the BC 1.3 update that was posted about on Wednesday, I do briefly recall seeing text on the screen about the lane changing feature but I don't remember the BC version specifically. I've seen notices for OTA updates before so it never crossed my mind I would have any issues.
I go out of town on an overnight business trip for a meeting (about 3-4 hours away from home so I figured I'd drive it). Before I get to the hotel in the evening I stop by a DC fast charger to get it up to 80% so I don't have to charge the next day and make my way to the hotel and park and check in. I get a notification on my phone that wakes me up at 2am saying the OTA update failed and the car cannot be driven and to contact a dealer as soon as possible. Unfortunately I wasn't dreaming and it actually happened.
Ford customer service was not available at that hour. And the phone number given on the "Update Not Successful" screen seems to route to Lincoln concierge after hours, which they said they could not help me. So, I call roadside assistance even though I'm at a hotel, because I figure I need to get a tow request going. No tow trucks available and the advisor suggested I wait until the morning when more tow operators are active. So I schedule a pickup for 7-9am. Knowing that tow trucks are almost as on time as doctor's offices (not their fault, I know), I figured an early start would be my best chance to at least have my car towed to a dealership during business hours so they could at least check it in.
Now that the sun is up, I am able to get ahold of Ford customer support. They give me a case number. It took a bit of struggle because the flatbed tow truck had to work its way into a compact hotel parking lot. I miss my meeting, of course. Finally made it to the dealer at 11:30am. And yes, please keep these pictures of the tow hook attachment points from this thread handy because the tow truck driver almost made the day a lot worse. That was probably one of the best things I learned from being a reader on this forum. The tow truck driver wanted to hook onto the rear of the car but I told him there were no approved rear tow hook points and he didn't believe me. He relented when I told him if the battery was damaged it would exceed his liability insurance and so he Austin Power'd his way around the parking lot so he could get to the front of my car and use the front tow hook points to load the car onto the flatbed thankfully without issue.
The dealer was great to work with. They were very sympathetic and worked me in despite a busy Friday. They tried 3 "quick" fixes which basically amounted to re-attempting the update, but each time it failed. They were going to do another fix but it would take 3-4 hours and it was already 4pm by then. So, my lovely wife was able to drop what she was doing to pick me up and we headed home leaving the car there.
Later in the afternoon, I was contacted by a ford customer service rep named Emma who said she would be my dedicated rep from here on out and gave me her email address and she would contact the dealership on my behalf to check on progress. She assured me that everything would be covered or reimbursed including a rental car while mine was being repaired.
Saturday 3/22 now back at home, I wake up to a voicemail from my service advisor at the dealership that basically said that they have to run this through their warranty department even though it's not covered under warranty (?) but their warranty department was closed being Saturday and they would be able to process it on Monday before moving forward (it sounded like they had to order a part). I gave them authorization to do whatever work was necessary because Ford said they would reimburse me even if it's not under warranty but they insisted they still had to go through this step.
Not sure if it mattered, but I do have the 100,000 mile extended warranty since this was the first EV I've owned. Still, I wasn't worried about it since Emma assured me everything would be reimbursed even if I needed to keep the rental beyond when the car was ready because I'd have to arrange time to return to the dealership which was a few hours from where I lived. Emma was very gracious and understanding. But it was still frustrating that it took so much energy to get the gears in motion for the service dept to start repairs. And I already consider myself blessed with the head start of having a same-day appointment where I've read others not even being able to bring their car in to a dealership for weeks because of appointment availability. I think the dealership had pity on me since I was out of town when it happened.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I'll update the post as things move forward. I'm still comfortable driving the car afterwards. I've had it for almost 4 years now and love it. I my plan is to turn off auto-updates. I mean, aside from the HVJB replacement (it never failed on me, I just had it replaced due to the recall), the car operates fine so I don't know what an OTA update would give me that I didn't have before that would affect my daily driving.
Mike
Long time reader but seldom post as my life with my car hasn't really been that interesting. Don't get me wrong, I love my Mach-E and got mine September 2021 and have had no issues with it in the 46k miles I've driven it so far until last Friday 3/21. So, I'm going to write my experience to add a datapoint about an OTA failed update disabling the vehicle for anyone else researching this in the future. I think it may have been the BC 1.3 update that was posted about on Wednesday, I do briefly recall seeing text on the screen about the lane changing feature but I don't remember the BC version specifically. I've seen notices for OTA updates before so it never crossed my mind I would have any issues.
I go out of town on an overnight business trip for a meeting (about 3-4 hours away from home so I figured I'd drive it). Before I get to the hotel in the evening I stop by a DC fast charger to get it up to 80% so I don't have to charge the next day and make my way to the hotel and park and check in. I get a notification on my phone that wakes me up at 2am saying the OTA update failed and the car cannot be driven and to contact a dealer as soon as possible. Unfortunately I wasn't dreaming and it actually happened.
Ford customer service was not available at that hour. And the phone number given on the "Update Not Successful" screen seems to route to Lincoln concierge after hours, which they said they could not help me. So, I call roadside assistance even though I'm at a hotel, because I figure I need to get a tow request going. No tow trucks available and the advisor suggested I wait until the morning when more tow operators are active. So I schedule a pickup for 7-9am. Knowing that tow trucks are almost as on time as doctor's offices (not their fault, I know), I figured an early start would be my best chance to at least have my car towed to a dealership during business hours so they could at least check it in.
Now that the sun is up, I am able to get ahold of Ford customer support. They give me a case number. It took a bit of struggle because the flatbed tow truck had to work its way into a compact hotel parking lot. I miss my meeting, of course. Finally made it to the dealer at 11:30am. And yes, please keep these pictures of the tow hook attachment points from this thread handy because the tow truck driver almost made the day a lot worse. That was probably one of the best things I learned from being a reader on this forum. The tow truck driver wanted to hook onto the rear of the car but I told him there were no approved rear tow hook points and he didn't believe me. He relented when I told him if the battery was damaged it would exceed his liability insurance and so he Austin Power'd his way around the parking lot so he could get to the front of my car and use the front tow hook points to load the car onto the flatbed thankfully without issue.
The dealer was great to work with. They were very sympathetic and worked me in despite a busy Friday. They tried 3 "quick" fixes which basically amounted to re-attempting the update, but each time it failed. They were going to do another fix but it would take 3-4 hours and it was already 4pm by then. So, my lovely wife was able to drop what she was doing to pick me up and we headed home leaving the car there.
Later in the afternoon, I was contacted by a ford customer service rep named Emma who said she would be my dedicated rep from here on out and gave me her email address and she would contact the dealership on my behalf to check on progress. She assured me that everything would be covered or reimbursed including a rental car while mine was being repaired.
Saturday 3/22 now back at home, I wake up to a voicemail from my service advisor at the dealership that basically said that they have to run this through their warranty department even though it's not covered under warranty (?) but their warranty department was closed being Saturday and they would be able to process it on Monday before moving forward (it sounded like they had to order a part). I gave them authorization to do whatever work was necessary because Ford said they would reimburse me even if it's not under warranty but they insisted they still had to go through this step.
Not sure if it mattered, but I do have the 100,000 mile extended warranty since this was the first EV I've owned. Still, I wasn't worried about it since Emma assured me everything would be reimbursed even if I needed to keep the rental beyond when the car was ready because I'd have to arrange time to return to the dealership which was a few hours from where I lived. Emma was very gracious and understanding. But it was still frustrating that it took so much energy to get the gears in motion for the service dept to start repairs. And I already consider myself blessed with the head start of having a same-day appointment where I've read others not even being able to bring their car in to a dealership for weeks because of appointment availability. I think the dealership had pity on me since I was out of town when it happened.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I'll update the post as things move forward. I'm still comfortable driving the car afterwards. I've had it for almost 4 years now and love it. I my plan is to turn off auto-updates. I mean, aside from the HVJB replacement (it never failed on me, I just had it replaced due to the recall), the car operates fine so I don't know what an OTA update would give me that I didn't have before that would affect my daily driving.
Mike
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