Adventure in the Mustang Mach E World

[Jim Glass]

I have loved this car until now. Wife travelled to see granddaughter for Easter, 186 miles without issue. On arrival I drove to Mercer U campus in Macon, GA to use their ChargePoint DC Worked like a charm. Returning home Sunday we stopped at Burger King In Dublin, Ga to juice up at another CP DC charger. Plugged in, charge fault. Two more times 1kw, charge fault. Dash has big SAFE TO STOP NOW. Other little red lights, red car w exclamation point, red battery. The the whole car BRICKS ( see TSB 21-2091). Can’t unlock doors, can’t shift out of PARK. decided car was dead but got jump to open Frunk removed plastic, tried to jump battery Nothing. Wife crawled in backseat folded one side down, fished the luggage, golf clubs out the only open front door. This was after calling Roadside (Easter holiday of course) Tow truck called. (Here Ford uses Swoop towing to get contractors to do work) Guy never shows. Another called and declined because no physical key. Two more contractors called by Swoop, same story. EV, AWD, in Park. No way to move car without skates or dollies. Send a tweet to J Farley outlining problem, ask for help. Call USAF son to drive 35 miles to get us. Today, acting for Farley results are imminent. Meanwhile Charged $60 because Ford dealer is 45 miles away (again Swoop). Today call the away dealer, ask for loaner. None available. Ask for Ford authorization to rent, told to call Ford Customer Serv. Put on hold for 35 minutes. I hang up. Finally give up and rent on my own to get home where a nice Audi Q5 awaits. On the way home, a tow serv calls and asks how it’s going? He says he has skates, dollies, was called by Swoop at 5pm on Sunday but was told his fee was too much (40 year independent). Meanwhile “Peter” sends message that a Customer Experience Specialist escalated to the Truck Support Team will call Tuesday, gives me a case number. Here I sit broken hearted, paid my money (cash) and got a brick.

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[Murse-In-Airy]

Sorry to read all this @Jim Glass. I know you’ve been a big advocate and I hope this can get solved. Not being able to have faith in a vehicle certainly isn’t good. Seems these EVs have failures without warning where in our old ICE machines we would get a couple days of rattle, shimmy, or leakage to forewarn a person.

 

[gnaark]

Keep us updated on what happened and if they give you a reason for the failure

 

[ChasingCoral]

I have loved this car until now. Wife travelled to see granddaughter for Easter, 186 miles without issue. On arrival I drove to Mercer U campus in Macon, GA to use their ChargePoint DC Worked like a charm. Returning home Sunday we stopped at Burger King In Dublin, Ga to juice up at another CP DC charger. Plugged in, charge fault. Two more times 1kw, charge fault. Dash has big SAFE TO STOP NOW. Other little red lights, red car w exclamation point, red battery. The the whole car BRICKS ( see TSB 21-2091). Can’t unlock doors, can’t shift out of PARK. decided car was dead but got jump to open Frunk removed plastic, tried to jump battery Nothing. Wife crawled in backseat folded one side down, fished the luggage, golf clubs out the only open front door. This was after calling Roadside (Easter holiday of course) Tow truck called. (Here Ford uses Swoop towing to get contractors to do work) Guy never shows. Another called and declined because no physical key. Two more contractors called by Swoop, same story. EV, AWD, in Park. No way to move car without skates or dollies. Send a tweet to J Farley outlining problem, ask for help. Call USAF son to drive 35 miles to get us. Today, acting for Farley results are imminent. Meanwhile Charged $60 because Ford dealer is 45 miles away (again Swoop). Today call the away dealer, ask for loaner. None available. Ask for Ford authorization to rent, told to call Ford Customer Serv. Put on hold for 35 minutes. I hang up. Finally give up and rent on my own to get home where a nice Audi Q5 awaits. On the way home, a tow serv calls and asks how it’s going? He says he has skates, dollies, was called by Swoop at 5pm on Sunday but was told his fee was too much (40 year independent). Meanwhile “Peter” sends message that a Customer Experience Specialist escalated to the Truck Support Team will call Tuesday, gives me a case number. Here I sit broken hearted, paid my money (cash) and got a brick.

Wow! Really sorry to hear about this. Hope it gets resolved soon.

 

[Jim Glass]

Wow! Really sorry to hear about this. Hope it gets resolved soon.

Me too. Still waiting but at least we’re home instead of still standing in the Burger King for 7 hours.

 

[sockmeister]

I have loved this car until now. Wife travelled to see granddaughter for Easter, 186 miles without issue. On arrival I drove to Mercer U campus in Macon, GA to use their ChargePoint DC Worked like a charm. Returning home Sunday we stopped at Burger King In Dublin, Ga to juice up at another CP DC charger. Plugged in, charge fault. Two more times 1kw, charge fault. Dash has big SAFE TO STOP NOW. Other little red lights, red car w exclamation point, red battery. The the whole car BRICKS ( see TSB 21-2091). Can’t unlock doors, can’t shift out of PARK. decided car was dead but got jump to open Frunk removed plastic, tried to jump battery Nothing. Wife crawled in backseat folded one side down, fished the luggage, golf clubs out the only open front door. This was after calling Roadside (Easter holiday of course) Tow truck called. (Here Ford uses Swoop towing to get contractors to do work) Guy never shows. Another called and declined because no physical key. Two more contractors called by Swoop, same story. EV, AWD, in Park. No way to move car without skates or dollies. Send a tweet to J Farley outlining problem, ask for help. Call USAF son to drive 35 miles to get us. Today, acting for Farley results are imminent. Meanwhile Charged $60 because Ford dealer is 45 miles away (again Swoop). Today call the away dealer, ask for loaner. None available. Ask for Ford authorization to rent, told to call Ford Customer Serv. Put on hold for 35 minutes. I hang up. Finally give up and rent on my own to get home where a nice Audi Q5 awaits. On the way home, a tow serv calls and asks how it’s going? He says he has skates, dollies, was called by Swoop at 5pm on Sunday but was told his fee was too much (40 year independent). Meanwhile “Peter” sends message that a Customer Experience Specialist escalated to the Truck Support Team will call Tuesday, gives me a case number. Here I sit broken hearted, paid my money (cash) and got a brick.

Nightmare!
Jim, what was your car's build date? I'm wondering if it never had the update from the TSB you mentioned (was it built before February 3rd)?

 

[Jim Glass]

Nightmare!
Jim, what was your car's build date? I'm wondering if it never had the update from the TSB you mentioned (was it built before February 3rd)?

Don’t know since I didn’t order it but bought on a cancellation. In the vin the last 5 digits are 01635 and it’s an FE, so I have no doubt it had an early build date. From the vin I’m guessing Sept. 3, 2020.

 

[deadduck]

Sorry to hear this but none of that surprises me.

I'm gonna write kind of a long reply, I think it relates, and it lets me vent a bit.

I moved into a new house, tract home, very long. The wi-fi is on one end, my office the other, and they're too far away so I installed a mesh system. The mesh only had one port so I needed to buy a new switch to connect the smart devices. The mesh also came with a unique power brick, as did my 2 other smart hubs, so my 6 plug surge protector could only handle 3 devices, so I ordered a new surge protector that came with a plug that's left-orientated which meant it angled straight into the wall. I got it to work but it took a fair amount of force.

That is what happens with Tesla every day, new and different problems that a 100 year old company solved decades ago.

So, it's garbage day. I go out today and my recycle can is empty but my garbage can hasn't been touched (looks like the same thing happened to a neighbor). The garbage company, who I'll leave nameless but you've all heard of them, also didn't get me a garbage can for 3-weeks. I guess they literally didn't have any. I was bagging it and throwing it in the street on pickup day.

This is Ford, every day, screwing up basic stuff, because that's what a 100-year old bureaucracy does, and not just screwing it up, making you push the 2.5 ton brick home to solve it.

I have no doubt that Ford cares about the Mach E just as I have no doubt that Tesla would love for their car doors to close reliably. I swore I'd never buy another Ford because of multiple pieces of junk I've dealt with. Lest ye forget, the Pinto was a Ford, and, no, that's not a piece of junk I've owned.

Itt's just how it is with the two best electric cars you can buy right now.

But, it's a cool car, it happens to be a Ford, and the risk you take is being thrown into bureaucracy hell and having the logo fall off. I'm leaning pretty strongly towards taking that risk and I'll probably wind up venting here about it one of these days.

 

[Jimrpa]

I have loved this car until now. Wife travelled to see granddaughter for Easter, 186 miles without issue. On arrival I drove to Mercer U campus in Macon, GA to use their ChargePoint DC Worked like a charm. Returning home Sunday we stopped at Burger King In Dublin, Ga to juice up at another CP DC charger. Plugged in, charge fault. Two more times 1kw, charge fault. Dash has big SAFE TO STOP NOW. Other little red lights, red car w exclamation point, red battery. The the whole car BRICKS ( see TSB 21-2091). Can’t unlock doors, can’t shift out of PARK. decided car was dead but got jump to open Frunk removed plastic, tried to jump battery Nothing. Wife crawled in backseat folded one side down, fished the luggage, golf clubs out the only open front door. This was after calling Roadside (Easter holiday of course) Tow truck called. (Here Ford uses Swoop towing to get contractors to do work) Guy never shows. Another called and declined because no physical key. Two more contractors called by Swoop, same story. EV, AWD, in Park. No way to move car without skates or dollies. Send a tweet to J Farley outlining problem, ask for help. Call USAF son to drive 35 miles to get us. Today, acting for Farley results are imminent. Meanwhile Charged $60 because Ford dealer is 45 miles away (again Swoop). Today call the away dealer, ask for loaner. None available. Ask for Ford authorization to rent, told to call Ford Customer Serv. Put on hold for 35 minutes. I hang up. Finally give up and rent on my own to get home where a nice Audi Q5 awaits. On the way home, a tow serv calls and asks how it’s going? He says he has skates, dollies, was called by Swoop at 5pm on Sunday but was told his fee was too much (40 year independent). Meanwhile “Peter” sends message that a Customer Experience Specialist escalated to the Truck Support Team will call Tuesday, gives me a case number. Here I sit broken hearted, paid my money (cash) and got a brick.

Wow! Just ... wow! If you don’t have a Twitter account, get one. In fact, @Administrator should make a sticky of the Twitter handles of all key Ford contacts (like that communications manager who wants people to DM him about dealer markup). Ok, I can understand a car (EV or ICE) “breaking down” on the side of the road. However, Ford’s “roadside assistance” is supposed to be just that! Not “roadside assistance if we can afford it”? What if the car breaks down in an unsafe location? Like an expressway where some stupid Tesla could plow into it?

 

[Jim Glass]

Wow! Just ... wow! If you don’t have a Twitter account, get one. In fact, @Administrator should make a sticky of the Twitter handles of all key Ford contacts (like that communications manager who wants people to DM him about dealer markup). Ok, I can understand a car (EV or ICE) “breaking down” on the side of the road. However, Ford’s “roadside assistance” is supposed to be just that! Not “roadside assistance if we can afford it”? What if the car breaks down in an unsafe location? Like an expressway where some stupid Tesla could plow into it?

It took 3 days to get my car on a wrecker. Ford Roadside service may be OK elsewhere but in Georgia, they contract to an outfit called Swoop which employs some of the most ignorant people on the planet. They scheduled six different service to pick up my car all of which declined. Last night I found one that would do the job. A Ford Customer Service Specialist and I called Swoop to get the job done. Gave them the number of the service to call (which was already on Swoop's list). Hung up and the Swoop rep immediately called someone else. I called the service giving them the benefit and the guy immediately declined the job! Another Ford roadside rep called and I gave the good service provider. I was all set. It worked after three days. The car died (TSB21-2091) at 4PM Sunday. It was finally picked up at 5PM today!

 

[Jim Glass]

Sorry to hear this but none of that surprises me.

I'm gonna write kind of a long reply, I think it relates, and it lets me vent a bit.

I moved into a new house, tract home, very long. The wi-fi is on one end, my office the other, and they're too far away so I installed a mesh system. The mesh only had one port so I needed to buy a new switch to connect the smart devices. The mesh also came with a unique power brick, as did my 2 other smart hubs, so my 6 plug surge protector could only handle 3 devices, so I ordered a new surge protector that came with a plug that's left-orientated which meant it angled straight into the wall. I got it to work but it took a fair amount of force.

That is what happens with Tesla every day, new and different problems that a 100 year old company solved decades ago.

So, it's garbage day. I go out today and my recycle can is empty but my garbage can hasn't been touched (looks like the same thing happened to a neighbor). The garbage company, who I'll leave nameless but you've all heard of them, also didn't get me a garbage can for 3-weeks. I guess they literally didn't have any. I was bagging it and throwing it in the street on pickup day.

This is Ford, every day, screwing up basic stuff, because that's what a 100-year old bureaucracy does, and not just screwing it up, making you push the 2.5 ton brick home to solve it.

I have no doubt that Ford cares about the Mach E just as I have no doubt that Tesla would love for their car doors to close reliably. I swore I'd never buy another Ford because of multiple pieces of junk I've dealt with. Lest ye forget, the Pinto was a Ford, and, no, that's not a piece of junk I've owned.

Itt's just how it is with the two best electric cars you can buy right now.

But, it's a cool car, it happens to be a Ford, and the risk you take is being thrown into bureaucracy hell and having the logo fall off. I'm leaning pretty strongly towards taking that risk and I'll probably wind up venting here about it one of these days.

Yea I love the car but my wife not so much. She wants to get our money back after standing in the Burger King parking lot for 5 hours waiting for the wrecker that was never going to come.

 

[mburtsvt]

So reviewing several of the comments and past topic links correct me if I’m wrong. It seems like the charging of the batter in some case discharges the 12 volt battery. Correct?

Could you, in that case just replace the 12 battery with a charged up 12 volt battery and not have to have it towed anyplace?

Just wondering…...

 

[Jim Glass]

So reviewing several of the comments and past topic links correct me if I’m wrong. It seems like the charging of the batter in some case discharges the 12 volt battery. Correct?

Could you, in that case just replace the 12 battery with a charged up 12 volt battery and not have to have it towed anyplace?

Just wondering…...

The TSB says it’s a failure in the control module software. Reprogramming fixes it. I hope.

 

[kdryden99]

Seems like the word is spreading https://www.theverge.com/platform/a...tang-mach-e-deep-sleep-12v-battery-jump-start

 

[Jim Glass]

UPDATE! My car is reportedly repaired and ready for delivery to me courtesy of Ford. While being repaired, the good folks at JCLewis Ford in Savannah, GA, the selling dealer provided me with a nice 2021 Ford Explorer Limited as a loaner. They are is the process of retrieving it and I should have it tomorrow.
Now for the cause. After two days of diagnosis it turns out that the AGM battery had a dead cell. It has been replaced and the requisite programming done to hopefully insure that there will not be a repeat. Interestingly, I've now read on this forum that while one can jump an AGM battery it apparently won't recharge if faulty. That would explain my attempt to jump at the time of the incident not working (assuming I did it right!). But as noted elsewhere, the passenger side door did open and that occurred because the door locks have large capacitors? Anyway, tomorrow will tell.

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