Car Bricked While Driving. Any Thoughts on This

[jhalkias]

That's a good recommendation. Do you have a brand you'd recommend? Ideally I'd like something low-weight, reliable, that would keep its charge for a while.

This is the one I bought on Amazon. I got it because it is versatile and has a light.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015TKUPIC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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[Logal727]

The scary part is if it was towed and went to the Dealer it would have been there for weeks while they tore the car apart looking for the problem!

Nah they would have changed out the LVB and then patted themselves on the back for fixing it

 

[TonyaE]

@louibluey “hey, there is no blue mark on my nut!” This had me laughing. SMH, my mind went straight to the gutter.?

 

[TonyaE]

thanks for putting the [SOLVED] at the top!

I am glad to see you didn't die with loss of power steering and brakes.... and then suffered thru hours of mental trauma with non-responsive tow etc. It is particularly worriesome for me to see the inspection paint on the nut, but an obvious failure to torque properly.
Should I ask them to check it on delivery at the dealership? The 12v battery issue is making me nervous.

Personally I think Ford should recommend a recall to have torque checked on this specific nut... either as a general recall, or to be done at 'next service'. I know I am going to check it myself asap and may consider adding a lock washer.

This specific failure, may even be at the root of *some* of the failure to charge 12v issues, or other flaky behavior in the components expecting solid 12v power. Even worse, if it jiggled under load, there could have been arcing, sparking, and possible fire.

I would encourage ALL owners to check this if Ford doesn't issue a general recall.

 

[dtbaker61]

This is the one I bought on Amazon. I got it because it is versatile and has a light.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015TKUPIC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

these type of products are designed to provide lots of amps, but just for a few seconds, to start an ICE vehicle... or very low amps for a *longer* time to charge a phone or run a 12v LED flashlight. Suitable for popping the Frunk, and perhaps enough juice to unlock your doors....

But ***NOT*** enough Energy to run an EV computer control system and computer for more than a few minutes if the HVB -> LVB charge system has failed and that is why the LVB is dead.

I would humbly suggest that carrying a 'jump battery' anywhere in a BEV is a waste of money and space. If you are worried about the dead 12v issues, you will be much better off to prepare for a significant energy transfer from a running vehicle with regular old jumper cables connected to your 12v 'connection points' for a good 20 minutes to transfer a meaningful amount of energy from the running vehicle to your (presumably dead) 12v battery... enough to get you to the dealership to figure out why your 12v is not getting charged.

5 minutes with a 2" hole saw will provide easy access to connection points so you don't have to remove plastic covers to get, or give, a jump. $2 plastic plugs available at any hardware store will make it look almost OEM.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/how-to-add-access-ports-for-lvb-connection-points.4107/

 

[RickMachE]

these type of products are designed to provide lots of amps, but just for a few seconds, to start an ICE vehicle... or very low amps for a *longer* time to charge a phone or run a 12v LED flashlight. Suitable for popping the Frunk, and perhaps enough juice to unlock your doors....

But ***NOT*** enough Energy to run an EV computer control system and computer for more than a few minutes if the HVB -> LVB charge system has failed and that is why the LVB is dead.

I would humbly suggest that carrying a 'jump battery' anywhere in a BEV is a waste of money and space. If you are worried about the dead 12v issues, you will be much better off to prepare for a significant energy transfer from a running vehicle with regular old jumper cables connected to your 12v 'connection points' for a good 20 minutes to transfer a meaningful amount of energy from the running vehicle to your (presumably dead) 12v battery... enough to get you to the dealership to figure out why your 12v is not getting charged.

5 minutes with a 2" hole saw will provide easy access to connection points so you don't have to remove plastic covers to get, or give, a jump. $2 plastic plugs available at any hardware store will make it look almost OEM.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/how-to-add-access-ports-for-lvb-connection-points.4107/

I'm not an engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but I endorse this 100%.

I was asked by a person yesterday at Drive Electric Earth Day what preparations I did. Someone asked me if I always back into my garage or spaces. Or what I carry to jump the battery.

I will make the access point adaptation on my 2022 when it arrives, and carry cables on long trips, but that's it.

 

[ckt]

Just saw Mach-E on a flatbed tow downtown. I wouldn't be surprised if they are having those similar car bricked issue. ?

 

[Eugene]

Sounds like a disgruntled line worker, gee I wonder why that would ever happen?

 

[SWO]

Please be sure to report this to NHTSA, as it is a major safety issue (link below). You were able to get it stopped safely without power steering or brakes but a lot of people might not have been able to. Very concerning since the blue paint dot is present, meaning it slipped past inspection.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem

Surprisingly the battery junction box (BJB) is not in the service manual, so I couldn't find a torque spec. My guess would be 11 Nm.

Are we 100% sure nothing was messed with between assembly and delivery? Ex: faulty 12V battery. I'm sure Ford is going to do some analysis on this one.

 

[louibluey]

Are we 100% sure nothing was messed with between assembly and delivery? Ex: faulty 12V battery. I'm sure Ford is going to do some analysis on this one.

Also, remember a number of our FEs went through some post production work as well, certainly could have been someone opening that nut later for some reason, then forgetting to torque it down.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Are we 100% sure nothing was messed with between assembly and delivery? Ex: faulty 12V battery. I'm sure Ford is going to do some analysis on this one.

That nut does not need to be touched to change the battery. It’s unlikely any repair would need to do anything there. Even if some work was done before delivery the vehicle is still under the care of Ford Motor Company so they would remain responsible under NHTSA. It could be a one-time event or happening in a few other vehicles, but due to the severity it should be reported just in case.

 

[jdsimard2012]

Scary that one loose wire caused that.

 

[dtbaker61]

That nut does not need to be touched to change the battery. It’s unlikely any repair would need to do anything there. Even if some work was done before delivery the vehicle is still under the care of Ford Motor Company so they would remain responsible under NHTSA. It could be a one-time event or happening in a few other vehicles, but due to the severity it should be reported just in case.

I totally agree....
This is probably the most serious assembly issue I've seen on the forum. It's just one nut, but a crucial one with very dangerous consequences. Ford needs to be aware, the instance needs to be reported and documented to drive further research on Ford side to dig into it and decide what the scope of recall needs to be.

 

[RMoore]

I don’t know enough about car engineering so this may be a naive question but it seems odd that a screw on nut that might come loose given hours of vibration could cause the car to die. Why wouldn’t such a critical connection be hardwired? And would there be some way to have redundancy in the system if it did come loose?

 

[dtbaker61]

Scary that one loose wire caused that.

you remember the one o-ring that blew up an entire shuttle ?
.... it's amazing when you can find something like this BEFORE someone dies.

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