Car Bricked While Driving. Any Thoughts on This

[HuntingPudel]

Guess I am tearing my frunk out again just to check that terminal. Better safe than sorry since I’ll be going for a drive up the coast to Washington in a couple of weeks. ??

Sponsored

 

[Maquis]

Is it normal for a thread lock compound to be used during assembly or would that affect conductivity?

I’m a big fan of Locktite…but I assume someone would have thought of that long before I did ?

Under normal conditions, a properly torqued fastener doesn't need Locktite.

 

[Jimrpa]

Seems to me that there really should be a better fail safe on the doors in a complete power failure. Being stuck inside or outside of the vehicle could be really bad in some instances.

im pretty sure you can’t be stuck inside. The inside front doors can be opened mechanically via the pulls.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Under normal conditions, a properly torqued fastener doesn't need Locktite.

I’m not a engineer, but in my experience the combination of side loads and thermal cycles eventually conspire to create “bad days”.

 

[Jimrpa]

Yeah. Sort of like on our Raptor and Ranger. Too bad Ford doesn’t know how to do that.

I’m sure a remote frunk release would have continued to work ? they’re magical. ?

 

[SWO]

@Ford Motor Company I think we might be getting to the point where some official comment on the spate of totally bricked cars would be helpful.

Not sure why you think that is warranted. This is an isolated incident at this point.

 

[jammic]

The car bricked at the Audi dealer and the Mach and Cheese just in the last few weeks on the forum?

I generally don’t prefer to have a car cut out to black going 55…

 

[AlpaChino]

@Ford Motor Company I think we might be getting to the point where some official comment on the spate of totally bricked cars would be helpful.

As someone who's worked on marketing teams in corporate america I can tell you that this social team has zero power to issue such a statement and would be risking their jobs if they did. It would have to come through PR and would sound similar to any other corporate BS press release.

They have precanned responses that a VP approved, that they are instructed to copy and paste when they see users that have troubles to raise their presense within the community and make people feel heard. When they hand a case off to a dealer, or make a call to a dealer to ensure a customer is in process of being serviced, they consider this a case closed and move on. They've just hit a part of their quota and move on. They have a monthly number of cases they need to identify and open, and percentage they need to close.

I am not saying that there are not people on the Ford social/community team that care about us. I think they do. But also we should recognize reality and corporate constraints.

 

[Deleted member 9461]

Guess I am tearing my frunk out again just to check that terminal. Better safe than sorry since I’ll be going for a drive up the coast to Washington in a couple of weeks. ??

Swing by brother!

 

[Lscamp]

Totally agree. If you’re looking for any kind of remedy, gonna have to follow the old school method…talk to dealer first, then Ford Corporate. Putting a post on a forum isn’t going to get too far.

As someone who's worked on marketing teams in corporate america I can tell you that this social team has zero power to issue such a statement and would be risking their jobs if they did. It would have to come through PR and would sound similar to any other corporate BS press release.

They have precanned responses that a VP approved, that they are instructed to copy and paste when they see users that have troubles to raise their presense within the community and make people feel heard. When they hand a case off to a dealer, or make a call to a dealer to ensure a customer is in process of being serviced, they consider this a case closed and move on. They've just hit a part of their quota and move on. They have a monthly number of cases they need to identify and open, and percentage they need to close.

I am not saying that there are not people on the Ford social/community team that care about us. I think they do. But also we should recognize reality and corporate constraints.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Swing by brother!

Heh, I’ll be in La Center to talk to my dog’s breeder. Hopefully I’ll either be coming back to CA with her bad-@$$ grand champion or at least be on a waiting list for another breeder who has something bred down from her line. ??

 

[Mirak]

The tow truck should be able to get the car open by using the connections in the front bumper. You can then open the frunk for him to charge up the 12v battery with his equipment, possibly getting enough charge to drive.

This was really marvelous design on Ford's part.

 

[Maquis]

This was really marvelous design on Ford's part.

The only thing I see wrong with it the relative inaccessibility of the 12V battery. That’s been overcome by some really clever solutions on the part of our forum members.

 

[Mirak]

The only thing I see wrong with it the relative inaccessibility of the 12V battery.

 

[louibluey]

I'm back up and running no thanks to Ford or 4 different tow companies. After 6 hours and no tow, I decided to have a go at it. BTW, It's a pain in the ass to remove the frunk with minimal tools on the side of the road.

The wire on the right was reading 1.9 volts on the terminal but 12.5 on the actual wire. It took about 4 full turns to tighten it up.

Here is the diagram. That failure point is definitely MME temporarily bricked until tightened. Seems more likely to be a manufacturing failure, those metals are designed to hold tight once installed and properly torqued. Opinion/speculation: Most likely, for whatever reason, it never got properly tightened at build, and QA marked it blue without catching to problem (perhaps it was just snug and looked right). Generally loctite is not used in this type of electrical connection. The DC/DC converter (lower left block) couples to the battery via the 200A battery mounted fuse. Then both of the battery and the DC/DC converter couple to the MME 12V bus (main distribution) via that #2 red wire SDC02 left side of the drawing at C1617D, which also then extends up to the 12V jump terminal as discussed. That point of failure guarantees no 12V distribution everywhere (except the little 12V bms computer one contact point mounted directly on the negative battery terminal, which wires directly across the battery terminals). The MME stopped on the side of the road 12V bus current is probably on the order of 30-40A, so not too dangerous. I don't see much of a short to ground risk, other than a spanner wrench type accident (while tightening that nut), which would likely melt/splatter some metal before the 200A battery fuse blows, as backed up by the DC/DC converter too. But, not a lot different than any other standard 12V vehicle battery risk.

General 12V safety approach would be to lift the negative 12V battery terminal first, same as any other 12V installation work would call for. The idea is that once the 12V negative connection to chassis is open, you no longer have to worry about a tool accidentally bridging 12V positive to ground. Of course here, there is that slight nutty concern where some Ford docs (apparently concerned about torque damage to the little bms computer block), want you to lift the chassis side (13mm nut, 10 minute operation) (diagram G116) of the 12V negative cable instead of the 12V BMS side directly at the 12V LVB negative terminal (10 mm nut, 10 second operation) (diagram C1100B). Also, open the little plastic hv disconnect interlock to assure that the DC/DC converter does not come on while doing any 12V work (connecting / disconnecting cables, including tightening the nut of this thread).

That stud/nut is at C1617D below. All 12V supply, battery and DC/DC converter are below that. All MME systems (ALL of the 12V loads) are above that single point connection, including power steering, which no longer works.

Sponsored