Catastrophe After One Week

mstrjw

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Pretty much same situation..only had car 1 week, temps below 30 degrees all week, wasnt driving though... yesterday was getting ready to leave work..went to remote start car in app.. failed twice so went out to the car to start.. tons of error messages on screen when i hit start button. main battery was at 90%. ended up calling road side assistance for a tow.. since it was going to take an hour for the truck to get there i got a ride home.. meeting the tow truck there hour and half later tried starting the car again and it was fine... drove home. Dealership today tested 12v and put it on a charger.
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Mach-Lee

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Interesting... I've used my Norco to jump my car when I accidentally drained the LVB while doing updates. Had zero issues starting up, though I might have bypassed the failsafes in order for it to work. At that time I assumed the LVB was so drained that the jump pack decided there wasn't actually a battery attached to it and so it wouldn't start.
Yes when the battery is very dead you have to use the (!) override button on a NOCO or it won't work, other brands have similar buttons. A lot of people don't know how to use the override or that it exists and are not able to successfully jump start extremely dead batteries as a result.
 

fmtexmme

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I had a Volt before the Mach-E. While I personally never had any issues with the 12V battery in mine, there were numerous stories on Volt forums where numerous, seemingly unrelated, error messages pop up when the 12V battery goes bad. They even had a saying that when everything is going wrong, there's really only one thing wrong: the 12V battery.

It seems to me the car manufacturer's need to do a better job with programming to isolate issues when the 12V battery is failing.
 
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Jbkimmel

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If you're worried about being stranded again, I recommend you buy a Gooloo jump starter and familiarize yourself with removing the funk panels to access the jump points. I've verified they have enough initial power to jump start successfully unlike other brands like NOCO which use a lower voltage that isn't as effective.

Last thing you can ask for are updates. I don't have any definitive information that the 12V charging has been updated for Job 2 vehicles yet, but it wouldn't hurt updating the powertrain modules in case.
[/QUOTE]

The dealer said I was already completely up to date but I’ll ask them to recheck the powertrain modules. And thanks for the jump starter advice - I’ll buy one now, for the peace of mind if nothing else. As for charging / reconditioning, any advice on brands and models of chargers, other than making sure they’re AGM-compatible?

Really appreciate all the help that you and others are providing on this issue.
 
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Jbkimmel

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I was meaning to quote Mach-Lee in my post above, and not to plagiarize him. ? Don’t tell my kids that Dad failed on his iPhone again….
 


Maquis

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Interesting... I've used my Norco to jump my car when I accidentally drained the LVB while doing updates. Had zero issues starting up, though I might have bypassed the failsafes in order for it to work. At that time I assumed the LVB was so drained that the jump pack decided there wasn't actually a battery attached to it and so it wouldn't start.
Yep - all of the update procedures I’ve seen start with “attach a battery charger to the 12V battery.” Thanks for confirming that’s it’s actually needed!
 

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I would just add to get the 12v plug tester from Amazon. Check it out. Clearly some batteries are bad while others need to get time to recharge. Driving the stress is high so its like charging your phone or laptop while using it.. Much slower. I left my mme unplugged 2 days now with lower miles. Figure it will keep tendered on the 12v as well.
 

Shayne

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This issue isn’t fixed on newer builds??
Exactly! Similar problem to me 3 times with an early build. Thankfully always parked to date. After you drill ports thru your plastic frunk cover to access the the 12V it is does not tick you off as much.
How to Recondition/Service Your 12V Battery

Do a search and read the above thread by Mach-Lee lots of good information as to why this happens and how to prevent.
Really and that loud? What you are saying is after we purchase this vehicle it is our responsibility to read this forum and recondition a 12V battery? Was hoping for a bit more for the cost and definitely will not work with my problem as the 12V is the second one and brand new. Still killing it.

If the car was functioning correctly it should charge the 12V itself. Do you thing there is something special with a $100 trickle charger and it is so much better than the charging system Ford put in the car? Not rocket science and the MME should charge the 12V it just does not some times. A agm sits on my dump trailer and holds a charge much much longer that a flood.

Bad 12V batteries hit many F-150s a few years back. Gotta wonder if there is a problem with the Mach-E sitting unplugged and not keeping the 12V charged up. One would think that as part of prep of any new vehicle, putting the vehicle on a charger overnight before delivery would make sense.
Always plugged here when it happens, now I am reading it can occur when they are driving it. Something is killing the 12V and it is not being charged as it should. He started it and drove it down the road and therefore at that point the 12V should have only gotten better. Not a bad 12V obviously.
I’ve never heard of the 12v battery dying while the vehicle is being driven.
Then you have never had a bad alternator (charging system). At night your head lights get dimmer and dimmer until the car dies. Driven in the dark without them trying to make it home. Ah to be a kid again.
 

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This thread is very interesting but I really hope that new ‘22s have this issue resolved as having to worry about a low 12V battery when the huge lithium battery pack has so much extra juice seems like a really stupid problem to not have figured out.
 

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But even with an ICE vehicle like that, I’ve never heard of the 12v battery dying while the vehicle is being driven.
It happened to me one summer afternoon nearly 20 years ago in Nova Scotia, as a friend and I were driving to our next campground. The car was in motion when all of a sudden the needle in every gauge dropped down to zero. The alternator had failed. Fortunately it happened in Halifax, so the problem was quickly taken care of; had it occurred 24 hours earlier it would have been challenging.
 
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Ford Motor Company

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Today, my Premium SR AWD of 1 week suffered a complete meltdown (or I guess I should say “freeze up” given today’s 3 degree high temp) in the middle of I-35W in downtown Minneapolis. I was at 75% charge and everything was functioning normally, I was driving under 20 mph in congestion, and then all hell broke loose when I came to a stop. The first thing I noticed was the big screen shutting down to conserve power, and then the fact that the motor had turned off and the dash was flashing every possible error / warning message at me. I thought, okay, let’s shift into park and then restart, but pressing the start / stop button did nothing - and now I couldn’t shift into neutral or anything else. The only thing that seemed to function was the OK button to read the next failure message - and they spanned “rear door ajar” (it wasn’t) to “parking brake fault” (I hadn’t applied it). Long story short: I called the state patrol, they summoned a flatbed tow truck, and we hauled my overwhelmed car back to the dealership where I signed purchase papers the week before. We couldn’t even get the driver’s door to latch - is there a “latch”?

I know there are several threads about electronics failures similar to mine, and I’ll comb through those for hints. But I hope you’ll also share your thoughts and/or send links to thread that you think might be relevant. I want to be ready to advocate with the service department starting tomorrow, since they were all but closed when we arrived late this afternoon.

Here are a couple of screenshots that I just took - thanks in advance for your help!

2905EC9C-56DD-4848-B10B-C75E208D518F.png


B6C1DB96-24C1-43CD-BA04-1E29A4559EBD.png
Good afternoon, Judson! Could you please send us a private message with your VIN and dealership information? I would like to look into this Mach-E electronic failure concern for you on my end. Thanks!
 

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It happened to me one summer afternoon nearly 20 years ago in Nova Scotia, as a friend and I were driving to our next campground. The car was in motion when all of a sudden the needle in every gauge dropped down to zero. The alternator had failed. Fortunately it happened in Halifax, so the problem was quickly taken care of; had it occurred 24 hours earlier it would have been challenging.
Had a ICE mustang about 20 years (1996 model) that died on interstate. While driving just had every gage and radio drop out and engine stopped. Coasted to a stop (luckily managed to get off the road). No lights on the panel, no clicking when trying to start, nothing. Someone stopped and we tried a jump start. Absolutely zero power to anything. Was a student without a lot of money right near an off-ramp (Atlanta beltway with lots of exists close to each other) and a car parts store. Thought I'd try a new battery before calling for tow. New battery started right up. Alternator was fine and drove the car for many more years. Did not have the battery tested to how badly it was fried just dropped it off at the parts store to get the core charge refunded.
 

BilLongua

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Completed November 28, 2021.
Is your car parked in a garage at night & do you keep it plugged in? Just curious about the environmental effects.
 
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Jbkimmel

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Is your car parked in a garage at night & do you keep it plugged in? Just curious about the environmental effects.
Parked outside but plugged in. And no problem starting, or with any vehicle functionality prior to the meltdown - which occurred after I had been driving 10+ minutes at highway speeds.
 
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Jbkimmel

Jbkimmel

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Update: Car locked up last Thursday. On Friday, the dealer jumped it and saw no problems or error codes. Yesterday, the car threw a bunch of codes that the techs say point to a bad 12v. And so that has been ordered, due to arrive later today or tomorrow. I have stocked up with a voltage monitor, charger, and jumper - and plan to open up those access points, too Hopefully all of the above will have me ready to go - plus the Level 2 that I’m having installed tomorrow. Doubling down!
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