Connectivity issues, electrical system drain/issues with dealer maintenance

[duncan12]

We bought a brand new 2023 Mach E at the end of July and it was great for for the first month and a half. On September 20, it stopped syncing with the app or connecting to any Wi-Fi or anything but Bluetooth (could still play music from my phone). We tried forcing a Wi-Fi connection with no luck; also none of the settings with tried to change would stick for longer than a minute. Tried to reset SYNC but got an error there too.
Shortly thereafter (a week?) we started getting an electrical system drain warning the first time we turned the car on each day and sometimes, but not always, the other times we used it later in the day. I unplugged the USB charger we had plugged in and tried turning off the automatic lights as I had seen others post about but no dice. My husband also tried removing the TCU fuse others on here had mentioned. The car still charged fine on our ChargePoint charger but obviously it is super annoying to have to go and turn on the car every couple hours to see what the charge level is.
Finally gave in and dropped it off at the dealer last Thursday (6 days ago) and the car still has not been fixed. Everyone in the service department I have spoken with, including the tech working on the car, has readily admitted they basically have no idea what they are doing on these cars despite them having been in existence for, what, 3 years now? Today they finally figured out the electrical system drain issue is related to the 12V battery (which we figured out weeks ago from this very forum). They are apparently going to replace it tomorrow morning, but that seems ridiculous on a brand new car and it’s not clear to me that will necessarily fix the connectivity issues (hope springs eternal).
I’d like to know if this is what we’re in for going forward—days at the dealership with no one knowing how to fix these cars? Should we be prepared to search this forum to try to tell the dealership how to fix what we goes wrong? It’s so frustrating to have a brand new car spend a week or more at the dealership when they seem to have no clue how to repair these. I live in the DC metro area, so if anyone has a lead on a Ford dealership around here with a competent service dept, I’m willing to drive anywhere at this point.

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[Maquis]

We bought a brand new 2023 Mach E at the end of July and it was great for for the first month and a half. On September 20, it stopped syncing with the app or connecting to any Wi-Fi or anything but Bluetooth (could still play music from my phone). We tried forcing a Wi-Fi connection with no luck; also none of the settings with tried to change would stick for longer than a minute. Tried to reset SYNC but got an error there too.
Shortly thereafter (a week?) we started getting an electrical system drain warning the first time we turned the car on each day and sometimes, but not always, the other times we used it later in the day. I unplugged the USB charger we had plugged in and tried turning off the automatic lights as I had seen others post about but no dice. My husband also tried removing the TCU fuse others on here had mentioned. The car still charged fine on our ChargePoint charger but obviously it is super annoying to have to go and turn on the car every couple hours to see what the charge level is.
Finally gave in and dropped it off at the dealer last Thursday (6 days ago) and the car still has not been fixed. Everyone in the service department I have spoken with, including the tech working on the car, has readily admitted they basically have no idea what they are doing on these cars despite them having been in existence for, what, 3 years now? Today they finally figured out the electrical system drain issue is related to the 12V battery (which we figured out weeks ago from this very forum). They are apparently going to replace it tomorrow morning, but that seems ridiculous on a brand new car and it’s not clear to me that will necessarily fix the connectivity issues (hope springs eternal).
I’d like to know if this is what we’re in for going forward—days at the dealership with no one knowing how to fix these cars? Should we be prepared to search this forum to try to tell the dealership how to fix what we goes wrong? It’s so frustrating to have a brand new car spend a week or more at the dealership when they seem to have no clue how to repair these. I live in the DC metro area, so if anyone has a lead on a Ford dealership around here with a competent service dept, I’m willing to drive anywhere at this point.

Sorry you’re experiencing this. There are some very good dealers out there. Hopefully someone local will chime in and make a recommendation.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The battery itself does not cause a 12V drain. It will get low as a result of it.

Rather than putting it on a battery charger and diagnosing it straightaway, most dumb dealers think it's caused by the 12V battery going bad, so the want to order a new one before they get anywhere. Unfortunately dumb dealers think alike, so the 12V battery is on national backorder and apparently takes weeks. When they get the new 12V battery, the process of disconnecting it may actually power cycle reset some modules and fix the issue, or it might not and the 12V drain will continue with the new battery. Then they will actually be forced to correctly diagnose the problem.

Most of the 12V battery replacements are unnecessary, the battery could simply be recharged and vehicle diagnosed before it goes completely dead. Sitting completely dead at the dealer for days is what kills 12V batteries.

Either way, make sure you open a case with the BEV team so they keep things moving.

 

[duncan12]

Sorry you’re experiencing this. There are some very good dealers out there. Hopefully someone local will chime in and make a recommendation.

Thanks—I hope so too.

 

[duncan12]

The battery itself does not cause a 12V drain. It will get low as a result of it.

Rather than putting it on a battery charger and diagnosing it straightaway, most dumb dealers think it's caused by the 12V battery going bad, so the want to order a new one before they get anywhere. Unfortunately dumb dealers think alike, so the 12V battery is on national backorder and apparently takes weeks. When they get the new 12V battery, the process of disconnecting it may actually power cycle reset some modules and fix the issue, or it might not and the 12V drain will continue with the new battery. Then they will actually be forced to correctly diagnose the problem.

Most of the 12V battery replacements are unnecessary, the battery could simply be recharged and vehicle diagnosed before it goes completely dead. Sitting completely dead at the dealer for days is what kills 12V batteries.

Either way, make sure you open a case with the BEV team so they keep things moving.

Sigh. We will keep on them.

 

[Susanne76]

Hi Sarah any updates on your car? I don't have advice or experience to offer but just curious if they diagnosed the problem.

 

[duncan12]

I’m not sure I can say they necessarily diagnosed the problem but after replacing the 12V battery yesterday morning they were able to get it to connect to the Ford app, Wi-Fi, etc. and the electrical system drain warning disappeared. Whether that means there actually was a problem with the 12V battery versus just that it needed to be disconnected to reset things is unclear. But I did finally get the car back yesterday afternoon after a full week at the dealership and so far it seems to be working ok. Really hoping this lasts a while before the next issue appears!

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