Updated: Crazy Repair Cost after minor incident- Car is totaled

[ElectrifyCLT]

That's one hell of a dent and must've been an incredible collision. Agreed that this likely smushed the cooling trays beneath the batteries, but doubt there is any more serious damage to other components.

Like others have said, this early on in HV systems it's unlikely that Ford wants any dealer dropping the battery and removing all the components to get down to the cooling trays. Too many connections inside the battery module and too high risk.

The cooling trays are for randomized flow, so it probably functions **close** to normal, but locally where the damage is could be problematic. If it were my car, I wouldn't be taking any chances.

I do wonder if you can work more directly with Ford engineering to get some type of deal or have a field engineer come out and take apart the battery in the name of education. I highly doubt that Ford will approve a dealer to do it themselves, but under the watch of an engineer I bet they'd learn a lot of a teardown and potentially find a much cheaper remedy.

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[MJMachForum]

Ford should at the very least should discount the new battery since they can reuse some of the components in the old battery. Something like a core value that you get for turning in an old 12v battery. Sure the core value would not be very substantial but the components can be reused in a refurbished battery pack and they could sell those in these types of situations. Seems like this would be the logical next step after Ford gets a fix on how to manage these types of repairs in the field.

 

[hekayala]

Thank you for sharing. Hopefully it all falls into place in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Lohse]

Because of your story I checked my future car insurance company. I told your story and the pricecost - they said, that they would cover the whole battery.

This is in Denmark.

Best regards
Martin Lohse

 

[Luke]

I would keep the old battery pack and sell it for a good price
There are plenty of people making home batteries out of used EV batteries. I'm not promoting that or saying it is safe, but I hope there will be some use for these batteries.

 

[JRT]

any update @Kmajor

 

[Kmajor]

any update @Kmajor

I got a call from my claims adjuster yesterday. He said they are now considering totaling the car. They aren’t sure yet as they are having trouble coming up with a value on the car since they are so new I guess. They said they are towing it to a salvage company to get them to value it. I don’t get how this would make financial sense for them. Even if the repairs cost $30,000 they would still come out better than paying $50,000 to total the car. I paid $53,000 a few months ago and I don’t see how it could lose that much value with how hard they are to find.

 

[ChuckA]

ouch. I wonder if this gets worse when they start incorporating batteries into the structure of cars as has been reported in development for some models.

The battery is in a heavy steel or aluminum frame/box that is an integral part of the vehicle structure. Watch the
Munro YouTube videos where he removes the MME battery and then does a tear down.

 

[Nurse YoYo]

Last week I was coming around a curve and saw a piece of metal (maybe a piece of a muffler) in the road. I couldn't avoid it but I was able to avoid running over it with my tire. I thought I would be able to clear the object because it wasn't that high off the ground. For the most part I did clear it but I guess maybe it flipped up and hit the underside of the car. My car immediately shut off completely and gave a warning to service the vehicle immediately. I coasted safely into a parking lot. I tried restarting the car but it would not start back up. I looked around the car to survey the damage and I couldn't see any physical damage to the front of the car or even when I looked underneath. I had it towed to the local Ford dealership for them to diagnose the problem. After a few days they called and said that there was an electrical connector that was ripped out (not a huge deal) which caused the car to shut down but the other problem is that it dented the casing of the fans that cool the battery. They said there is no way to repair this without replacing the entire battery, which they said costs $24,000. This seems like a design flaw if you can't repair minor damage like this without replacing the entire battery system. I will be filing insurance but I'm sure the insurance company isn't going to be too happy with this situation. Ford also mentioned that they aren't sure how long it will take to get the battery in. So I could be driving a rental car for a month or more. The service guy did say I might be able to get away with just repairing the cable and see what happens with the battery. He said in that case we would just have to worry about the fans not working properly and the battery overheating. The problem is I don't want to do that for fear of voiding my warranty and possibly having an issue down the road that the insurance company won't cover.

Update: I finally got a call from my insurance company today and they decided to total the car. I really loved this car and I want to get another EV but I'm a little nervous about it after this experience.

 

[MotownMachdoc]

Last week I was coming around a curve and saw a piece of metal (maybe a piece of a muffler) in the road. I couldn't avoid it but I was able to avoid running over it with my tire. I thought I would be able to clear the object because it wasn't that high off the ground. For the most part I did clear it but I guess maybe it flipped up and hit the underside of the car. My car immediately shut off completely and gave a warning to service the vehicle immediately. I coasted safely into a parking lot. I tried restarting the car but it would not start back up. I looked around the car to survey the damage and I couldn't see any physical damage to the front of the car or even when I looked underneath. I had it towed to the local Ford dealership for them to diagnose the problem. After a few days they called and said that there was an electrical connector that was ripped out (not a huge deal) which caused the car to shut down but the other problem is that it dented the casing of the fans that cool the battery. They said there is no way to repair this without replacing the entire battery, which they said costs $24,000. This seems like a design flaw if you can't repair minor damage like this without replacing the entire battery system. I will be filing insurance but I'm sure the insurance company isn't going to be too happy with this situation. Ford also mentioned that they aren't sure how long it will take to get the battery in. So I could be driving a rental car for a month or more. The service guy did say I might be able to get away with just repairing the cable and see what happens with the battery. He said in that case we would just have to worry about the fans not working properly and the battery overheating. The problem is I don't want to do that for fear of voiding my warranty and possibly having an issue down the road that the insurance company won't cover.

Update: I finally got a call from my insurance company today and they decided to total the car. I really loved this car and I want to get another EV but I'm a little nervous about it after this experience.

Looks like more than a minor accident; body, frame and motor parts damage.