Dealer Visits are fun, or not?

[Benjamin Kegele]

some of you remember that I had a charger issue to refresh the memory: Ford supplied charger acting up - what to do | MachEforum - Ford Mustang Mach-E Forum, News, Owners, Discussions )
I had posted this issue and @Ford Motor Company reached out to me which I thought is pretty awesome. They opened a case and the lady on the phone told me that this is a known issue with their chargers, and I should schedule a dealer visit.

I was travelling for a part of June, so I let it slide a bit. End of June I finally called the dealer and scheduled a visit to check:
-home charger
and as I already scheduled an appointment, I said why not let them check the
-steering wheel heater,
as this would turn off after 10 minutes' drive when in use (even though it is not winter now)

They friendly apologized and said that the next available appointment would be July 19th and that they had some major delay going on, because of a system change.
I accepted it, as I was not really in a rush.
Over the time some other issues came up and I called on Saturday the 16th to ask if I could get those items added. I was not able to get ahold of anybody in the service department, even though from my experience they are open on Saturdays (maybe their schedule changed),
Monday 18th someone called me back and left me a message, that I should call back. After 6 or 7 tries I finally got a hold of a person, which then told me that there was no appointment for me on the 19th.
I accepted it and asked friendly, if we could schedule a new appointment which was scheduled for today the 26th. I mentioned all my issues at that time, and she said that, probably the car will need to be in half a day to get checked and then parts ordered and then need to come back. No loaner or rental available for initial inspection, but shuttle for 10 mile radius. I accepted it and went forward with the booking.

This early morning, I showed up for my appointment:
I mentioned them following issues,
-charger turns amber after a while, keeps charging but very slow, electrician verified my outlet that it was good
-I have every now and then a "12 Volt battery fault- service soon" message, came sometimes to fordpass, but mostly not and is only very short on the screen and mostly when I have not used the charger for 24hrs or so
-steering wheel heater mal function, after about 10 miles it turns off and does not heat anymore
-brakes are shuddering when abrupt or harsh braking, whole steering wheel shakes, they do that for a few months already, and I hit them every now and then hard to get the rust off (I drive 1pd mode)
-cracks on all four door trims above the button
-wireless charger is heating up my android and my apple phone, and is interrupting all the time

around 4 o'clock I got a call from the service advisor which gave me following answer to each issue
-they cannot find an issue with the charger, I should video record it as evidence (when I got back to the car the 120V was plugged in, which I had tugged under the trunk floor, not sure if they even tried 230
-there is no 12Volt error in the message stack, no stack no fault, no warranty
-steering wheel heater, was fixed with a recall she said
-brakes shuddering comes from collision control (why no collision control message)
-new trims will be ordered
-wireless charger will be ordered
she said she will leave the workorder open as parts were on order

around 5:45 I picked up my car and looked at the report, I believe though that this is not the final report as she said it is still open...
She was not there during pick up, I received it from the cashier.


it said
A: Customer States His Charger is taking Long to charge, customer states its has an orange light, custome states he had electrician come to his house and varified that it was the charger. Customer staes he then called ford and they told him th bring his charger here. Check advise Electrical
B Perform Recal -22S41- Reprogram SOBDM and BECM
C Customer States He get a Batter Fault Light on Dash. Customer States it says to contact service for 12 Volt Battery. Check and Advise Electrical
D Customer States Wireles Charging Pad Makes Phone really Hot. Check and Advise. Electrical

Here my comments about it
A according to the phone call I had with Ford, there is a known issue, why do I have to show evidence. what means check and advise?
B Why do I get a recall programmed? I have it already programmed see here: OTA update 22S41 & 22S29 & more | Mustang Mach E - YouTube do I have now two? or was the ota installed and now it is removed? How do I know if I am good or bad now?
C, D, I still do not really know what's next here
Why was steering wheel and the cracks not mentioned?

I will need to call back in the morning when tech advisor is back. She was not at the cashier when I came to get the car. It seems like the report is not complete. I just think every dealer visit I get more confused and go home with more problems as when I went there.

Dealer Visits are fun, or not?

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[scoopman]

some of you remember that I had a charger issue to refresh the memory: Ford supplied charger acting up - what to do | MachEforum - Ford Mustang Mach-E Forum, News, Owners, Discussions )
I had posted this issue and @Ford Motor Company reached out to me which I thought is pretty awesome. They opened a case and the lady on the phone told me that this is a known issue with their chargers, and I should schedule a dealer visit.

I was travelling for a part of June, so I let it slide a bit. End of June I finally called the dealer and scheduled a visit to check:
-home charger
and as I already scheduled an appointment, I said why not let them check the
-steering wheel heater,
as this would turn off after 10 minutes' drive when in use (even though it is not winter now)

They friendly apologized and said that the next available appointment would be July 19th and that they had some major delay going on, because of a system change.
I accepted it, as I was not really in a rush.
Over the time some other issues came up and I called on Saturday the 16th to ask if I could get those items added. I was not able to get ahold of anybody in the service department, even though from my experience they are open on Saturdays (maybe their schedule changed),
Monday 18th someone called me back and left me a message, that I should call back. After 6 or 7 tries I finally got a hold of a person, which then told me that there was no appointment for me on the 19th.
I accepted it and asked friendly, if we could schedule a new appointment which was scheduled for today the 26th. I mentioned all my issues at that time, and she said that, probably the car will need to be in half a day to get checked and then parts ordered and then need to come back. No loaner or rental available for initial inspection, but shuttle for 10 mile radius. I accepted it and went forward with the booking.

This early morning, I showed up for my appointment:
I mentioned them following issues,
-charger turns amber after a while, keeps charging but very slow, electrician verified my outlet that it was good
-I have every now and then a "12 Volt battery fault- service soon" message, came sometimes to fordpass, but mostly not and is only very short on the screen and mostly when I have not used the charger for 24hrs or so
-steering wheel heater mal function, after about 10 miles it turns off and does not heat anymore
-brakes are shuddering when abrupt or harsh braking, whole steering wheel shakes, they do that for a few months already, and I hit them every now and then hard to get the rust off (I drive 1pd mode)
-cracks on all four door trims above the button
-wireless charger is heating up my android and my apple phone, and is interrupting all the time

around 4 o'clock I got a call from the service advisor which gave me following answer to each issue
-they cannot find an issue with the charger, I should video record it as evidence (when I got back to the car the 120V was plugged in, which I had tugged under the trunk floor, not sure if they even tried 230
-there is no 12Volt error in the message stack, no stack no fault, no warranty
-steering wheel heater, was fixed with a recall she said
-brakes shuddering comes from collision control (why no collision control message)
-new trims will be ordered
-wireless charger will be ordered
she said she will leave the workorder open as parts were on order

around 5:45 I picked up my car and looked at the report, I believe though that this is not the final report as she said it is still open...
She was not there during pick up, I received it from the cashier.


it said
A: Customer States His Charger is taking Long to charge, customer states its has an orange light, custome states he had electrician come to his house and varified that it was the charger. Customer staes he then called ford and they told him th bring his charger here. Check advise Electrical
B Perform Recal -22S41- Reprogram SOBDM and BECM
C Customer States He get a Batter Fault Light on Dash. Customer States it says to contact service for 12 Volt Battery. Check and Advise Electrical
D Customer States Wireles Charging Pad Makes Phone really Hot. Check and Advise. Electrical

Here my comments about it
A according to the phone call I had with Ford, there is a known issue, why do I have to show evidence. what means check and advise?
B Why do I get a recall programmed? I have it already programmed see here: OTA update 22S41 & 22S29 & more | Mustang Mach E - YouTube do I have now two? or was the ota installed and now it is removed? How do I know if I am good or bad now?
C, D, I still do not really know what's next here
Why was steering wheel and the cracks not mentioned?

I will need to call back in the morning when tech advisor is back. She was not at the cashier when I came to get the car. It seems like the report is not complete. I just think every dealer visit I get more confused and go home with more problems as when I went there.

Dealer Visits are fun, or not?

Just my 2 cents:

A. I think it's reasonable to do a video showing them the evidence of their charger being defective. It's unclear from your message above if the charger malfunctions on 120V or 240V. If it's 120V, they should have been able to duplicate it at the dealer, but it seems easy enough for someone into doing videos like you to come prepared with a video showing how they should be replacing your charger under warranty.

B. I'm sure the dealer wants to make sure that any MME that comes in for service gets the Federally mandated recalls. The dealer might not have checked in FDRS or your car screen to see if you already had the OTA -- they probably connected up FDRS and followed the dealer procedure which appears to be to update the PCM if any updates are available, and that should update BECM and SOBDM. You can't go "backwards" in FDRS in terms of software versions, so I don't think you have anything to worry about here. They can't "remove" the recall software even if your car got it via OTA.

C. For this one, it sounds like they found no DTC in your car's logs. I'd (again) take a video when this happens the next time so you have a clear record of it and can show the dealer what is going on. Also, do you have an OBD-II code reader? If not, perhaps you should get one, and the next time you see warnings like this, go scan for "Diagnostic Codes" in an app on your phone like Car Scanner. This should provide some record to you of the DTC codes your car might have if it is throwing this error. If your car is just showing that it charged the 12V battery, you have to think about whether it was doing this after you didn't drive your car for a long time (as an example) or if you used it in accessory mode a lot, or you had your FOB or PAAK nearby it for a long time. All of those activities drain the 12V. There was a thread about when the car charges the 12V battery, and I believe it's between 30-40% based upon logic (go check that thread -- it was a manual provided to police for installing 12V accessories like sirens and lights and cool stuff like that!). If this happens once in a while from the situations I describe above, it's really no concern -- that's your car acting properly to keep your 12V alive even if the car isn't on. If it happens frequently, I'd make sure your 12V battery doesn't need to be reconditioned. Mach-Lee has a thread on what to do about that. Honestly if that doesn't work (and you've monitored your 12V voltage using one of the obvious methods for doing this) then you might need a new battery. But you should try these things first -- it's very difficult for a dealer to properly do anything with your complaint because they didn't find a DTC or any evidence from you of what is going on. You have to provide them with more actionable info here.

D. It sounds like they verbally told you that they ordered new trim pieces and a new charging pad, but their interim paper to you didn't give you a written record of this. Perhaps you should try contacting the service advisor and asking when you should expect these parts to be in, and what part numbers they ordered? And if they will be calling you when they are in, or when you should call them again to check status?

On the spectrum of Ford (and general!) dealer experiences, I'm not sure the one you had was a really bad one. The dealer sounds like they didn't do a ton to diagnose your issue A, they did the right thing to make sure they did the recall on your car in B, your complaint in C was vague and they checked for DTCs and didn't find any, and re D, they ordered you parts for free without argument.

I think your complaint is mostly around service advisor communication, which sounds like it was not super-fantastic. Perhaps for your future needs you should check out another Ford dealer -- there seem to be a lot of them, and they vary widely in their customer focus and competence. Why don't you do some more follow-up on your charger and 12V issues, and see if you like another dealer's communication skills better?

 

[Benjamin Kegele]

Just my 2 cents:

A. I think it's reasonable to do a video showing them the evidence of their charger being defective. It's unclear from your message above if the charger malfunctions on 120V or 240V. If it's 120V, they should have been able to duplicate it at the dealer, but it seems easy enough for someone into doing videos like you to come prepared with a video showing how they should be replacing your charger under warranty.

B. I'm sure the dealer wants to make sure that any MME that comes in for service gets the Federally mandated recalls. The dealer might not have checked in FDRS or your car screen to see if you already had the OTA -- they probably connected up FDRS and followed the dealer procedure which appears to be to update the PCM if any updates are available, and that should update BECM and SOBDM. You can't go "backwards" in FDRS in terms of software versions, so I don't think you have anything to worry about here. They can't "remove" the recall software even if your car got it via OTA.

C. For this one, it sounds like they found no DTC in your car's logs. I'd (again) take a video when this happens the next time so you have a clear record of it and can show the dealer what is going on. Also, do you have an OBD-II code reader? If not, perhaps you should get one, and the next time you see warnings like this, go scan for "Diagnostic Codes" in an app on your phone like Car Scanner. This should provide some record to you of the DTC codes your car might have if it is throwing this error. If your car is just showing that it charged the 12V battery, you have to think about whether it was doing this after you didn't drive your car for a long time (as an example) or if you used it in accessory mode a lot, or you had your FOB or PAAK nearby it for a long time. All of those activities drain the 12V. There was a thread about when the car charges the 12V battery, and I believe it's between 30-40% based upon logic (go check that thread -- it was a manual provided to police for installing 12V accessories like sirens and lights and cool stuff like that!). If this happens once in a while from the situations I describe above, it's really no concern -- that's your car acting properly to keep your 12V alive even if the car isn't on. If it happens frequently, I'd make sure your 12V battery doesn't need to be reconditioned. Mach-Lee has a thread on what to do about that. Honestly if that doesn't work (and you've monitored your 12V voltage using one of the obvious methods for doing this) then you might need a new battery. But you should try these things first -- it's very difficult for a dealer to properly do anything with your complaint because they didn't find a DTC or any evidence from you of what is going on. You have to provide them with more actionable info here.

D. It sounds like they verbally told you that they ordered new trim pieces and a new charging pad, but their interim paper to you didn't give you a written record of this. Perhaps you should try contacting the service advisor and asking when you should expect these parts to be in, and what part numbers they ordered? And if they will be calling you when they are in, or when you should call them again to check status?

On the spectrum of Ford (and general!) dealer experiences, I'm not sure the one you had was a really bad one. The dealer sounds like they didn't do a ton to diagnose your issue A, they did the right thing to make sure they did the recall on your car in B, your complaint in C was vague and they checked for DTCs and didn't find any, and re D, they ordered you parts for free without argument.

I think your complaint is mostly around service advisor communication, which sounds like it was not super-fantastic. Perhaps for your future needs you should check out another Ford dealer -- there seem to be a lot of them, and they vary widely in their customer focus and competence. Why don't you do some more follow-up on your charger and 12V issues, and see if you like another dealer's communication skills better?

Some real helpful advise here thanks!

 

[generaltso]

Dealer Visits are fun, or not?

not

 

[Benjamin Kegele]

So I reached out to the adcisor. She send me the propper paperwork. Now all makes much more sense and actually explains a lot.
The technician actually did all test he can run. Now I need to just proof them that my charger, my 12V, my brakes and my steering wheel heater is acting up.

 

[AKgrampy]

Fun - drop by at least twice a day to drop off my wife and then pick her up.

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