High-voltage battery warning

[mmeMoe]

I picked up my 2023 AWD Standard-range MME June 22nd. I have barely driven 1000 miles and on July 6th my car shutdown as I pulled into a stop light (in rush hour in a major intersection!) with my 20 month old child.

I got a "High-voltage battery warning" and the car would not start.

I had to call 911 to help manage the angry (and dangerous - I felt like an accident was highly likely) drivers and called Ford Roadside assistance to get my car towed to the closest Ford service center.

They are still running diagnostics but said multiple error messages were showing up on their system, including two critical ones related to battery. I am waiting to hear back.

I am trying to figure out my options for what to do next? Do I lemon this? But I do like the MME - so would Ford replace the car for the original price? Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you!

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[Neil4Real]

So sorry to hear this happened to you! It could be the HVBJB but you have a 2023 and should have the more robust one already, so you probably have a full blown battery issue, bad cells or something, or a bad motor, I'd guess.

You're way too early to be able to lemon it, you'll have to look up your state laws but it is generally 30 days in the shop for the same problem or 3/4 fixes of the same problem and the problem is still there.

If you did get to that route, you can try and get Ford to buy it back instead of a lemon (they can't resell lemon vehicles, they have to be scrapped, but a buyback can still be fixed and sold). In that case, they'll offer to sell you another car at whatever MSRP is at the time it arrives at the dealer, make you whole on your current car, deducting miles.

Right now, I'd just stay on your dealer to provide you the codes so you can share here and get some advice. I'd also call Ford and ask for the BEV team to get a case started there and try and get your gas reimbursed on the loaner, assuming it is an ICE loaner and not an EV.

 

[RickMachE]

At this point, you have one option - let the dealer fix the car. And call the BEV team as stated.

 

[mmeMoe]

Thank you both for your help! Cannot thank you enough.

I did get an ICE loaner (a gas guzzling Bronco).

I spoke with BEV rep and he says he will look into gas reimbursement (when I called the hotline last week from the FordPass app my file was created so only that agent I spoke with can help me going forward). He put in a note for the other rep to contact me tomorrow. But this rep did contact the Ford service center where my vehicle was towed to - they apparently won't be able to run diagnostics till NEXT monday the earliest!

Other than that the BEV rep wasn't that helpful - he asked me what is it that I want them to do! He said warranty should cover any work so nothing needs to be done...

This is pretty crazy... my EV journey is not off to a great start.

 

[Hammered]

Thank you both for your help! Cannot thank you enough.

I did get an ICE loaner (a gas guzzling Bronco).

I spoke with BEV rep and he says he will look into gas reimbursement (when I called the hotline last week from the FordPass app my file was created so only that agent I spoke with can help me going forward). He put in a note for the other rep to contact me tomorrow. But this rep did contact the Ford service center where my vehicle was towed to - they apparently won't be able to run diagnostics till NEXT monday the earliest!

Other than that the BEV rep wasn't that helpful - he asked me what is it that I want them to do! He said warranty should cover any work so nothing needs to be done...

This is pretty crazy... my EV journey is not off to a great start.

If you post your VIN people can remotely pull the codes (PTS). Those with FDRS can see what if anything the dealer has done using diagnostics.

 

[RickMachE]

The expectation of immediate servicing from a Ford dealer is unrealistic. Many have several week waits (as do other manufacturers). You have a loaner.

 

[Hammered]

The expectation of immediate servicing from a Ford dealer is unrealistic. Many have several week waits (as do other manufacturers). You have a loaner.

Yup, service is pathetically slow, only techs certified for HV systems can touch any vehicle with a high voltage battery including hybrids. Quite sad.

 

[phil]

The expectation of immediate servicing from a Ford dealer is unrealistic. Many have several week waits (as do other manufacturers). You have a loaner.

Well, not unrealistic, but certainly not something you can count on, either.

When my HVBJB blew, my dealer diagnosed it in about a minute, and completed repairs in less than 48 hours. Service times vary widely.

 

[Susanne76]

Sorry to hear this! Please keep us posted when you find out the problem and the timeframe on getting resolved. Those of us with 2023s have been hoping these things would not happen to “us.” I have stopped driving my car at night. Every time my phone pings my heart races thinking it’s FordPass with some bad news. Yikes.

 

[RickMachE]

Sorry to hear this! Please keep us posted when you find out the problem and the timeframe on getting resolved. Those of us with 2023s have been hoping these things would not happen to “us.” I have stopped driving my car at night. Every time my phone pings my heart races thinking it’s FordPass with some bad news. Yikes.

You should sell the car if you're living in fear like this.

 

[mmeMoe]

UPDATE:

After almost two weeks of being at the Ford Service Center, I was told that they were done.

The couldn't replicate the issue (they had put 150 miles on it and a technician had to even drive it to their home and back and keep it overnight to run diagnostics on the car). The car had cleared out the error codes and is behaving normally now. So they do not know what happened.

They said they had replaced a battery controller (one of the other error codes that was listed) but they are not sure if that will solve the issue or do not know what caused the issue in the first place...

They cannot say if the issue will happen again or not.

10 days ago Ford Customer Service said they will call me back regarding gas reimbursement for the loaner and they never followed up. I called again today and they said they will have to check and said they will call me back.

The car drives fine, but I do not know if it will "glitch" again or not...

 

[macchiaz-o]

The couldn't replicate the issue (they had put 150 miles on it and a technician had to even drive it to their home and back and keep it overnight to run diagnostics on the car). The car had cleared out the error codes and is behaving normally now. So they do not know what happened.

You may be misunderstanding or more likely: the service advisor isn't communicating effectively.

Looking at the portion of the paperwork you shared, it states that the technician DID observe several codes. Then he or she followed field service troubleshooting steps from Ford. Part of the troubleshooting included clearing trouble codes. This is normal/typical. They then performed further tests and the problem did not reoccur.

The technician also replaced a part.

What is unclear is whether the part replacement solved your issue or the other troubleshooting steps. Either way, your vehicle is now back in service.

 

[Mach-Lee]

They replaced the J1772 lock actuator for that?

 

[mmeMoe]

They had called me prior to replacing the part. They wanted permission from me to allow the technician to drive the car home (that was the only way they could drive the car for 40+ miles each way) to run diagnostics.

What was communicated to me was they could not figure out why the issue had occurred. One of the error codes pointed to a component that they said they have ordered and will replace. I was told that the error code thrown during the "High-voltage batter error" was the one that went away and not the reason for the part change.

So, the test drive was PRIOR to part change and was to try and replicate the error. One of the things they had suggested was the hot weather contributed and they wanted to run diagnostics as they did their long test drive.

 

[Mach-Lee]

That’s a voltage sense error I think. Could just be a random glitch, but if it happens again you might need a new pack harness, BECM, or a whole new battery pack if they can’t trace it down. You have a couple of low capacity cells in module 10 there, so maybe they could just replace those.

Either way, just drive it and see what happens.

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